Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, on Thursday criticized NBA players for refusing to play after the shooting of Jacob Blake, calling their protest over police violence against Black people “absurd” and “silly.”
The Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday refused to leave their locker room to play their scheduled game against the Orlando Magic, prompting players and teams from multiple sports to postpone their games.
"If they want to protest, I don’t think we care," Short told CNN's "New Day" on Thursday. "If they want to say, 'We're not going to play more games,' I don't think that's a position that you're going to see us speak out on one way or another."
"I don't know that you're going to see the administration weigh in on that one way or the other," he added. "In my mind, it's absurd, it's silly."
White House adviser Jared Kushner also hit out at NBA players for their protest, telling CNBC: "I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially. So they have that luxury, which is great. Look, I think with the NBA there's a lot of activism and I think that they have put a lot of slogans out, but I think what we need to do is turn that from slogans and signals to actual action that's going to solve the problem."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.