Less than a week after President Joe Biden expressed strong support for Major League Baseball’s decision to move its All-Star game to Colorado, he refused to say the Masters Tournament should also boycott Georiga over the state’s newest election law on Tuesday.
“I think that’s up to the Masters,” Biden said before expressing support for corporations enacting economic sanctions over political disagreements. “It’s reassuring to see that for-profit operations and businesses are speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws are just antithetical to who we are.”
The guy went on ESPN on Opening Day (sacred for many of us) and lied about the bill in urging MLB to move the game.
He caused about $100M in losses to the state, which will be felt by workers, not Brian Kemp.
He won’t be forgiven for this. https://t.co/k2E38Q0Mic
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 6, 2021
The flip-flop comes less than a week after the president told ESPN he “strongly” supported the MLB’s boycott of Georgia.
“I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them doing that. People look to them. They’re leaders,” Biden said in an interview with ESPN on Wednesday. “Look what’s happened with the NBA, as well. Look what’s happened across the board. The very people who are victimized the most are the people who are the leaders in these various sports, and it’s just not right.”
Biden’s tune changed on Tuesday when he warned that a mass exodus of businesses from the state could hurt “the people who need the help the most.”
“There’s another side to it too,” he said. “When they in fact move out of Georgia, the people who need the help the most — people who are making hourly wages —sometimes get hurt the most. I think it’s a very tough decision for a corporation to make, or group to make.”
Despite his concerns, Biden claimed that he “respects them when they make that judgment” and “supports whatever judgment they make.”
On the same day of Biden’s gaslighting, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reiterated that the president and his administration did not call for any businesses to boycott Georgia.
“Ultimately, let me add one more thing, it’s up to Major League Baseball to determine where they’re holding their All-Star Game,” she said during her Tuesday press briefing.
“He also was not dictating that Major League Baseball move their game out of Georgia,” Psaki said on Friday. “He was conveying that if that was a decision that was made, that he would certainly support that and that’s true in the context of the remarks he made in that interview.”