President Trump's attacks are spreading to sports that are cornerstones of rural, conservative white American life.
Why it matters: The culture war that engulfed the NBA and NFL is reaching other major leagues, with teams that stonewalled activists for years suddenly showing a willingness to listen.
Bubba Wallace, NASCAR's only Black driver, responded to an attack from President Trump on Monday, writing in a statement posted to Twitter: "Love should come naturally as people are TAUGHT to hate. Even when it's HATE from the POTUS.. Love wins."
Driving the news: Trump demanded an apology from Wallace on Monday after the FBI determined that he was not a target of a hate crime, following an investigation into a noose found in his garage stall. Trump falsely claimed "the whole thing was just another HOAX," despite the fact that Wallace was not the person who reported the noose and that NASCAR's president confirmed that it "was real."
President Trump criticized possible moves by the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians to change their team names as "politically correct," writing in a tweet Monday that the teams are named "out of STRENGTH, not weakness."
Why it matters: Trump is continuing to dig in on the culture wars in an effort to appeal to his mostly white base, despite an overwhelming number of polls that indicate he will lose to Joe Biden in November if he doesn't appeal to a wider swath of voters.
The Walt Disney Company announced Monday that ESPN Films will produce an exclusive docuseries on political activist and former NFL player Colin Kaepernick as part of a larger deal with Kaepernick's production arm RA Vision Media.
Driving the news: Former ESPN personality Jemele Hill tweeted that she'll be serving as a producer on the docuseries, after leaving the network two years ago following a dramatic falling out in 2018. At the time, Hill's outspoken tweets about President Trump put the network in the crosshairs of a polarizing debate over race and politics.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday pushed back on President Trump's tweet suggesting NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace should apologize after the FBI determined last month that he was not a target of a hate crime when a noose was found in his garage stall before a race.
What he's saying: "You saw the best in NASCAR. When there was a chance that it was a threat against Bubba Wallace, [the drivers] all rallied to Bubba's side," Graham said on Fox News host Brian Kilmeade's radio show, per Mediaite.
President Trump demanded Monday an apology from Bubba Wallace, NASCAR's only Black driver, after the FBI determined last month that he was not a target of a hate crime when a noose was found in his garage stall before a race.
Why it matters: The president's focus on kicking off a culture war is set to be a cornerstone of his 2020 campaign, often hinging on his opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. As Axios' Jonathan Swan told the "Axios Today" podcast, "The ugly reality of this election is that, in some instances, it's going to look like a race war."
It's been so long since we've had regularly scheduled sports, perhaps you've forgotten the best way to actually watch them.
The state of play: YouTube TV, fuboTV and ESPN+ all have all recently raised their prices, even though their packages rely on live sports rights, and the coronavirus pandemic has shut down most sports.
When MLB teams arrived at the ballpark this weekend for the first summer workouts of 2020, the comforting sounds of baseball brought smiles to players' faces.
Between the lines: Even the loudest crack of the bat couldn't mask the eerie silence or distract from the ever-present coronavirus threat.
