White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dodged a question about President Joe Biden’s position on Major League Baseball’s decision to relocate its All-Star Game to Colorado over the new Georgia election bill during her Tuesday press briefing.
“Is the White House concerned that Major League baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?” Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked.
Psaki’s reply, however, did not touch on the Biden administration’s position. Instead, she rattled off a list of differences between the Georgia election reforms and Colorado’s current election laws, which she claims promote voting.
“First, let me say, on Colorado. Colorado allows you to register on Election Day. Colorado has voting by mail where they send, to 100 percent of people in the state who are eligible, applications to vote by mail. Ninety-four percent of people in Colorado voted by mail in the 2020 election. And they also allow for a range of materials to provide even if they vote on Election Day for the limited number of people who vote on Election Day,” she said.
Psaki said the Georgia voting law, by comparison, is “built on a lie,” and that there was no fraud in the 2020 election.
“What there was, however, was record-setting turnout, especially by voters of color. So instead, what we’re seeing here, for politicians who didn’t like the outcome, they’re not changing their policies to win more votes, they’re changing the rules to exclude more voters. And we certainly see the circumstances as different,” she said.
Psaki concluded her monologue by washing the administration’s hands of the MLB’s decision.
“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.
Psaki previously denied that Biden “called for businesses to boycott” but that he does support them if they choose to remove themselves from the state.
“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.”
In his interview with ESPN, the president said he said that “today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly” and that he would “support” the MLB relocating the game.
“People look to them. They’re leaders,” Biden said. “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.”
Source: The Federalist
