Jerry Tipton asked John Calipari about the Confederate flag

by:Mrs. Tyler Thompson06/29/15

@MrsTylerKSR

cal-what

Leave it to Jerry Tipton to spice up a routine summer teleconference. Jerry asked Cal his stance on the display of the Confederate flag and statues of Confederate generals across the South. After a five-second pause, Calipari responded. Here’s their conversation:

Calipari: “Really? Um, obviously it offends a portion of our society, so people are deciding to take them down. That’s how I feel.”

Jerry: “You would support taking them down?”

Calipari: “Sure. They offend, and I would say do it. But, again, does our state use the Confederate flag, Jerry?”

Jerry: “Well, there’s statue of a confederate general at the old courthouse in Lexington and a statue of Jefferson Davis at the capital in Frankfort.”

Calipari: “Wow. [pause] Since I’m not running for public office, I’ll let the powers that be decide those matters. I was thinking about running for President and I was discouraged from that.”

Jerry: “Thank you.”

Yeah…it got a little weird.

UPDATE (11:32 a.m.): Cal just posted this message on social media about the flag…

“Was just asked a question on a basketball conference call about the confederate flag. I don’t want any confusion. I think we should take it down! I don’t think there’s any question it should be taken down, but again, I’m not running for office.”

That’ll make for some entertaining Facebook comments.

 

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