Bill Kristol: Criticism of Donald Sterling is “hysterical”

The influential neoconservative and GOP advisor doesn't see why an NBA owner's being super-racist is so important

Published April 28, 2014 2:12PM (EDT)

Bill Kristol                      (CBS News)
Bill Kristol (CBS News)

While speaking during a panel discussion for "This Week" on Sunday, right-wing pundit and GOP advisor Bill Kristol argued that everyone was making way too big a deal out of the patently racist comments from Donald Sterling, the owner of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers.

"Deeds matter more than speeches," Kristol said in reference to a man who was caught on tape demanding his mistress refrain from being seen in public with black people. "I don't think the L.A. Clippers are a bigoted organization," Kristol added. "There's no evidence of that."

In 2009, NBA great and former longtime Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor sued Sterling for race-based and age-based discrimination. (A jury ruled in Sterling's favor in 2011.) He has also been sued multiple times for alleged racial discrimination in his non-basketball private business dealings, too.

"Everyone goes hysterical over two or three sentences," Kristol went on to say. "Private organizations can deal with, private businesses can fire people, I suppose."

You can watch Kristol say that it doesn't really matter whether the owner of an NBA team is a virulent racist below:


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

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