MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough blasted the MLB over its “ridiculous” decision to move the All-Star Game from Georgia to Colorado.
Scarborough described the decision as a “dream opportunity for the Republican Party” and “short-sighted” for Democrats during Tuesday’s broadcast of “Morning Joe.” (RELATED: ‘We Need To Be Precise In Our Criticism’: Joe Scarborough Refutes Claim That Georgia Election Law Is ‘Jim Crow 2.0’)
“Are we really at a place now where we’re going to be deciding where baseball players play the All-Star Game, one of America’s really most cherished mid-summer institutions, based on voting rules?” Scarborough began. “It’s ridiculous. And for Democrats, I mean, it’s short-sighted.” (RELATED: Rep. Ilhan Omar Justifies Supporting MLB Boycott By Falsely Implying Georgia Election Law Will ‘Restrict People’s Ability To Vote’)
He went on to say that he knows a lot of Democrats and activists didn’t want to hear what he was saying, but that he learned the reason President Joe Biden performed so poorly in Florida in the 2020 election was because of socialism, defunding the police and “culture wars” involving the NFL. He said he spoke to various Florida Republicans who claimed that the issue of kneeling for the national anthem and people talking about politics and sports “was turning a lot of swing voters off.”
“So here we have a dream opportunity for the Republican Party, Willie. It’s not the NFL now. It’s MLB. Now, I don’t think it’s going to stick, especially with all the momentous things that are going on right now on Capitol Hill and the Biden White House, but this is the Republican strategy,” Scarborough continued. “We’re going to lose on legislation. We’re on the wrong side on the COVID relief bill. We’re on the wrong side on the voting rights bill. We’re on the wrong side on the transportation bill. We’re on the wrong side of taxing the rich. So let’s talk about Major League Baseball.”
Co-host Willie Geist jumped in and said “there’s a reason you hear the term ‘cancel culture’ in every other sentence from a Republican politician’s mouth.” He stated that Republicans voted against the coronavirus relief bill “that had 75% approval in the country,” so they had to change the subject somehow.
“But you’re right that Major League Baseball put itself in a box here by saying, we’re not going to have it in Georgia because of restrictive voting law. Wherever they put the game, you’re going to be able to find a law that was restrictive in some way,” Geist concluded. “So now that it’s reported to be headed to Colorado, I’m sure many people are digging through as we speak right now to show how Colorado restricts the votes in some ways, too.”
The MLB announced Friday that it would be moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta over Georgia’s new election law. The decision was met with widespread criticism from Republicans, as well as some Democrats, with former President Donald Trump calling for a boycott of the MLB in response. Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp slammed the decision, saying that the MLB “caved to fear” and fell for “liberal lies” over the law.
