Republicans Slam Major League Baseball for All-Star Game Relocation Hypocrisy

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump gestures after speaking during election night in the E
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Wendell Husebø

Republicans slammed Major League Baseball (MLB) for canceling their All-Star Game in Atlanta over a new Georgia state law requiring voter identification.

The cancelation pending relocation has drawn attention from Republicans who have highlighted MLB’s hypocrisy, which includes the organization’s requirement to show identification to receive game day tickets at will call, as well as the fact that they have a player Development Center in Communist China, a country whose human rights record features perpetrating a genocide against their Muslim minority Uyghur population. The cancelation also impacts black-owned businesses in Atlanta, costing the city as much as $190 million in revenue.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was quick to tweet, “Georgia’s laws don’t comport with @MLB ‘values’ but China’s do?”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said MLB’s “decision to cave to a misinformation campaign from liberal extremists and their activist allies in the media is absolutely wrong.”

Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) tweeted, “Atlanta is not an acceptable location for the All Star Game, but playing MLB games in Havana is?”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) booked a slot on Tucker Carlson Tonight where he said, “I guess we should be boycotting them for having their headquarters in New York. Because that [ID] law is more restrictive than ours.”

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) relayed “We should never bow down to pressure… over matters of principle like religious freedom or election integrity.”

Former President Donald Trump put his thoughts into the ring, calling for a boycott of MLB. “Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections,” Trump wrote. “Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!”

Conservative commentator Jack Posobiec weighed in, asking if MLB will “be boycotting air travel after October 1, 2021,” citing airlines’ requirement to show ID to fly.

Tim Murtaugh, a former spokesperson for the 2020 Trump campaign, also pointed to MLB’s ID hypocrisy. 

And Sean Spicer directed attention to a poll that shows overwhelming support Americans have for voter ID laws.

The news of the relocation encouraged Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) to join Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) in calling to terminate MLB’s antitrust exemption.

“Do all of them oppose voter ID?” Cruz tweeted. “Are all of them willing to be the woke enforcers of the corrupt Democratic Party? And do all hate the 75m who voted for Trump?”

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