The Republican National Committee (RNC) is running an ad during Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game in Denver hammering Democrats who “stole” the game from Atlanta.
The ad, released Monday, is part of a larger Republican effort to hit Democrats for spreading falsehoods about Georgia’s election reform efforts and pushing businesses and athletes to protest GOP policies. The RNC is putting seven figures into pushing out the ad to the MLB audience, according to Fox News.
“This was supposed to be Atlanta’s night. But we were robbed,” Former Georgia House Rep. Melvin Everson (R) says in the ad. “Democrats stole our All-Star game to push their divisive political agenda. Politicians and corporations lied while black communities got hurt the most even though a majority of black voters support laws like voter I.D. To Democrats, it’s just a game, but we’re the ones who got played.”
Over the weekend, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) debuted a reelection campaign ad slamming Democrats, and in particular Democratic activist Stacey Abrams, over the MLB boycott, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Abrams resisted Democratic calls to move the MLB All-Star Game out of Georgia over the voting reforms. She did spread falsehoods about the law, however, and compared the reforms to racist “Jim Crow” laws.
The MLB announced in April that it was moving its all-star game and 2021 draft out of Atlanta over GOP-backed voting reforms that passed earlier this year.
“Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft.”
The announcement came after President Joe Biden publicly pushed the MLB to boycott Georgia over the election reforms, which he also compared to “Jim Crow.”
“I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them [moving the all-star game out of Atlanta],” Biden said in an interview with ESPN. “People look to them. They’re leaders.”
The Washington Post gave Biden four Pinocchios, its worst rating for his rhetoric against the voting reforms, pointing out a number of falsehoods he pushed to encourage resistance to the Republican reforms. Biden claimed multiple times that the new law cut off voting at 5 p.m. “when working people are just getting off work.”
“On Election Day in Georgia, polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and if you are in line by 7 p.m., you are allowed to cast your ballot. Nothing in the new law changes those rules,” according to the Post. “However, the law did make some changes to early voting. But experts say the net effect was to expand the opportunities to vote for most Georgians, not limit them.”