Trump Responds To LeBron James' Deleted Tweet, Calls Comments 'Racist Rants'

Former President Donald Trump hit out at NBA superstar LeBron James on Thursday for a controversial tweet about the Ohio police officer who shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant while responding to a 911 call.

Bryant was shot by Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon on Tuesday afternoon after law enforcement were called to the scene of a disturbance. Footage released by police shows Reardon fired several shots at Bryant, who was seen holding a knife and lunging at a female.

Trump’s remarks calling the comments a "racist rant" came a day after the 36-year-old Los Angeles Laker star tweeted calling for accountability in the fatal shooting of the teen girl. But James later deleted the post after receiving fierce backlash on social media.

The screenshots of the now-deleted tweet were been shared widely on social media. "YOU'RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY," the basketball star wrote in the Twitter post Tuesday night along with an image of officer Reardon.

In a statement released by his office, Trump said that LeBron James “should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA." Terming the comments “racist rants” and divisive, insulting, demeaning and nasty, the former president said that “he (James) may be a great basketball player, but he is doing nothing to bring our country together!”

The killing of another black person by an officer came, by a tragic coincidence, on the same day America awaited the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis officer who kneeled on the neck of George Floyd during an arrest, causing the latter's death.

Several Republican lawmakers also denounced James over the tweet. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark, said the basketball star was “inciting violence” against Reardon. “Lebron James is inciting violence against an Ohio police officer. This is disgraceful and dangerous. Is the NBA okay with this? Is Twitter?” he tweeted.

Ohio state Rep. Mike Loychik tweeted: “People like LeBron James and his friends on the left are driving good people away from careers in law enforcement.”

“This is the exact OPPOSITE of how to improve policing.”

James: Tweet Was Used To Create ‘More Hate’

James said he removed the tweet because it was “being used to create more hate” and called for more accountability in the criminal justice system. “I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate — This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY,” he wrote on Twitter.

In another tweet, James said that he had been tweeting out of anger and he should have gathered all the facts, but remains sympathetic to Bryant and her family and justice shall prevail.