It took all of 24 hours for leftists and the media to rain on the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team’s patriotic parade in the wake of their thrilling and inspiring overtime win against Team Canada in the gold medal match at the Winter Olympics on Sunday.
Critics have seized on a moment that was caught on camera in the locker room after the game when President Donald Trump called to congratulate the players and invite them to Tuesday’s State of the Union address in Washington, D.C. In the process, he made a quip about inviting the women’s hockey team, which also won Olympic gold in OT against Canada, as well, and both the joke and the men’s reaction to it are not sitting well with their detractors.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show, to discuss the faux outrage and what it really reveals about the ideological divide in the country.
The ‘Controversy’
In the aftermath of Sunday’s win, Team USA retreated to the locker room for a celebration that included plenty of beer, a Toby Keith singalong, and a call from the president of the United States. During the call, President Trump invited the players to the State of the Union address, offering to transport the team on a military plane.
While extending the offer, Trump said, “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.” He went on to joke that if he did not also invite the women’s team, “I do believe I probably would be impeached.”
The quip elicited some laughter from the team, who could also be heard expressing approval for the dual invites. “You could hear them chanting, ‘Two for two. Two for two,’ meaning, ‘yes, do it’ because the women won gold too and lots of screams of ‘Yeah,’ like, ‘bring them,'” Megyn noted. “But somehow the left would like to parlay this into a controversy about misogynistic young men and even Trump’s comment as misogynistic as opposed to an obvious joke.”
Megyn ran through some of the hysterical social media and traditional media reactions to the exchange (check them out in the video above), which included claims that the lighthearted moment somehow negated any of the pride, patriotism, and inspiration that preceded it.
Undeterred, the men’s team accepted the president’s invite and arrived in Washington, D.C., on one of the secondary Air Force One planes Tuesday afternoon. They were transported to the White House, where they met with President Trump in the Oval Office decked out in Olympic gear and their gold medals.
The women’s team, meanwhile, received a similar offer but ultimately chose not to attend. “We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” A USA Hockey spokesperson said in a statement. “Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”
The New Divide
Klavan said the unhinged reaction from a portion of the left reveals just how sharp an ideological divide exists in the country today. “An actual problem in the country is that we’re now dealing with two parties… One of our parties are the Republicans, who range from the incompetent to the somewhat interesting,” he explained. “And the other side are the Democrats who are now powered by forces that don’t want this country to exist, that think this it is bad that this country exists, that think that any show of patriotism is some kind of fascist idea being expressed.”
The outrage they express, Klavan noted, is not limited to a joke from President Trump. “[They] want all of our monuments, whether it’s George Washington’s home in Mount Vernon or Thomas Jefferson’s home… dedicated to the institution of slavery instead of people that people go there to see,” he said. “This is an actual attitude that is at the heart of the Democrat Party… so everything gets politicized at a level that is completely inappropriate.”
What the U.S. is now dealing with, Klavan said, is “two different ways of seeing the country,” which he suggested is unprecedented. “This is different than what was happening before… Forty years ago, it used to be that the two parties were on either side, as Barack Obama once said, of the 50-yard line,” he said. “One thought the government should do a little more, one thought the government should do a little less. But we all thought that this was a great place to be. We all honored our founders. We all honored our founding. That is over now.”
Take the issue of immigration. “We’re not in an argument, for instance, about whether illegal immigrants should be deported or not. We’re in an argument of whether the country should exist… ‘There are no illegals on stolen land,’ which means this is an actual nonentity morally,” Klavan explained. “So, everything is about that conversation.”
Case in point, the absurd piece from HuffPost over the weekend that claimed “if waving the American flag or chanting ‘USA!’ turns you off right now, you’re not alone.” Writer Monica Torres consoled readers that “this whiplash between pride for United States competitors and national shame for the federal government is common” and those feelings shouldn’t be ignored.
In Klavan’s view, the contrast has never been clearer, nor have the ramifications. “We’re not discussing what this great country should do – whether it go forward a little to the left or a little to the right; we’re discussing whether this country should exist and be celebrated,” he concluded. “And if you don’t think that is true, you only have to look at the nations of Europe… where waving flags is basically going completely out of fashion and, because of that, they’re losing their identities altogether.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Klavan by tuning in to episode 1,259 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.