Meanwhile, no standalone woman championship team has attended a party like this at the Trump White House, The Washington Post suggested Monday. (The White House did now not reply to CNN’s request for touch upon The Washington Post document and did no longer reply to questions on whether or not female championship groups have been invited.) I sat down with CNN sports analyst and sports columnist for USA Today Christine Brennan to find out more approximately the hanging absence of lady sports groups at celebrations inside the Trump White House — and just how enormous their Pennsylvania Avenue absence is. Our interview has been gently edited for length and flow.
Lauren Dezenski: Talk about what it manner for a group to return to the White House. Why is it a massive deal, and why would groups always need to try this?
Christine Brennan: You stated it nice. The words “White House.” It’s not a lot you are touring the President. They’ll all say — and I’ve blanketed those for the reason that ’80s, Olympic teams, NFL groups — I’ve blanketed at least two dozen, perhaps 30 of these visits over the years. And each unmarried time you speak to an athlete who is going, you talk to the train, … It is now not about the President; it’s approximately going to the White House, the high-quality honor of going to the White House. It’s been Democrats; it is Republicans; it does not remember. It’s approximately going to the White House to have fun with your victory. You get the trophy, get the party, and then the ultimate — you visit the White House.
LD: Is this a wreck from culture?
CB: Absolutely. The question is, wherein are the girls’ teams? When you consider that today is the best day in women’s sports. Until the next day, after which the following day and the following day, women’s sports on this united states, Title IX, the country has fallen in love with this law. And to suppose that is a President who seems to be actively no longer inviting ladies’ groups; it’s just astounding. And it’s totally out of touch with what the nation thinks about girls and ladies’ sports.
And I could make a case that pink states care more about girls and girls sports activities than blue states. So it’s honestly now not a political advantage for the President to be doing this because we could visit a city in Alabama, or Tennessee, or Mississippi, or Ohio — any purple kingdom — and discover parents, especially dads, over the moon about their daughters’ sports activities possibilities and her chances to get a university scholarship. That is in which the USA was in 2019. The President appears like he’s caught again within the ’50s or ’60s when we had no ladies’ crew sports activities. It is thoughts-boggling that he is deciding to try this.
LD: Has there been any sense that those ladies groups have not been interested in going to the Trump White House?
CB: When you have a man, as President, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women, it’s comprehensible that women may not want to be around him. I realize it’s quite a statement. However, I do not mind saying it. It is understandable.
Some folks very strongly aid Donald Trump, and there are lots of individuals who very strongly do not assist Donald Trump. We recognize that. That’s not an information flash. But here’s the component. Invite them. For example, the Golden State Warriors, it became out they did not need to come. It changed into a very public spat. But they were invited.
He’s no longer even inviting them. And if they choose to turn it down, they turn it down. So now, not simplest would I say wherein are the women’s groups, I might say where are the invites for the women’s teams.
And why does he sense relaxed inviting guys’ teams and now not women’s groups? It’s been considering that in 2017 that a ladies’ crew has been to the White House, and that changed into 18 teams overall. Men and women. George W. Bush could do that every one the time. He would have risers or bleachers all of the ways around the East Room, after which have girls tune and area, guys’ music and discipline, and so forth., and so on. That became a trendy operating method inside the Clinton White House, the George W. Bush White House, the Obama White House, after which it is just actually all long past away.
