A day after his employer whined that Eileen Gu, a U.S.-trained Olympian who’s competing for China, wasn’t asked about politics, Alex Christy complained the opposite in a Feb. 11 post:
MS NOW Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace had a funny definition of bravery on Monday. According to her, Olympians such as Eileen Gu are “more brave than” most for their criticisms of President Trump. Of course, Wallace forgot to mention that Gu was born in America, but competes for the genocidal, communist dictatorship in China.
Wallace introduced a clip of another skier, Oregon’s Hunter Hess, “You’ve now lost the people who have put steel in the spine of culture, who have put steel in the spine of sports, who now, I think, prove, and let me put up some of the Olympians. I mean, this is happening every day in Italy since the Olympics started last week. This is athletes, this is Hunter Hess. Let me show you this.”
In the clip, Hess declared, “It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. I think it’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of. And I think a lot of people aren’t… Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”
It would have been ideal if Hess had simply said, “I’m not here to discuss politics,” but the biggest problem is whoever the reporter was that thought injecting domestic politics into the Olympics was a good idea.
Christy didn’t mention that colleague Curtis Houck demanded that Gu be asked about politics. Instead, Christy grumbled that Gu wasn’t put on the spot about her politics:
There are a lot of words to describe someone born into American freedom but chooses to compete for China, our country’s top adversary, but “brave” isn’t one of them. China doesn’t allow for dual citizenship, so either Gu renounced her American citizenship or China has allowed her to play by a different set of rules than everyone else. She didn’t just criticize a president of the other party; she turned her back on the whole country. Hess was on the receiving end of a Trump Truth Social post, Chinese citizens who criticize their government are liable to get arrested for wrongthink. Those are the truly brave people, while people like Gu are the cowards.
Nicholas Fondacaro spent his Feb. 16 hate-watch of “The View” whining that Olympians didn’t say the pro-Trump things he demanded:
During their Presidents Day episode on Monday, ABC’s The View made it clear that they believed only some criticisms were worth the breathe used to make them. The cast didn’t really like that some Americans dared to criticize those Olympic athletes who used their opportunity on the world stage to criticize the country they were there to represent. They also suggested that when President Trump left office, citizens would rush out into the streets to tear down his name and statues.
After moderator Whoopi Goldberg mocked Vice President V.D. Vance for getting booed at the opening ceremony and suggesting Trump was just the “president of ICE agents,” co-host Ana Navarro spoke up first to lash and suggest something was “wrong with you” if you didn’t hate the Trump administration:
[…]Near the end of the segment, Goldberg chimed in again to bemoan the criticism of the criticizers. “The problem for me is, people at home who are calling them losers and all these kind of names,” she griped.
Fondacaro didn’t explain why people, and especially Olympians, are not allowed to speak ill of Trump.
Christy returned to grouse further in a Feb. 20 post:
MS Now’s fun haters at Morning Joe had an interesting recap on Friday of the previous day’s Olympic events, where the U.S. women’s hockey team defeated Canada in a dramatic overtime comeback to win the gold medal, and American figure skater Alysa Liu also took home gold. Forcing politics into sports, ESPN talking head Pablo Torre, the hockey women proved one can cheer on America without embracing a certain nameless president, while host Joe Scarborough and New York Times opinion writer Eugene Robinson argued it was ironic for “MAGA World” to celebrate an immigrant.
[…]Team USA has always been a key part of American monoculture, which is why some athletes’ desire to opine on politics has been so disappointing. If liberals such as Torre let their feelings about Trump overpower their feelings for the country, that says more about them than it does Trump.
However, the hot takes were just beginning. Scarborough told Robinson that “It was really inspiring. I will say how hilarious that the sort of MAGA, online MAGA World were celebrating Alyssa Liu’s gold medal without a hint of any irony. Celebrating the immigrant. Who they were celebrating as an American, you know, USA, USA. Which, of course, that’s basically proving the point that we’ve been making all along, that Ronald Reagan made in his final speech to America, that we are strengthened by immigrants.”
The context for this is that Liu’s father fled China for his role in supporting the Tiananmen Square protests and has been stalked by Chinese spies ever since. It also comes as American-born skier Eileen Gu chose to dump her country and compete for her mother’s China, America’s biggest rival in the world today. Gu, who has no problem speaking out against Trump, is not prepared to discuss China’s genocidal repression of the Uyghurs.
Why should Gu be expected to discuss “China’s genocidal repression of the Uyghurs” while American Olympians are apparently not allowed to criticize their president? Christy never explains his double standard, nor did he answer whether Liu’s father would be allowed in the U.S. under Trump’s highly restrictive immigration policy. Instead, he lectured:
Beyond being a gold medalist, conservatives’ embrace of Liu as a role model has to do with the contrast she provides with Gu. One is a story of patriotism and assimilation, while the other is a story of betrayal for money. Liu and Gu are a great snapshot of the immigration dilemma: some immigrants move to America and instill their children with the virtues of America and some don’t. The problem is Morning Joe only wants to talk about one side of the equation.
And Christy has no interest in talking about Gu’s side of the story which can’t be reduced to the simple “betrayal for mony” he insists it is. As a sportswriter pointed out:
Besides, is she really harming the United States if she, a one-person corporation, is drawing tens of millions out of China only to presumably invest it back into America, where she lives? Where on the patriotism scale does that rank compared with a U.S.-based multinational that might sponsor Team USA while offshoring jobs? Any number of American companies, including ESPN’s parent Disney, do plenty of business in China.
Like it or not, isn’t being a rank opportunist and playing everyone in all directions for more and more money the American Way?
[…]Go ahead and call her nearly every name in the book. You might even be right.
Just know that with money and medals to count, with photo shoots and sorority formals and physics finals to come, she is unlikely to call you back.
Nope, Christy has no interest in that part of the story.