‘Reeks of Hypocrisy’: Marco Rubio Dares MLB Commissioner to Give Up His Augusta National Membership
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) penned a brutal letter to Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred, calling his decision to move this year’s All-Star game from Atlanta “hypocrisy,” as he’s a member of a famed Georgia golf club.
On Friday, Manfred announced, “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.”
“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” he said in a statement. “We proudly used our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support.”
Despite his staunch stance against Georgia’s new election law, Manfred, is a member of the Augusta National Golf Club — home of The Masters, which tees off on Thursday — something Rubio said “reeks of hypocrisy.”
“I write to ask you whether you intend to maintain your membership at Augusta National Golf Club,” Rubio wrote in a letter to the commissioner. “As you are well aware, the exclusive members-only club is located in the State of Georgia.”
.@marcorubio letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred asking him if he’ll relinquish his personal membership at Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club, after MLB moves All Star Game and Amateur Draft out of Georgia pic.twitter.com/TckKANVeIR
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) April 5, 2021
Augusta National boasts a highly secretive membership said to total approximately 300 people — mostly titans of industry — from throughout the country. The club reportedly did not admit a Black member until 1990, and did not admit a female until 2012 — when it added Condoleezza Rice and another woman to its roster.
Rubio not only blasted Manfred for his own ties to Georgia but also questioned if MLB would “end its engagement with nations that do not hold elections at all like China and Cuba?”
Rubio also questioned if the MLB will end their relationship with the Chinese Government, “which at this very moment is committing genocide against the Uyghurs Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
“I am, of course, under no expectation any of this will happen,” wrote Rubio. “Taking the All-Star game out of Georgia is an easy way to signal virtues without significant financial fallout.”
The senator went on to accuse Manfred of catering to the “woke” crowd by virtue signaling, predicting that the MLB would not sacrifice revenue or anything personal in order to take a stand.
“What would be truly bold, however, is if you would speak out on behalf of the voiceless who face arbitrary imprisonment, forced sterilization, coerced abortions, rape, and other horrific acts at the hands of your business partners,” Rubio said. “I am under no illusion that Major League Baseball will sacrifice business revenue on behalf of its alleged corporate value.”
