Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is making his way through the news for his anti-American rhetoric once again.

First he was condemning Nike for making some shoes with the Betsy Ross American Flag, now he’s hating on the Fourth of July itself.

According to The Daily Wire,

On the morning of the Fourth of July, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who just finished nuking the Betsy Ross sneaker produced by Nike, decided to target the Fourth of July itself, cherry-picking from a speech by the great 19^thcentury anti-slavery orator Frederick Douglass.

“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
– Frederick Douglass pic.twitter.com/IWLujGCJHn

— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 4, 2019

However, Ted Cruz was armed and loaded and quick to respond to Kaepernick’s cherry-picked quotation and misuse.

In his response to Kaepernick, Cruz wrote,

You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but, without context, many modern readers will misunderstand. Two critical points: This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody.

Douglass was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery. Indeed, he concluded the speech as follows: “Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”

Cruz then ended his piece by encouraging people to read the speech in it’s entirety,

“Let me encourage everyone, READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH; it is powerful, inspirational, and historically important in bending the arc of history towards justice.”

You can actually find the speech here: https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2945

Photo Credit: YouTube/CBS