Former Today show host Katie Couric admitted in her upcoming memoir “Going There” that she protected the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg by omitting her comments about athletes kneeling during the National Anthem from a 2016 interview.
Couric interviewed the 83-year-old Ginsburg for Yahoo News and wrote in her memoir that she protected the venerated justice from backlash because she was “elderly and probably didn’t fully understand the question,” according to the Daily Mail.
Bader continued to serve on the nation’s highest court for four more years after that interview.
Couric wrote in her book due out later this month that Ginsberg said that she thought people like former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick were “dumb and disrespectful” for kneeling during the Star-Spangled Banner, the Daily Mail reported.
However, what wasn’t in the story was the fact that Ginsburg told Couric during the interview that kneelers showed “contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.”
“Which they probably could not have lived in the places they came from… as they became older they realize that this was youthful folly. And that’s why education is important,” the late Supreme Court justice added.
“Would I arrest them for doing it? No,” Ginsburg told Couric during the interview. “I think it’s dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning.”
“I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act,” the justice continued.
Couric wrote that when she asked if the athletes were within their rights, Ginsburg replied “Yes. If they want to be stupid, there’s no law that should be preventive,” the Daily Mail reported.
“If they want to be arrogant, there’s no law that prevents them from that,” the justice said in the interview. “What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that.”
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Couric claimed in the memoir due out Oct. 26 that she “lost a lot of sleep over this one” and still questioned whether she made the right call by omitting that part of the interview from her story, the Daily Mail reported.
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