ATLANTA (AP) — An ESPN executive says the network has been in contact with the White House about interviewing President Donald Trump during the College Football Playoff championship game Monday night, but indications are it will not happen.
Trump plans to attend the Alabama-Georgia game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“We’re still taking to the White House. I don’t get the sense he’s going to do an interview,” Stephanie Druley, ESPN senior vice president for events and studio programs, said Sunday. “We will, obviously, show him at the game when we see where he is sitting.”
Trump criticized ESPN in October in response to “SportsCenter” host Jemele Hill tweeting the president was a “white supremacist.”
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Druley says requesting an interview with Trump is not an attempt to reconcile past issues the White House has had with ESPN.
“It don’t think that’s necessary,” Druley said. “It’s the president. The president shows up at a sporting event, ideally, you document it and you’d like to talk to him. I don’t think this president makes it any different quite honestly. I don’t think we have a need to mend fences.”