For President Trump's base, the president's feud with the National Football League is "the red mean of all red meat," Fox News anchor Shep Smith said on Monday afternoon, but they're wrong that the NFL players who kneel during the national anthem are protesting the flag. "They're upset about racial injustice and they're upset about the things that the president has said," he added, suggesting that Trump is using the fight to distract his base from the failure of the ObamaCare repeal effort and the fact that "North Korea's the biggest mess since the Cold War." Smith was talking with Politico congressional reporter Rachel Bade, who said one Republican had just told her that Trump amplifying the protests is not helpful.