President Trump lashed out at NASCAR on Monday and questioned why Bubba Wallace, the car company’s only black driver, did not apologize after the much-publicized investigation into a rope found in his garage that Trump said turned out to be a hoax.
“@BubbaWallace apologized to all the great NASCAR drivers and officials who came to his aid, stood by him and were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to discover that it was all just another HOAX?” Trump wrote on Twitter Monday morning. “That Flag decision has caused the lowest ratings EVER!”
Last month’s incident at the Talladega SuperSpeedway involving the rope in his garage appeared to be the result of a misunderstanding and not an intentional effort to tie a loop in his area. Wallace himself had never seen the rope, as reported by another NASCAR employee.
After the FBI went to inspect the situation, the office determined that it was a rope to pull the garage door and that it had been hanging in the garage assigned to Wallace since at least October, when no one could know that the team de Wallace would be assigned to her.
NASCAR President Steve Phelps said this photo of the ‘rope’ was taken by NASCAR security. (NASCAR)
But before it was determined to be a pull rope, the entire NASCAR family showed their support for Wallace, with all his fellow drivers and crews standing behind him in the pit lane before the Geico 500.
BUBBA WALLACE’S BRIDE ‘SO GRATEFUL’ THAT ‘NOOSE’ WAS NOT ADDRESSED TO HIM
Wallace was initially defiant about the FBI’s findings, before accepting his determination and saying he was “relieved” that the lasso-shaped rope had not been directed at him.
Shortly after the FBI’s determination, Wallace told CNN’s Don Lemon that the rope was a “rope” and that he had never seen anything like it.
“I’ve been running all my life,” Wallace told CNN’s Don Lemon. “We have run out of hundreds of garages that never had garage pulls like that. So the people who want to call it a pull from the garage and take all the videos and photos of the knots as evidence, go ahead, but from the evidence that we have, and have, it’s a direct noose. “
The next day, Wallace tweeted a statement in a different tone. “First of all, I want to say how relieved I am that the investigation revealed that this was not what we feared, I want to thank my team, NASCAR and the FBI for acting quickly and treating this as a real threat.” Wallace wrote. “I think we will gladly be ashamed of what the alternatives might have been,” he added.
Even some regular Republican allies rejected Trump’s tweet.
“I don’t think Bubba Wallace has anything to apologize for,” South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said on Fox News radio show Brian Kilmeade on Monday. “You saw the best in NASCAR. When there was a chance it was a threat against Bubba Wallace, [they] they all joined Bubba’s side. I would hope to celebrate that kind of attitude rather than worry that it is a hoax. ”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the president’s comments on Fox News Monday morning: “The president simply points out that we have to let the facts come out before we jump to trial.”
Wallace, originally from Alabama, has taken an active role in fighting racial injustice. He has worn a shirt that says “I can’t breathe,” ran with a Black Lives Matter paint scheme in Virginia, and successfully lobbied for the NASCAR Confederate flag ban.
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In early June, NASCAR banned all Confederate flags from its events following racial injustices across the country and protests of police brutality.
For more than 70 years, the flag was a common and complicated sight in NASCAR racing. The series first attempted to ban the Confederate flag five years ago, but did nothing to enforce the order.
Brie Stimson and The Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.
