Curt Schilling says Hillary Clinton ‘should be buried under a jail’

Hillary Clinton had a successful Super Tuesday, moving closer to the Democratic nomination for president. Among the people who won’t be happy about that is Curt Schilling, the outspoken ex-MLB ace, who has shown over the years that unlike many people in sports, he has no problem talking about politics, race and religion. Sometimes even to his own detriment.

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(AP) Schilling spent a good chunk of his Super Tuesday doing an hour-long radio interview with 610 Sports in Kansas City. If you give Schilling 60 minutes to talk about anything, there’s a good chance something will make someone cringe. Such is a reality of Curt Schilling with a live mic in front of him — or a keyboard, really, since it was his social media use that got him suspended from ESPN at the end of the 2015 season. He doesn’t apologize for it either. He’s actually kind of proud.

That brings us to Tuesday’s interview in which Schilling devoted about eight minutes (starting near the 28-minute mark) to talking about Clinton, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and the various things that scare him for the future of America. The interview, though, was at its most provocative when Schilling railed on Clinton.

“If she’s allowed to get to the general election before she’s in prison I’ll be stunned and upset,” Schilling said. “Because I think she’s shown her true colors all along the way and I’ll ask you this: Do you see her being anything even remotely different than what we’ve had?”

“I don’t care what her titles are,” Schilling continued after host Danny Parkins listed some of Clinton’s credentials. “She’s done nothing. She’s done absolutely nothing to further the success of the middle class. She jumps on the backs of people who she wants to be dependent on government. She needs these people to be dependent on her.”

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Parkins then asked Schilling whether he thought Clinton should go to jail:

“I hope she does. If I’m gonna believe, and I don’t have any reason not to believe, that she gave classified information on hundreds if not thousands of emails on a public server after what happened to General Petraeus, she should be buried under a jail somewhere.”

(AP)

That last part is perhaps the most troubling, as the implication there is there she should be buried alive. That’s a strong bit of rhetoric, certainly and you could argue that Schilling is just going overboard to make his point.

His allusion to General David Petaeus is somewhat misguided in that Petaeus’ punishment for sharing classified information with his biographer was losing his job as Director of the CIA and one misdemeanor charge. Not exactly jail or a hole under it.

Lest you think Schilling is Trump supporter — he contributed money to Ben Carson’s presidential campaign — Schilling lashed out at Trump too, saying:

“I’m tired of the We’re Going To Make America Great Again I get it, but what does that mean? If nothing else, Donald Trump has proven to politicians in every corner in the globe that America’s voting block is giving a giant middle finger to the establishment.

“Listen, he hasn’t elaborated, like, on two sentences for a policy. ‘We’re going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it.’ Okay, how? ‘Well, I’ll tell you later.’ There has been no depth to anything he’s said. But, look at the turn out. Look at the response, absolutely staggering to me. The only thing that tells me is people are sick and tired of the status quo, sick and tired of the lying, sick and tired of the manipulating.”

(CBS)

All this on its own wouldn’t put Schilling in too hot of water. There’s just one problem: ESPN’s policies suggest on-air talent shouldn’t do the exact things that Schilling did in this interview.

Via Awful Announcing, ESPN’s policy states:

We should refrain from political editorializing, personal attacks or “drive-by” comments regarding the candidates and their campaigns. Approved commentaries on sports-specific issues, or seeking responses from candidates on relevant news issues, are appropriate. However perceived endorsements should be avoided. (In others cases guidelines on social media, acceptable commentary and political advocacy should prevail).

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It’s something of a wonder that Schilling hasn’t left ESPN for Fox Sports already, since he’d seemingly complement the Colin Cowherds, Jason Whitlocks and Clay Travis’ of the world and Fox Sports’ recent ideologic right turn. Yet, Schilling remains at ESPN. He’s back on “Baseball Tonight” this season, rather than calling games in the Sunday night booth and his outspoken nature is well established.

ESPN execs shouldn’t be surprised to hear Schilling blasting his hottest political takes to anyone who will listen for the next few months. We’re heading toward what promises to be a general election numbingly full of rhetoric and political pageantry, so Schilling is just doing his part.

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