Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson led the right-wing reaction on Friday after the Major League Baseball said it would not play its All-Star game in Georgia because of a new law that restricts voting rights in the state.
The former Fox News president and presenter, who some say is his Republican political heir, has lined up against current President Joe Biden and the Democrat he served as Vice President Barack Obama.
“Baseball is already losing a huge number of fans,” said Trump, “and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of radical Left Democrats.
“Boycott baseball and all companies that are interfering in free and fair elections. Are you listening to Coca, Delta and everything? “
Coca and Delta are among the companies that have expressed concern about Georgia’s law, which restricts early voting and by post, measures seen as the target of minority voters likely to support Democrats. The law was passed by Republicans after Biden won the state against Trump and Democrats won the two run-off Senate elections in January.
Referring to the segregation of the post-civil war south, Biden called the law: “Jim Crow in the 21st century”.
In his own statement on Saturday, Obama congratulated the MLB “for standing in the name of voting rights for all citizens”.
He too said: “There is no better way for America’s pastime to honor the great Hank Aaron, who has always led by example.”
Aaron, known as Hammer, was a longtime MLB home run record holder who played for the Atlanta Braves and suffered racist abuse throughout his life in the sport. He died in January, at the age of 86.
On Friday night, Carlson, who some say may be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 if Trump does not run again, said the MLB “believes it has veto power over the democratic process.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he “decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is to relocate this year’s All-Star Game and this year’s MLB draft” from the Atlanta Braves’ home.
“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports the right to vote for all Americans and is opposed to restrictions on the ballot box.”
The change was unprecedented. In 2016, North Carolina lost the right to host high-level NCAA university events because of a bill that restricted rights for transgender people.
Biden said this week that he would support the transfer of Atlanta’s MLB events. Carlson said that this shows that the president is “willing to destroy even something as beneficial as the country’s traditional game just to increase the power of his political party”.
The head of the MLB players’ union indicated support for the move. In a statement on Friday, New York Yankees and Miami Marlins chief executive Derek Jeter said: “We must promote increased electoral participation as opposed to any measures that negatively affect the ability to vote … We support the commissioner’s decision to stand up for the values of our game. “
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp – a bête noire for Trump for his refusal to overturn Biden’s victory – said the MLB “gave in to f Formulating, political opportunism and liberal lies ”. He also criticized the “cancellation of culture”, a key point in the Republican conversation.
Stacey Abrams, whom Kemp defeated in a 2018 election that he ran as Georgia’s secretary of state, said she was “disappointed” that the All-Star game is not played in the state.
But Abrams, who campaigns for the right to vote and has become an influential figure in the national Democratic Party, also said he was “proud of [MLB’s] position on the right to vote ”and“ urged events and productions to come and manifest or stay and fight ”.