Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton blasted President Joe Biden during an interview on Tuesday, arguing Biden has “no plan” to protect American athletes sent to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
Cotton shared the remarks during an interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday responding to the nation’s diplomatic boycott of the Olympic Games in China.
“This is really nothing more than the sleeves off Joe Biden’s vest. It’s the status quo. China was going to have very strict travel controls anyway on diplomats and corporate officials because of their Draconian coronavirus lockdowns,” Cotton said during the interview.
“What I’m worried about is the safety of our athletes. I sent the Biden administration a letter last summer asking them for how they would assure the safety of our athletes,” he added. “They had no plan to protect our athletes.”
President Biden doesn’t even have a plan to protect the American athletes he wants to send to Beijing. pic.twitter.com/llOan0Rm5g
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) December 7, 2021
Cotton argued that if the U.S. cannot protect its athletes, it should not send them to China.
“If we can’t protect our own athletes, we should not be sending them to compete in the games of a country that is committing genocide,” he added.
The Daily Wire reported on Monday that the U.S. government announced an official diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in response to human rights violations committed by the Chinese Communist Party. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made the announcement during her Monday appearance before the White House press pool.
“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity,” Psaki told media.
Psaki officially announces a U.S. diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics: “The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity[.]” pic.twitter.com/xc5WL08rNI
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 6, 2021
She added that the U.S. will support American athletes from abroad: “The athletes on Team USA have our full support, we’ll be behind them 100% as we cheer them on from home. We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the Games”
The D.C.-based outlet Axios noted, “before the boycott had been announced, the CCP and state media organizations had claimed that the Biden administration was politicizing the sporting event.”
Ahead of the expected boycott, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that China was prepared to take “countermeasures.”
“Without being invited, American politicians keep hyping the so-called diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic, which is purely wishful thinking and grandstanding,” Zhao said. “If the U.S. side is bent on going its own way, China will take firm countermeasures.”
The Daily Wire also reported in November that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told CBS News that he does not support a full boycott of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing because it would punish U.S. athletes who have trained for years to be able to compete in the games and because the U.S. needs to “kick their commie a**es.”
“I think it’s a mistake to have a full boycott of the Olympics. You know, Jimmy Carter tried that in the 1970s. All it did was punish a generation of athletes. We’ve got young men and young women, Americans, who spent their whole lives practicing for this moment,” Cruz told “Face The Nation” host Margaret Brennan.
“I don’t want to punish those young athletes. What we ought to do — I do agree with the notion of a so-called diplomatic boycott — which means we don’t send high-ranking cabinet officials over there,” he added.
Cruz instead suggested two things during the Winter Olympics.
“But I also think it’s important we do two things at the Olympics in China,” Cruz continued. “Number one, that we actually show the courage the Women’s Tennis Association is showing to call out the murder, the genocide, the torture, the lies, the complicity in COVID-19 of the Chinese communist government, to speak the truth. And then number two, I really hope our young men and women that they go over there and kick their commie a**es. We need to win in the Olympics.”