President Donald Trump inexplicably asked NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace on Monday to apologize to other drivers for a “hoax” after a noose was found in his racetrack garage.
The FBI last month determined that Wallace, who is Black and successfully lobbied NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag from its events, was not targeted for a racist attack, after a crew member found the noose hanging from a garage handle at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway.
Investigators said the noose had been there since at least October ― before Wallace was using the stall ― and that it was used to pull the garage door down.
However, authorities made no accusations about a “hoax,” and Wallace had to defend himself against such baseless claims.
But that didn’t stop the president from attacking the driver.
“Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX?” Trump tweeted. “That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!”
At the end of last month, NASCAR noted that it was the only garage-door pull-down that looks like a noose at its racetracks.
“The noose was real, as was our concern for Bubba,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said. “Based on the evidence we had, we thought our drivers — that one of our drivers had been threatened, a driver who had been extremely courageous in recent words and actions. It’s our responsibility to react and investigate, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Wallace finished ninth on Sunday in a NASCAR event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
NASCAR TV ratings, incidentally, increased dramatically right after the flag ban was announced, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
*story by HuffPost