Former women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe argued that the U.S. men’s hockey team ruined its gold medal moment by including the Trump administration.

Following the team’s overtime win over Canada in the gold medal game, FBI Director Kash Patel was invited into the locker room for the post-game celebration. Patel then got President Donald Trump on the phone to congratulate the players.

During that call, Trump invited the men’s team to the State of the Union address. After they enthusiastically accepted, Trump added that he’d “have to” also invite the women’s team, joking that he’d face the threat of impeachment if he didn’t. The remark drew laughter from the players.

The women also won gold days earlier.

When the men returned to their respective NHL teams, they assured the media that they were supportive of the women’s team. Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman even said the team “should’ve reacted differently” to Trump’s joke.

On Thursday’s episode of A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe, Rapinoe explained why she believed Trump hijacked the team’s moment, saying:

The United States men’s hockey team, in their utter moment of glory — childhood dreams come true, once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment, sensational — ruined it for themselves because they allowed themselves to be totally co-opted by a clown. And now you’re a clown. You look like a clown.

Kash Patel is in the locker room. He’s partying. He’s chugging beers. I’m not, like, decorum over everything. That’s not what I need out of my FBI director. Like, what are we doing? That’s just whatever, beside the point.

They get on the phone with Trump. I have questions, whether it was even a secure line. That’s beside the point. And Trump makes the comments about the women’s team. We’re not going to play it because it’s all over the internet and we’re not going to platform that trash.

Later on in the conversation, Rapinoe shared her own experience from 2019, when she famously announced that the U.S. women’s soccer team would not be going to the White House after winning the World Cup.

She continued:

We had this opportunity after 2019. Obviously, I said, famously — didn’t know it was on the record, but it was — that we’re not going to the White House and that we’re not even going to be invited. And we were. The president was trying to back-channel and invite us, and we were like, “No,” because we know — we’re not going to be naive in this moment — we know that moment is going to be co-opted because we know this person. Let’s not pretend like we don’t know who this person is.

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The post Megan Rapinoe Claims US Hockey Team ‘Ruined’ Moment with Trump Call: ‘Allowed Themselves to Be Totally Co-opted by a Clown’ first appeared on Mediaite.