Trump to ask anthem protesters to recommend people who should be pardoned

President Donald Trump says he intends to meet with NFL players who protest during the national anthem and ask them to recommend people unfairly treated by the justice system who should be considered for criminal pardons.

"What I'm thinking to do, you have a lot of people, in the NFL in particular, but in sports leagues, they're not proud enough to stand for our national anthem. I don't like that," Trump said Friday.

"What I'm going to do is, I'm going to say to them, instead of talk ... it's all talk, talk, talk. We have a great country, you should stand for our national anthem. You shouldn't go into a locker room when our national anthem is played. I'm going to ask all of those people to recommend to me - because that's what they're protesting - people they think were unfairly treated by the justice system. And I'm going to ask them to recommend to me, people that were unfairly treated ... and I'm going to take a look at those applications. And if I find and my committee finds that they're unfairly treated, then we will pardon them or at least let them out."

Trump has been a staunch critic of the NFL's handling of players who do not stand during the national anthem. He's equally critical of the league's new anthem policy, which will require anyone on the field to stand for the anthem but also allows players to stay in the locker room instead.