James Lankford
Republican Senator James Lankford said on “Russian trace” in the scandal involving players in American football and the US President Donald trump. On it informs Agency Reuters.
Players entire teams boycotted the national anthem of the United States, knelt on one knee, took each other’s hands or arms, some raised clenched fists up or warmed up. Trump wrote on Twitter that the athlete has no right to disrespect the American flag and the country as a whole and should stand up at the sound of the national anthem. “If not, must be dismissed”, — said the President. He later called the “wrong” reactive athletes “sons of bitches”, as a result, the protest acquired a mass character.
Speaking to the Senate Committee on national security, Lankford said that some “Russian trolls” on Twitter had deliberately exaggerated the situation. “We saw that the Russians and their “farm trolls” began to put the hashtags #TakeAKnee (“kneel”) and #BoycottNFL (“Boycott the NFL”)”, — he said, adding that “Russian trolls” were allegedly on both sides of the conflict, trying to create the impression that “this problem is more serious than it really is. So they try to widen the rifts in the country.”
Russia has repeatedly accused of meddling in the US presidential election. American journalists and officials claimed that “Russian hackers” allegedly kidnapped the correspondence of the Democrats and published in the Internet and tried to get into the electronic vote counting system. Moscow denies such accusations, including at the highest level.