Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Jemele Hill, the ESPN anchor who called President Trump a “bigot” and a “white supremacist” last September and was subsequently suspended for two weeks thereafter for violating social media guidelines, will be leaving her post as co-anchor of SportsCenter.
A source told BuzzFeed News that Hill made the decision herself to leave SportsCenter.
She will instead write for The Undefeated, ESPN’s culture website about race and sports, according to CNN.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to representatives for Hill, as well as ESPN for comment.
Hill’s anti-Trump tweets prompted backlash from the president himself, who took to Twitter to call out the anchor, saying, “With Jemele Hill at the mike, it is no wonder ESPN ratings have ‘tanked,’ in fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!”
At the time, the president called for the network to “apologize,” with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying Hill’s “outrageous” comments were a “fireable offense.”
Hill issued an apology after her initial comments about the president, saying, “My comments on Twitter expressed my personal beliefs.”
“My regret is that my comments and the public way I made them painted ESPN in an unfair light,” Hill said. “My respect for the company and my colleagues remains unconditional.”
Though Hill was criticized by the president and his supporters, she received support from other groups, like the organizers of the Women’s March, who said Hill’s suspension from the network was “a despicable attempt to silence a Black woman speaking out against systematic oppression in this country.”
According to Variety, who first reported the news, Hill’s co-anchor, Michael Smith, will continue hosting the 6 p.m. hour of SportsCenter alone.