Biden Hedges on Whether The Masters Should Leave Georgia After Backing MLB All-Star Game Boycott

President Joe Biden declined to call for The Masters to relocate their tournament from Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club, noting that the decision is theirs to make.

Biden has not been shy regarding his thoughts on Georgia’s new election laws, even calling them an “atrocity” and the “Jim Crow in the 21st Century.”

The president additionally backed Major League Baseball’s decision to move their All-Star Game from Atlanta, telling ESPN’s Sage Steele that he “would strongly support them doing that,” adding, “People look to [MLB players], they’re leaders.”

“I think that’s up to the Masters,” Biden said on Tuesday when asked if the tournament should relocate. “Look, you know, it is reassuring to see that for-profit operations and businesses are speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws are just antithetical to who we are.”

Biden then explained why he’s on the fence regarding the location of The Masters, noting that major championships provide jobs to those residing in the states the tournaments are held in.

“There’s another side to it, too. The other side to it, too, is when they in fact move out of Georgia the people who need the help the most, people who are making hourly wages sometimes get hurt the most,” he added. “I think it’s a very tough decision for a corporation to make, or a group to make, but I respect them when they make that judgment and I support whatever judgment they make, but it’s — the best way to deal with this is for Georgia and other states to smarten up. Stop it. Stop it.”

Even if Biden called for The Masters to relocate, such a move would seem unfathomable — given that Augusta National has hardly been a champion of equality over the years. The club did not have a Black member until 1990, nor a female until 2012 — when Condoleezza Rice and another woman were granted admittance.

Watch above, via CNN.