Washington Commanders Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio recently took to Twitter to question why Congress does not discuss “the summer of riots” in 2020 is not discussed.
Jack Del Rio via NBC Sports Washington YouTube
Del Rio responded to a tweet from Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Norm Eisen who wrote, “As the 1/6 Committee hearings draw near, we must understand the whole story of January 6th.”
Eisen added, “In our new Brookings Governance report, we offer a guide, including potential federal and state criminal charges for Trump and his allies.”
Source: Norm Eisen Twitter
Del Rio responded, “Would love to understand “the whole story “ about why the summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property is never discussed but this is ??? #CommonSense.”
Source: Jack Del Rio Twitter
Del Rio would also respond to a critic, Miles Grant, who wrote, “Black people begging agents of the state to stop executing them. White men trying to overthrow the results of a democratic election & violently assaulting cops. Same thing, according to Dan Snyder’s defensive coordinator.”
Del Rio replied, “Uhh yeah sure” and included a Pinocchio emoji.
Source: Jack Del Rio Twitter
Earlier in June, Del Rio also took to Twitter where he wrote, “Receipts from Dinesh. Saw “2000 Mules” , pretty compelling collection of evidence. Draw your own conclusions.”
Receipts from Dinesh. Saw “2000 Mules” , pretty compelling collection of evidence. Draw your own conclusions. https://t.co/E1TfbEOfLG
— Jack Del Rio (@coachdelrio) June 2, 2022
The film’s official description states, “‘2000 Mules,’ a documentary film created by Dinesh D’Souza, exposes widespread, coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 election, sufficient to change the overall outcome.”
“Drawing on research provided by the election integrity group True the Vote, ‘2000 Mules’ offers two types of evidence: geotracking and video. The geotracking evidence, based on a database of 10 trillion cell phone pings, exposes an elaborate network of paid professional operatives called mules delivering fraudulent and illegal votes to mail-in dropboxes in the five key states where the election was decided,” the description continues.
It concludes, “Video evidence, obtained from official surveillance cameras installed by the states themselves, confirms the geotracking evidence. The movie concludes by exploring numerous ways to prevent the fraud from happening again.”
Source: 2000 Mules
Del Rio’s question saw him lampooned by numerous individuals. Sports Editor at The Nation Dave Zirin replied, “Because it wasn’t a ‘summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property’. That you think it was, speaks volumes.”
Source: Dave Zirin Twitter
NBA Analyst for TNT and former head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans Stan Van Gundy wrote, “Black Lives Matter protesters saw a police officer kneel on a Black man’s neck for 9 minutes while three other officers looked on. The Capitol rioters saw their hero lose a free and fair election.”
Source: Stan Van Gundy Twitter
Washington Post contributor John Feinsten tweeted, “Are you serious? This was an attempt to overthrow the government led by the sitting president of the United States.”
Source: John Feinstein Twitter
Gary Legum, who writes for Wonkette, stated, “Buddy, you work for Dan Snyder, you’re hardly in a position to question other people’s moral parameters.”
Source: Gary Legum Twitter
He responded to the criticism speaking to the media saying, “Anything that I ever say or write, I’d be comfortable saying or writing in front of everybody that I work with, players and coaches.”
“So, I express as an American. We have that ability. I love this country. And I believe what I believe and I’ve said what I want to say. And every now and then there’s some people that get offended by it. It’s a slow news cycle so I guess Mike Florio picked something up yesterday and talked about it. It’s not the first time Mike and I disagreed about things. That’s okay,” he continued.
“That’s pretty much it. There’s not a whole lot to it. But what I am excited about is what’s going on right now with us and the way we’re working. So, football questions be where I’d like to focus. If anybody else wants to talk about other things we can set something up at another time. That’s kind of how I see it, ” he said.
Jack Del Rio via NBC Sports Washington YouTube
In another portion of the press conference, Del Rio was asked, “Why is it not important to you if your players are concerned by what you’d said.”
Del Rio answered, “if they are and they want to talk about it, I’d talk about it with anybody. Yeah, no problem. At any time. But they’re not. I’m just expressing myself and I think we all as Americans have the right to express ourselves especially if you’re being respectful. I’m being respectful.”
“I just asked a simple question,” he stated. “Let’s get right down to it. What did I ask? A simple question. Why are we not looking into those things if we’re gonna talk about it? Why are we not looking into those things? Because it’s kind of hard for me to say I can realistically look at it. I see the images on TV, people’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down — no problem.”
Jack Del Rio via NBC Sports Washington YouTube
“And then we have a dust up at the Capitol. Nothing burned down,” Del Rio noted. And we’re going to make that a major deal. I just think it’s kind of two standards. And if we apply the same standard and we’re going to be reasonable with each other let’s have a discussion. That’s all it was. Let’s have a discussion. We’re Americans, let’s talk it through. I’m for us, you know? Having a great opportunity to have a fulfilled life.”
“Like I said every way which way I can when I’m here it’s about love and respect. I love my guys. I respect my guys. But I also love the fact that I’m an American and that means I’m free to express myself and I’m not afraid to do that,” he concluded.
What do you make of Del Rio’s question?