Kiss My A**

June 28, 2021

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Hammer thrower Gwen Berry fired back at her Republican critics on Monday, saying they were 'obsessed' with her after she turned her back on the US flag during Olympic trials. Berry, 31, was on the podium at the trials in Oregon on Sunday when the anthem started playing. Her white competitors, DeAnna Price and Brooke Andersen, turned to face the flag and placed their hands on their hearts but Berry, a vocal BLM activist, turned to face the stands, put her hands on her hips and then held up a t-shirt bearing the words 'athlete activist'. In interviews later, she said she felt like officials only played the anthem to 'set her up' and that she had been told it would be played before she walked on to the podium, not while she was there. She also said she didn't want to be standing for pictures for long because it was hot. The trial organizers insisted this wasn't the case and that the anthem played every day at the same time. Berry was later slammed by conservatives like Ted Cruz who said her protest was disrespectful and who claimed she hated her country. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL United States Navy, said she ought to be removed from the Olympics. 'The entire point of the Olympic team is to represent the United States of America. 'It's the entire point. It's one thing when these NBA players do it, OK we'll just stop watching. But now the Olympics Team?' he said in an interview with Fox and Friends. Berry responded, retweeting posts telling Crenshaw to kiss 'a**' and another in which the former Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, is portrayed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. 'I said what I said... I meant what I said.. STOP PLAYING WITH ME!! PERIOD!' she wrote on Instagram along with the hashtag #activistAthlete. n Twitter, she said: 'I never said I hated this country! People try to put words in my mouth but they can't. That's why I speak out. I LOVE MY PEOPLE.' 'These comments really show that: