Former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw did not hold back on her feelings about President Donald Trump, calling him a fascist and saying he needed to be removed from the White House.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Jan. 28, the two-time national champion coach blamed the administration for creating an environment in which law and justice no longer apply. Her remarks came four days after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Pretti tried to intervene between a woman and border patrol agents, who proceeded to knock the VA nurse to the ground, beat him and took the gun he had a license to carry before shooting him multiple times.
‘We no longer believe in the rule of law, or in the principle that no one is above it – because under this administration, the opposite has proven true,’ McGraw wrote. ‘Justice is no longer blind; it is bought with money and protected by power.’
‘We need real change,’ she continued. ‘… What we need is a reckoning in Washington. Until we remove the fascist in the White House, we will continue to watch our democracy crumble.’
The Hall of Famer has never been afraid to speak her mind and has long been outspoken on social justice issues. In 2019, a year before she retired, McGraw said she had stopped hiring male assistants because she wanted women to have more opportunities. Before a game in December 2014, her Notre Dame team wore ‘I can’t breathe’ T-shirts, a reference to Eric Garner’s last words before he died in a police chokehold.
In her post, McGraw tied Pretti’s death to the lack of accountability in previous extrajudicial killings.
‘Do you ever wonder whether things would be different if Trayvon Martin’s killer had gone to prison or if Breonna Taylor’s killers had been convicted of murder?’ McGraw wrote. ‘Both cases sparked nationwide protests – but did anything really change? Would George Floyd still be alive if accountability had come sooner? If Renee Good’s killer was sitting in jail awaiting a murder trial, would Alex Pretti have been shot so recklessly?’
‘Once again, we protest,’ McGraw said. ‘Once again we ask the same question: has anything changed?’
McGraw went 848-252 in 33 seasons at Notre Dame. She retired in 2020 and now works as a TV analyst.