Charles Barkley, a former NBA player, expressed on CNN’s “King Charles” that individuals of African descent who choose to wear merchandise featuring the mugshot of former President Donald Trump are behaving foolishly.
Co-host Gayle King said, “I don’t know if you know, normally, you know, we’re sitting here and we don’t make the news, but this past week, Charles, I don’t know if you know but you’ve been in the news for some comments you made on our last show.”
Barkley had previously said, “If I see a black person walking around with Trump mug shot I’m going to punch him in the face.”
Barkley said, “Number one, obviously, I’m not gonna go around punching random strangers in the face – first and foremost. Secondly, people can vote for who they want to. People can vote for who they want to. The point I was trying to make, no, the point I was making, I wasn’t trying to make it – when Donald Trump compares his plight with that of the black person, that is what I had a problem with.”
He continued, “Now, I do wanna say this. I want to make it perfectly clear. If you’re a black person and you wearing a Donald Trump mugshot, you are a freaking idiot. And I’m only saying freakin’ idiot because they won’t let me say what I really wanna say. But you can figure it out. It starts with an F.”
Barkley added, “I’ll stick by what I said. If you’re wearing a Trump mugshot around, you are a freakin’ idiot.”
King said, “But you aren’t gonna go just randomly attacking people in the street. That’s the only point I wanted to make.”
Barkley said, “Unless they had Trump sneakers on too.”