Biden Hosts Atlanta Braves At White House After Pushing MLB To Boycott Their City For All-Star Game

President Joe Biden hosted the Atlanta Braves at the White House on Monday to celebrate the Major League Baseball (MLB) team’s 2021 World Series win. The event comes after Biden and other high-profile Democrats called for the professional baseball league to move its annual All-Star game out of Atlanta to protest Georgia’s recently passed election integrity law.

“This team has literally been part of American history for over 150 years,” Biden said. “But none of it came easy … people counting you out. Heck, I know something about being counted out.”

During the event, Biden was presented with a customized jersey bearing his name and the number 46, in reference to him being the nation’s 46th president. In a separate moment, America’s commander-in-chief bizarrely beckoned “everybody under 15” to come near him for a group photo.

Despite Democrats and their media sycophants’ efforts to cast Biden as a folksy, kind old man, the president has routinely shown himself to be anything but. Following the Georgia legislature’s passage of a bill last year to enhance the integrity of the state’s election laws, Biden proceeded to call for the MLB to relocate its 2021 All-Star game out of Atlanta in protest.

“I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them [moving the all-star game out of Atlanta],” Biden told ESPN last year.

In the same interview, Biden went on to label the Georgia bill as “Jim Crow on steroids” and falsely asserted that the law “prohibited food and drink at polling places and mandated the polls close at 5 p.m.”

“Imagine passing a law saying you cannot provide water or food for someone standing in line to vote? Can’t do that? Come on,” he said. “Or you’re going to close a polling place at five o’clock when working people just get off? This is all about keeping working folks and ordinary folks that I grew up with from being able to vote.”

As noted by The Daily Wire, however, “[t]he Georgia law implements restrictions on handing out food and drink near polling places similar to restrictions already in place in New York and Biden’s home state of Delaware” and “are designed to prevent lobbyists or special interest from handing out concessions at polling places. It does not ban voters from bringing or ordering food, nor does it prohibit polling workers from setting out self-service water stations or distributing food donated for general use.”

Moreover, the Georgia bill does not require polls to close by 5 p.m., as Election Day voting in the state lasts from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

While Biden attempted to walk back his pro-boycott rhetoric a week later, the damage had already been done. Two days after the president called for moving the All-Star game out of Georgia, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that the MLB would be relocating the annual event to Colorado.

The move ultimately had devastating effects on Georgia’s economy, with Job Creators Network (JCN) CEO Alfredo Ortiz estimating that the decision cost the state “upwards of $100 million” in revenue. Ortiz has since released a statement blasting Biden for hosting the Braves at the White House, saying that the president should “be embarrassed” for playing a role in “costing the Greater Atlanta area” millions in revenue.

“Biden and left-wing activists pressured MLB to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta, lying about the Georgia election reform law,” Ortiz said. “MLB caved to Biden and the far left in a pitiful case of virtue-signaling. … Biden should apologize to the Greater Atlanta community today, instead of joining them in celebration.”

Other notable Democrats who assisted in fueling the push for the MLB to pull its All-Star game out of Atlanta include Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and Georgia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases