Legendary former basketball coach Bobby Knight has had his share of controversies over the years, but he told CNN Wednesday he doesn't "know what controversial means" when it comes to his choice, Donald Trump, to become president.
"I don't even know what controversial means," the retired Indiana University "Hoosiers" coach told CNN's John Berman in an interview on the
"New Day" program.
And when Berman told him that Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims is considered controversial or even "un-American" by many people, Knight, who became known over the years for not only his wins record, but for his courtside outbursts and actions replied that the controversy "doesn't really mean anything to me right now."
"We're talking about a guy that I think can handle things far better than anything that we've had recently," he told Berman.
And what's more, Knight continued "there will never be a Benghazi in a Donald Trump administration. I'm not sure in my lifetime I've seen anything where our government failed to do something for people overseas that were in trouble.
"That won't happen with Donald Trump. Those are the things I'm concerned with."
Further, he told the show, it doesn't make any difference whether Trump has been in the military, as "he has a great understanding about the value of our military, and how it would be used, and Donald Trump would have made sure that those four people that died in Benghazi, nothing would have happened to him to them with a Donald Trump administration."
Knight said he also doesn't care about whether Trump repairs the rifts in the GOP, and snapped at Berman that he "must be a genius then, the way you're addressing things."
"This is a man who has done things not very many people done," Knight said of Trump. "He's not just a national figure, he's a worldwide figure."
And when it comes to party unity, Knight said he doesn't care about all that.
"I don't care about the Republican Party," Knight said. "I don't care about the Democratic Party. I'm tired of this party stuff, that we're going to do what's right for this party or we're going to do what's right for that party.
"Let's just get together and do what's right for the country, I think that's what all of us want."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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