President Joe Biden would “strongly support” moving Major League Baseball’s All-Star game out of Georgia because of the state’s new voting law, according to an interview Biden gave to ESPN on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, Cobb Chairwoman Lisa Cupid met virtually with Tony Clark, the executive director of the MLB players’ union. Baseball’s Midsummer Classic is scheduled to be played at Cobb County’s Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves on July 13.
After Gov. Brian Kemp last week signed a sweeping, 98-page elections law, Clark said that players were ready to discuss moving the game out of Georgia. The new law has been widely condemned by voting rights advocates for unfairly targeting traditionally disenfranchised voters.
A county spokesman said that Cupid, a Democrat and the first African American woman elected to her position, described the meeting as fruitful.
“Beyond that they agreed they would not elaborate further,” the spokesman said.
At the time of the meeting, which took place about 7 p.m., Cupid and Clark were not aware of the President’s comments, the spokesman said.
The MLB and its players union are reportedly discussing the possibility of moving the game elsewhere.
Similar pieces of voting legislation are being considered in other states with Republican-controlled state capitols following a national election that gave Democrats control of the White House and U. S. Senate.
Georgia State Senate Bill 202 adds restrictions to absentee and early voting, more stringent voter identification requirements and prohibitions on non-election workers handing out water or food to people in line at the polls.
Biden told ESPN on the eve of MLB’s opening day that people look to professional baseball players as examples.
“They’re leaders,” Biden said. “Look at what happened with the NBA, as well. Look what’s happened across the board. The very people who were victimized the most are the people who are the leaders in these various sports, and it’s just not right. This is Jim Crow on steroids.”
The NBA in 2016 pulled its All-Star game out of Charlotte over a state bathroom law that was criticized for being anti-transgender.