Obama congratulates MLB for ‘taking a stand’ against Georgia’s electoral law while Trump calls for a boycott

Obama on Saturday congratulated the league “for taking a stand on behalf of voting rights for all citizens” after the MLB’s announcement on Friday. Democrat tweeted support The change reached a totally different tone from the statement by his Republican successor on Friday, calling for a boycott of baseball and all “companies that are interfering in free and fair elections”.

Opponents of the new electoral law say that similar legislation and measures being considered in other states are tantamount to suppressing voter efforts that will reduce minority votes. Republicans considered the measure, dubbed the Electoral Integrity Act of 2021, necessary to boost confidence in the elections after Trump made repeated and baseless allegations of fraud.

The legislation, passed last month by Georgia Republican Party Governor Brian Kemp, imposes voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, allows state officials to take over local ballot boxes, limits the use of ballot boxes and makes it a crime to give or offer voters. voters eat and drink while waiting in line to vote.

Georgia was the key to President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in November, and Biden called the bill “Jim Crow in the 21st century” and “an atrocity”. On Wednesday, he told ESPN – before the MLB made its decision – that he would “strongly support” the withdrawal from the Atlanta game.

In his Saturday tweet praising the league’s change, Obama added that “there is no better way for America’s pastime to honor the great Hank Aaron, who has always led by example.”

The MLB’s decision to change the game comes at a time when the tourism industry, one of the hardest hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, is still struggling to recover.

The “estimated lost economic impact” with the “relocation of the MLB All-Star Game is more than $ 100 million,” according to a statement from Holly Quinlan, a Cobb County tourism authority.

Kemp criticized the MLB decision at a news conference on Saturday, saying he was giving in to the “fear and lies of liberal activists” and putting “the wishes” of Biden and Stacey Abrams, a Democrat from Georgia and a supporter of the right to vote ” ahead of the economic well-being of working Georgians who relied on the All-Star Game to make money. “

Atlanta Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield on Saturday that the MLB decision was likely to be the “first of many boycotts of our state” and asked Republican state lawmakers, who approved the measure, to repeal it. or make changes.

Bottoms told CNN that, although she dislikes the MLB’s decision to remove the game from her city, “I certainly understand”, adding that “it is hurting our economy and it is my hope that, finally, leaders across the state will to hear. “

“Just as lawmakers and the governor made the decision to move forward with this bill, people are deciding not to come to our state. And it will affect millions of Georgians, jobs, small businesses, our corporations, and it is very unfortunate,” she said.

The new host city for the July 13 game has yet to be announced, according to the league.

This story was updated with additional details on Saturday.