Media Views: Bob Costas, ‘a moderate, somewhat left-of-center guy,’ talks Trump, unvaccinated ballplayers

Whether it was addressing China’s troubling human-rights record or providing his thoughts about what he and others perceived as a gun culture within the country and sports leading to unneeded deaths following a Kansas City Chiefs player committing a murder-suicide, he has had the gumption to leap into the hot-topics fires when he deemed it appropriate.

Costas now is semiretired, at age 70, but hasn’t lost his fastball when it comes to expressing his thoughts. In some ways, it might even be gaining speed now that he is on more long-form platforms than he was for much of his time at NBC.

He is particularly outspoken on his “Back on the Record with Bob Costas” program that airs quarterly on HBO, next on Sept. 9. He also expresses his views on CNN, for which he is a contributor who provides insight on sports-related topics, and has been active lately with criticism of former President Donald Trump as well as baseball players who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 and thus not allowed into Canada.

His stance riles some conservatives who contend he is a far-left radical, but he told the Post-Dispatch this week he is “pretty much a moderate, somewhat left-of-center guy” who has voted for Republicans. He has talked negatively about “wokeness” and “excesses of the left wing.”

Last month on CNN, he weighed in about unvaccinated players missing games in Canada — Cardinals stars Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado were among those banned.

“Leave aside any medical opinion,” Costas said. “Leave aside the politics of it. This is a team sport. We’re not talking about (tennis’) Novak Djokovic on his own deciding not to get vaccinated in an individual sport. … And no matter whether you agree or disagree with the mandates or any country’s rules and regulations, you are hurting your own team.”

Talking Trump

Costas has brought verbal heat about Trump, first nationally on CNN and then locally on KMOX (1120 AM), regarding the former president’s business dealings with the LIV golf circuit. That’s the controversial new Saudi-financed rival to the PGA Tour that has been pulling some big-name players away from the established circuit and recently held a tournament at the Trump-owned course in Bedminster, New Jersey — near New York City — calling Trump’s association with it “a disgrace.”

That LIV event drew protests from people who lost loved ones or otherwise were personally impacted by the Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attacks on the nearby World Trade Center. A group that protested, 9/11 Justice, believes Saudi Arabian government officials supported those terrorists, and Trump previously agreed that the Saudi government was responsible, though he now says he’s not sure. U.S. intelligence officials also have said the Saudis approved of the murder in 2018 of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

There is a wide-held belief that the Saudis are funding the golf tour to try to improve their reputation in the West, and Trump’s coziness with that  organization drew Costas’ attention.

“If we’ve learned anything about Donald Trump, which it shouldn’t have taken very long to learn, is that he doesn’t care about any principle including American democracy or any person,” Costas said on CNN. “He cares about nothing other than his own perceived self interest.”

The PGA moved a marquee tourney, this year’s PGA Championship it had scheduled for that course, to Oklahoma following the Jan. 6, 2021, rioting at the U.S. Capitol.

Costas said of Trump embracing the new rival to the PGA: “There’s the aspect of grievance and revenge. He was upset because … they pulled the (event) from the Bedminster course. So this is an element of grievance on his part because as we all know he is after all, the most persecuted man in American history and he’s qualified to say that because he’s a scholar of history,” he said sarcastically.

Costas was just getting warmed up for the appearance last week on KMOX, the St. Louis station at which he began his professional broadcasting career in 1974. He made the comment about Trump’s association with LIV being “a disgrace” in that interview and had more to say.

“These golfers are each — whether they recognize it or not — they’re each ambassadors for the Saudi regimen,” he said on “The Show” with Kevin Wheeler, Amy Marxkors and Chris Rongey. ”You think the Saudi regime, which has more money than it can count, is looking at this as a money-making venture? It’s what has become to be known as ‘sports washing.’”

That term describes how countries such as China and Russia use athletics to attempt to improve their reputations.

They “try to put a happier face on objectionable regimes through sports,” Costas said. “You can’t separate those two things.”

Then he really turned up the heat.

“… It’s just startling to me, how many brainwashed Trump cultists cannot make these distinctions,” he said. “Can you imagine any president in your lifetime, Republican, Democrat, whatever, doing something like this? Virtually in the shadow of the World Trade Center, (where) more than 700 residents of New Jersey died on 9/11 21 years ago, some of them from the immediate Bedminster area, the 9/11 families with credible evidence that the Saudi regime provided logistical support for the terrorists on that day.

“… Can you imagine any person of consequence in public life in politics in America, especially somebody who declares themselves ‘America first,’ and has some distorted version of patriotism, doing something like this thumbing their noses at the 9/11 families?”

Taking, as well as giving, heat

Costas knows he isn’t well received in some circles for talking politics.

“I used to be pretty close to universally popular, I was a nice guy. I knew a lot about sports,” he said on KMOX. “And then, you know, there are certain things that aren’t really political. They’re just common sense. They’re just matters of common decency.”

Costas, though known for sports, has a widely diverse broadcasting background.

Over the years, he has been offered a correspondent’s spot on “60 Minutes,”’ was asked to take high-level roles on top-notch news programs on multiple networks. He also has contributed to NBC News and had a long-running talk show (“Later”) in which he conducted in-depth interviews with many people outside athletics. He learned insights about many countries while preparing for his Olympics broadcasts. Plus he was at the frontline of questioning steroids in baseball, corruption in the Olympics hierarchy and the dire impact brain injuries have on football players.

Costas is the only Triple Crown Emmy winner — having received the prestigious award for broadcasting excellence in news, sports and entertainment. So his credentials of being well versed are deeply established. And while many of his political views have been expressed in some other corners, his stature riles some who don’t agree.

“Any time you make an appearance, if you have any kind of notoriety — no matter how well you express your point of view … it is a given it will be repurposed in some place with a clickbait headline and a mischaracterization of what was said,” Costas told the Post-Dispatch. “You hear, ‘stay in your lane’ or ‘stick to sports.’ But when (conservative commentators with sports broadcasting backgrounds) such as Jason Whitlock, Clay Travis” and others talk politics “you don’t hear that ‘stick to sports’ message” from the MAGA crowd.

He amplified on KMOX.

“There are a lot of intelligent conservative positions that I agree with and certainly that I respect,” he said. “But when you enter into this ‘Through the Looking Glass’ crazy world that we’ve entered into then eventually it’s not a political question, it’s a question of common sense and common decency.”

His remarks sometimes are misrepresented when retold, and he certainly is not alone with that in this social media era.

“I don’t like it, but I don’t lose any sleep over it,” Costas told the Post-Dispatch, adding he also dislikes the business model of media outlets that specialize in “pushing hot buttons” to attract a like-minded audience. 

He points to a bygone era, in which there was much more cooperation and compassion between political opposites compared to today.

“If the question is, ‘Is Donald Trump in any sense emotionally, psychologically, intellectually or ethically fit to be in any position of public trust, let alone the presidency?’ the answer is a resounding and should be a bipartisan ‘no.’

“The sooner the Republican Party comes to its senses and rids itself of being possessed by ‘Trumpism,’ the better. And the Democrats would do well to turn their backs on the extremes of their party, including ‘wokeism.’”