Dem
47
GOP
53
This is the kind of story that only this administration could plausibly produce.
As nearly all readers will know, the Winter Olympics concluded Sunday night. Everybody knows that FBI "Director" Kash Patel loves hockey, loves rah-rah patriotism, and loves to be seen at high-profile events. That, plus some information about his whereabouts, allowed roughly everyone to conclude that he would travel to Italy to see the gold-medal game between Canada and the United States. For example, reporter Ken Dilianian of MS NOW put the pieces together, and wrote that Americans should probably expect to see Patel at the game. Patel's spokesman went ballistic over this, and tweeted:
Your rag outlet wrote that he went to hang out at the Olympics on the taxpayer dime—even when provided information that your theory was false. When you're ready to correct that let me know. Won't hold my breath.
And during the game, who was in the stands, perfectly visible in his luxury box? You guessed it. And when the U.S. won, and there was a massive celebration in the locker room, who was there, dancing and chugging beers? You guessed it again.
Now, we appreciate and accept that people who are in high-profile, high-pressure jobs need to get some rest and relaxation on occasion. If a person needs to do some golfing, or some sailing, or wants to watch a movie, or catch a baseball game to let off some steam, then so be it.
Where we get into a gray area is the question of why Patel needs quite so much R&R, especially given that he reportedly does not do all that much actual work. Also a gray area is how much of the taxpayers' money is appropriate to spend on leisure activities for government officials. This is far from the first time that Patel has jetted around (not cheap) on the government's dime, either to attend sporting events or his girlfriend's concerts. For the Olympics, Patel arranged some meetings with Italian police, so that he could claim he's really traveling on business, and he just happened to catch the hockey game while he was in town. But does anyone really buy that?
Meanwhile, there is also a black and white area, and that is: How dare Patel's spokesman not only lie about the trip, but then abuse a reporter who dared to be correct in his reporting. What on earth is the point of that, if Patel is going to go to the game and parade around like a stallion out to stud? How does that achieve anything beyond making Patel and the administration look bad?
And that is not the only storyline in this soap opera. It is not a secret that most of the U.S. men's hockey team is MAGA, and basically shares Trump's anti-Canadian feelings. This came up during the NHL's Four Nations tournament, and it came up again during the Olympics. And while the U.S. players were celebrating, and Patel was drinking his umpteenth beer, Donald Trump called in to the locker room to speak to everyone. He invited the men's team to attend the State of the Union address tonight, and to the White House, and then added, in a snarky tone of voice: "And we have to, I must tell you, we're gonna have to bring the women's team. [If I don't] do that, I do believe I would probably be impeached." At that point, Trump, Patel and the men's players all had a good laugh at the expense of the women.
This, of course, is the same president who has regularly expressed his deep and abiding commitment to high school girls sports, and to preserving the sanctity of that competition by making sure a couple dozen trans girls across the country can't participate. And yet, he's clearly disdainful of world-class women athletes. Hmm, hard to figure out what's going on there. In any case, Trump, Patel and the U.S. men got lambasted on social media and on various non-right-wing programs for their pretty clear-cut sexism.
The women on the U.S. team, meanwhile, are definitely not MAGA. In fact, they are basically woke. Several of them are lesbians, and nearly all of them have hinted at unhappiness about how they've been treated by the White House during this Olympics, or over the Epstein files, or over other issues. They have no particular interest in attending the SOTU or going to the Trump White House, especially when they know they're not actually welcome. And so, while the men have yet to commit to anything, one way or another, the women have already issued a statement:
We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning U.S. Women's Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement. Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate.
In case you need help translating, here you go: "We've double-checked, and learned that pigs are still land-bound, while the temperature in the infernal regions has not yet dropped below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, so we're not going to be able to be there."
Between Epstein, and the MAHA stuff we wrote about yesterday, and the lecherous behavior of some Republicans (keep reading), and the ongoing fight over abortion access, and the possibility of the SAVE Act denying some women the right to vote (since the name on their DL doesn't match their birth certificate), we suspect the GOP is going to have trouble with women voters this cycle. And unforced errors like pissing on the gold-medal-winning women's hockey team do not help. (Z)