Biden uses ESPN to slam Georgia voting law, wants All-Star Game moved

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Biden supports moving MLB All-Star game out of Georgia over voting bill

Project 21 co-chairman Horace Cooper and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy weigh in on Georgia voting bill on 'Fox News @ Night'

Barack Obama went on ESPN to unveil his March Madness brackets. Donald Trump regularly attacked NFL players for their anthem protests.

And now Joe Biden is taking a swing at it.

In an interview on ESPN’s "Sports Center," Biden made news by backing efforts to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta as a protest against Georgia’s new voting law.

It’s striking that co-host Sage Steele chose to ask about the controversial law, which Biden described as "Jim Crow on steroids." In the past, ESPN has drawn flak for being too political and too liberal, particularly when it came to Trump. Former host Jemele Hill caused an uproar when she attacked the former president as a white supremacist.

But there is an effort by the baseball players’ union to use the All-Star Game to punish Georgia, whose restrictions on voting and ID requirements for mail ballots were signed into law last week by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. So Steele may have had little choice but to raise a controversy in which politics and sports had already melded.

While Trump, a onetime USFL team owner, was often at odds with pro athletes—some of whom refused to make the traditional White House visit when they won a championship—Biden is eager to side with the players.

"I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them doing that," he told the network. "People look to them. They’re leaders."

There is some precedent, as the NBA moved its All-Star Game out of Charlotte in 2017 to protest a North Carolina law limiting anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people.

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In setting up another question for the president, Steele noted that Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has repealed his state’s mask mandate. He asked about the decision by the Texas Rangers to allow its stadium to be filled to capacity for its home opener Monday—more than 40,000 people--although masks would be required except when eating.

"That’s a decision they made," said Biden. "I think it’s a mistake. They should listen to Dr. Fauci and the scientists and the experts, but I think it’s not responsible."

Most baseball franchises are limiting attendance. In the latest sign that MLB isn’t any more immune from this virus this season than the last one, yesterday’s Washington Nationals game against the New York Mets was postponed after five people in the Nats organization tested positive for Covid.

Trump made his attacks on pro football players into part of the culture wars. In one tweet four years ago, he pulled a page from "The Apprentice": "If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL,or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!"

Another time, the 45th president wrote: "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a b**** off the field right now. Out! He's fired. He's fired.’"

Trump also told Mike Pence to leave an Indianapolis Colts game if a number of players took a knee, which the vice president did. And Trump taunted the league when the ratings declined.

Also in 2017, Trump withdrew a White House invitation to the champion Golden State Warriors after Steph Curry and others criticized him. The team visited Obama instead.

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It’s hardly shocking that Biden, a self-proclaimed "union guy," would back the baseball players’ union. The All-Star controversy was also a slow pitch over the plate for him, given his repeated denunciations of the Georgia voting law. But Biden is unlikely to insert himself into numerous sports controversies.

Meanwhile, Georgia politicians are also taking a baseball bat to major corporations. After Delta’s CEO slammed the voting law as "unacceptable," the state House passed a bill repealing the airline’s tax break on jet fuel.