LeBron James has been accused of sharing a misleading video about Donald Trump and the Republicans after throwing his support behind Kamala Harris for president.
The NBA legend announced on Thursday that he is backing Harris and the Democrats in next week’s election after posting a clip which appears to show several members of Trump’s party using offensive and violent rhetoric.
He captioned the post: ‘What are we even talking about here?? When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!’
The video shared by LeBron includes comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who was invited to speak at a recent Trump rally, making a racist remark about he and a black friend ‘carving watermelons together’, as well as Trump declaring in an old interview that ‘maybe hate is what we need’.
It also features aggressive soundbites from the Republican leader played over footage of civil rights protests and abuses from several decades.
However, LeBron is now facing a backlash over his endorsement of Harris and attack on Trump, which fans claim has been ‘stitched together’.
One user posted in the comments section: ‘From your biggest fan, clipping together a bunch of unrelated sound bites to these racially charged videos is sad propaganda and embarrassing work. You should be ashamed. There is so much real content you could’ve posted to get your message across, you didn’t need to fabricate this narrative. I’m embarrassed my goat posted this.
Another commented: ‘King, these were all taken out of context’.
‘Nah, this ain’t it,’ a third replied to James. ‘Taking speeches out of context and placing them next to racist historical events is classic Democrat moves.’
‘Those clips in the beginning are literally stitched together. If you cannot see that, you are blind,’ said a fourth.
Another concluded: ‘This is the most propaganda fake post I’ve ever seen.’
While one simply wrote: ‘The king of basketball no doubt, but the man has no brains with politics’.
LeBron, who is the latest celebrity to endorse Harris ahead of the election, has campaigned for the Democrats in the past and publicly spoken out against former president Trump.
Back in 2008, the Los Angeles Lakers iocn hosted a concert by Jay-Z to support Barack Obama’s run for the White House. He later campaigned for Hillary Clinton during her battle with Trump in 2016.
A year later, James called out Trump on social media. It came after Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry said he would skip the traditional White House visit by the NBA champions, prompting Trump to ‘withdraw’ the invitation.
‘U bum,’ LeBron wrote. ‘@StephenCurry30 already said he ain’t going! So therefore ain’t no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!’
Back in 2020, James helped form a group to fight voter disenfranchisement in predominantly black communities ahead of the election between Trump and Joe Biden.
Two years earlier, James’ activism on racial justice issues – and his criticism of Trump – prompted white Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham in 2018 to tell him and fellow NBA star Kevin Durant to ‘shut up and dribble’.
