This week, four Republicans in the Florida delegation in the U.S. House sent a letter to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees about the “growing trend of American athletes taking advantage of the Olympic games platform to perpetuate divisive, hateful, and anti-American ideologies.”
Florida Republican U.S. Reps. Brian Mast, Bill Posey, Greg Steube and Dan Webster signed the letter. Other signers, all of which came from the GOP House minority, including U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Col., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
“It is an honor and a privilege to represent the United States of America at the Olympic games,” the members wrote “It is our hope that members of the U.S. Olympic Team will stop abusing their platform to spout shameful anti-American rhetoric, and that all athletes representing the United States of America at the Olympic games this summer will do so proudly and patriotically.”
They insisted “that Rule 50 of the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Charter states that political demonstrations of any kind are not permitted at Olympic sites, venues or other areas” and the “political neutrality of the Olympics should be respected.”
Webster weighed in on the letter this week.
“American Olympic athletes have the honor and privilege of representing the United States on an international stage. The Olympic Games are a celebration of athletic achievement and should not be turned into an arena for divisive, anti-American acts. I hope the Olympic and Paralympic Committee ensures their charter rules and standards are upheld and I look forward to cheering on American athletes as they showcase their skills and respectfully represent the greatest country in the world,” said Webster this week.
Reach Kevin Derby at kevin.derby@floridadaily.com.
GD
July 16, 2021, 5:37 am at 5:37 am
Typical fascist thought, kill free speech they don’t like, especially those black, progressive, truthful as we can’t have, can’t handle the truth, can we?
The same fascist way DeFascist makes it basically illegal to protest then let’s Cubans block the streets saying well they are ok. Basically Cuban protesters good, black protesters bad.
And I don’t want to here the blatantly racist but the blacks were looting, violence when that was rare and proven the cops made most of the violence.
This is exactly how fascists work plus what BLM says about what the fascist/racist have done in the past.
The other fascist tactic is lie, demonize, lie, lie and lie.
Repubs are now a party base completely on lies is sad as we need a decent center right party but now they are just BS crazy. And everyone knows it even if they don’t show or admit it yet they mouth the big lie. What a bunch of cowards unable to stand up for decency. 2022 is coming and you are running on the big lie. How’s that going to work out? ;^))