Former President Barack Obama on Monday bemoaned the fight over kneeling during the national anthem between President Donald Trump and the NFL, saying the country can't even keep politics out of football.
Obama spoke at a health care conference sponsored by brokerage firm Cantor-Fitzgerald, for which he was paid $400,000. While his prepared remarks centered on health care, the New York Times noted that at the end of his speech, he alluded to the controversy embroiling the NFL.
"Our big problem right now is politics," he said. "Can't even get it out of football!"
Trump has slammed players who have mimicked Colin Kaepernick's form of protest of racial injustice, kneeling rather than standing for the playing of the national anthem. After the president said owners should fire those "son of a bitch" players who don't stand, teams across the NFL knelt or locked arms in solidarity before games on Sunday and Monday.
Obama took a more measured tone on the controversy when first asked about Kaepernick's protest last year.
"There are gonna be a lot of folks who do stuff we don't agree with ... but as long as they're doing it within the law, then we can voice our opinion objecting to it, but it's also their right," he said.
According to the Times report on Monday's remarks, Obama generally avoided criticism of the Trump administration's efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, his presidency's signature domestic achievement.
"This is a big system, and it's complicated, but what to do that would make it better is actually not that mysterious," Obama said. "But it does require putting ideology aside."
Obama was more overtly critical of GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare last week, calling it "aggravating."