BS BULLETIN:

• Colin Kaepernick says an opportunity to meet with President Trump during his first term was relayed to him through CNN’s Van Jones.
• Kaepernick says he rejected the proposed meeting immediately and never learned all the details.
• He claims the outreach was an attempt to create the appearance that Trump was working with prominent Black Americans.

Colin Kaepernick says an unlikely name was involved in an effort to get him into the Trump White House: CNN political commentator Van Jones.

The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback made the revelation during a new interview with MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas.

The discussion turned to Trump’s public criticism of Kaepernick during his national anthem protests and a subsequent effort to arrange a meeting between the two men. According to Kaepernick, the opportunity was relayed to him through Jones.

“What was relayed to me was the outreach came from Van Jones for this,” Kaepernick said.

But whatever was being planned didn’t get very far. Kaepernick said he rejected the idea immediately. “I don’t know the details around it because, candidly, as soon as it came up as, ‘Hey, here’s the opportunity,’ it was immediately rejected,” he said.

Meiselas, who previously represented Kaepernick in his case against the NFL, described the proposed encounter as an attempt to bring Kaepernick to the White House for something resembling a “Black summit.”

Kaepernick argued that the meeting would have allowed Trump to create what he called a “facade” of working on behalf of Black Americans. That’s Kaepernick’s interpretation of the proposed meeting. He did not claim to know the details of any discussions between Jones and Trump or the White House.

The outreach would have represented a remarkable turn in the contentious relationship between Trump and Kaepernick. Trump repeatedly criticized the quarterback’s decision to kneel during the national anthem.

During a 2017 rally, Trump famously urged NFL owners to remove players who refused to stand for the anthem, prompting an enormous political fight between the president, players, and the league. Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since the 2016 season.

He has resurfaced prominently in the media this week while promoting his new book, “The Perilous Fight.”

During an appearance on “The View” Monday, Kaepernick again accused NFL owners of keeping him out of the league for political reasons. The NFL previously denied his collusion allegations, and the two sides reached a confidential settlement in 2019.

Now, nearly a decade after one of the country’s biggest sports and political battles, Kaepernick is revealing that somebody once tried to get the two antagonists into the same room. And apparently Van Jones was somewhere in the middle.

MY QUICK TAKE

Imagine that meeting. Trump. Kaepernick. The Oval Office. And Van Jones apparently playing political matchmaker.

Unfortunately for television history, Kaepernick swiped left.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

• MeidasTouch — Full Colin Kaepernick interview and transcript
• Mediaite — Kaepernick says Van Jones was behind Trump meeting outreach
• Yahoo Sports — Kaepernick says he immediately rejected White House visit
• Fox News — Kaepernick discusses Trump and NFL on The View