Former ESPN Anchor Jemele Hill Makes Assassination Reference During State of the Union

Former ESPN anchor and current columnist for ‘The Atlantic’ Jemele Hill made an assassination reference during President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Initially, Desus Nice, a comedian set to star in an upcoming Showtime late-night talk show, tweeted that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should yell “whose mans is this” during the speech.

It is a phrase Urban Dictionary defines as “call(ing) out someone who is killing the moment or situation.”

Hill retweeted the sentiment and added her own commentary, “Nah, she gotta yell: GETCHO HAND OUT MY POCKET.”

Several users immediately pointed out what Hill was referencing: a phrase that was used in the assassination of Malcolm X.

Urban Dictionary also states ‘get your hand outta my pocket’ is a “term used by another man in the room to cause a disturbance and distraction during the killing of Malcom X in New York.”

(She has subsequently deleted her tweet)

Wikipedia describes the scene of Malcolm X assassination thusly:

On February 21, 1965, he was preparing to address the OAAU in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled, “******! Get your hand outta my pocket!” As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun and two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Did She Know What She Was Saying?

We know what you’re thinking – maybe it was a harmless reference to government intrusion in our lives or something.

Two problems with that: One, if anyone would have government’s hand in our pockets it’d be Ocasio-Cortez and two, it seems like she knew what she was saying.

Hill has used the phrase before, specifically referencing Malcolm X.

In discussing a press conference held by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell where he addressed the League’s handling of domestic abuse, she made the same comment after a prankster interrupted the proceedings.

Hill will most certainly not be able to plead ignorance here.

Followers Note the Assassination Reference

Several of Hill’s followers were quick to point out the seriousness of her comments.

Hill Was Suspended For Calling Trump Supporters White Supremacists

Hill has a history of bouncing from job to job for making comments that seem to indicate she’s a few beers short of a six-pack.

She was suspended for two weeks in October of 2017 for calling for a boycott of NFL advertisers due to the Colin Kaepernick/National Anthem controversy.

Hill was already in hot water at the time for referring to President Trump as “a white supremacist” on social media, adding that his supporters are ‘largely other white supremacists.’

In 2008, she was forced to apologize over an ill-conceived column that compared cheering for the Boston Celtics to sympathizing with Adolf Hitler.

“Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim,” she wrote.  “It’s like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan.”

She was reportedly “relieved of her responsibilities for a period of time to reflect on the impact of her words.”

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Will ‘The Atlantic’ give her a similar break?

Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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