Olympics: Media, Democrats Blame Trump if Los Angeles Loses 2024 Bid

Democrats and the media have already begun to blame Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for the possibility that Los Angeles will lose its bid to host the Olympics in 2024.

“I think for some of the IOC [International Olympic Committee] members they would say, ‘Wait a second, can we go to a country like that, where we’ve heard things that we take offense to’?” said Mayor Eric Garcetti in an interview with the Associated Press.

The AP, via Southern California Public Radio station KPCC, elaborates: “The IOC’s 98 members come from all over the world, and Trump’s comments on Mexicans, Muslims and other issues won’t encourage them to vote for a U.S. city.”

The 2008 games were held in Beijing, the capital city of a authoritarian communist dictatorship recently enriched by market reforms.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is favored to win the November election. Garcetti added: “I think we continue no matter what the outcome of the election is.”

In 2009, it was thought that the election of President Barack Obama would secure the 2016 Olympics for Chicago, Obama’s adopted hometown — especially because the rest of the world was supposedly so enthused that Americans had elected him.

Several members of Obama’s coterie — including, notably, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett — were said to have purchased large amounts of Chicago real estate in anticipation of a successful bid. However, despite media enthusiasm, an “arrogant” Obama came up short, as Chicago was eliminated first from the final four cities at the IOC meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark that fall.

Los Angeles stepped into the gap after Boston, the original choice of the U.S. Olympic Committee, bowed out over taxpayer concerns about cost. In 1984, Los Angeles proved that the Olympics could be financially viable, after the private sector took on much of the burden. Mayor Garcetti has vowed to repeat that effort. However, critics of the Olympic bid warn that Los Angeles is no longer the economic machine it once was, with more poverty and a weaker private sector than 40 years ago.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.