#White House: Native Americans would be ‘very angry’ about Redskins name change

WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday doubled down on criticism of the Washington Redskins for retiring their name and logo, citing a news report that found the majority of Native Americans were not offended by it.

At a briefing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Trump last week ripped the anticipated decision by the NFL team to change their name after backlash from corporate sponsors and decades of controversy because Native Americans would be made “very angry” by the decision.

“His tweet made it clear that these teams named their teams out of strength, not weakness, and he talked about the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians looking at changing their names,” McEnany told reporters.

“He says that he believes the Native American community would be very angry at this and he does have polling to back him up,” she continued.

In a tweet last Monday, the president suggested the expected name change was a result of the NFL team trying to be “politically correct” and took a swipe at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who infamously claimed she was part Native American.

“Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now!” he wrote.

McEnany cited a Washington Post poll from 2016 that found nine in 10 Native Americans weren’t offended by the NFL team’s controversial name.

“The Washington Post notes that many of these Native Americans voiced admiration for the team name like Barbara Bruce who said, ‘I’m proud of being Native American and of the Redskins. I’m not ashamed of that at all. I like that name.’”

“Gabriel Nez, another 29-year-old from the Navajo community: ‘I really don’t mind. I like it.’ There are several other comments like this in the Washington Post,” McEnany continued.

The Redskins on Monday morning announced they were officially retiring their name and logo and are working on renaming the team.