Gregg Popovich unloads on Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz in wake of Capitol attack
Gregg Popovich rarely holds back, and Thursday was no different.
The outspoken Spurs coach, himself a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, unloaded on President Trump when speaking to reporters before San Antonio played the Lakers in Los Angeles on Thursday night.
“I believe with all my heart that Trump enjoyed it,” Popovich said, via the AP, of the horrifying scenes on Wednesday of a Trump-inspired mob attacking the U.S. Capitol and trying to prevent the certification of the Electoral College vote that would officially seal the deal on Joe Biden’s November election victory.
Sources close to Trump told the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman that they “are certain he wanted this and is enjoying it.”
“We love you,” Trump told his supporters hours after the violent attack began in a video released by the White House, “you’re very special.”
Popovich, 71, pointed out how easy it was for the mob to get inside the Capitol building where Senators and members of the House of Representatives were debating Republican-led objections to the certification process.
“That doesn’t happen unless there’s a wink and a nod somewhere,” Popovich said. “That doesn’t just happen. It’s never happened at any protest anybody’s ever been to. This was a wink and a nod. Somebody had to realize that this was allowed. And that’s where the lack of preparation comes too.
Rioters breach U.S. Capitol during pro-Trump rally
“There wasn’t any preparation. [Trump] didn’t want any preparation. He’s incapable. He’s incompetent.”
Pop didn’t spare Republican senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz in his pre-game comments for enabling Trump’s baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud in the election and for continuing the fight to try and overturn the results.
“Hawley, Hawley’s a joke,” Popovich said of the 41-year-old senator from Missouri. “This entitled, elite, educated person is really smart. Just like Ted Cruz is smart. But they throw fuel onto Trump’s fire. They are worse than Trump because they’re not sick. They’re not deeply flawed.
“Mr. Trump is not a well man. These people are sane, but their self-interest, their greed, their lust for power outweighs their love of country or their sense of duty to the Constitution or to public service.”
President Trump egged on his supporters to “fight like hell” at a D.C. rally Wednesday before the mob descended on the Capitol. In the violence that followed, five people died including a Capitol Police officer originally from New Jersey.
Trump ally Rudy Giuliani speaking at the same “Save America Rally” called for “trial by combat” before Trump spoke.
Popovich, who has won five NBA titles at the helm of the Spurs, said what he witnessed on Wednesday made him “embarrassed to be an American.”
Once ordered had been restored the joint session of Congress returned to the ransacked Capitol building and finally completed the process of certifying Biden’s overwhelming victory in the Electoral College vote at 3:32 a.m. Thursday morning.