Bristol Palin is weighing in on recent statements made by figure skater Adam Rippon, and criticizing his actions while applauding the actions of Vice President Mike Pence
‘The cool thing for athletes to do now, apparently, is to snub any invitations to the White House in order to take a stand against the Donald Trump administration,’ writes Bristol.
‘The most recent snub comes from an Olympic figure skater named Adam Rippon. Rippon is one of the first openly gay figure skaters to qualify for the Winter Olympics.’
These comments come just as Bristol finds herself back on the national stage, with DailyMail.com revealing on Tuesday that her husband of a little under two years Dakota Meyers had filed for divorce after moving out of their marital home just before Christmas.
She has yet to respond to requests for comment about her divorce or criticism of Rippon, who took him Bronze in the team event in the same day as Bristol’s blog post.
Weighing in: Bristol Palin (above with daughter Atlee in December) is criticizing Adam Rippon for refusing to attend a White House reception for Olympians and declining a invite to speak with Mike Pence
Cold as ice: She said that she was impressed with Vice President Pence’s response to Rippon, and applauded him for using ‘kindess’ to reach out (Roppon in November)
Rippon confirmed his plan to skip any White House reception that might be held for athletes after the Games in an interview with DailyMail.com over the weekend.
Bristol writes in her blog post that Vice President Pence wanted to meet with Rippon and the figure skater refused, which is reportedly true.
She does not however explain the reason why, or even give thaactual reason, instead choosing to take a single quote from a lengthy USA Tiday interview Rippon did just before heading off to South Korea.
‘To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory,’ said Rippon in the passage posted by Plain.
‘If he’s OK with what’s being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called “s**tholes,” I think he should really go to church.’
Bristol wrote that after seeing this, Vice President Pence refused released a statement of his own ‘instead of shrinking back from the athlete’s rebuke, he put out his own statement.’
That statement accused the reporter who profiled Ripppon, Christine Brennan, of ‘trying to distort 18 yr old nonstory to sow seeds of division.’
Bristol was even more impressed that Vice President Pence sent a personal tweet to Rippon.
‘This is a great effort on behalf of the Vice President to reach out with kindness. In today’s crazy political climate, it’s nice to be kind — even if we have different political views.
‘I hope one day Adam and the Vice President have a chance to sit down together. In the meantime, I hope Adam — and all of Team USA — do a great job representing our nation well! ‘
Bristol did not include Rippon’s actual answer or reason for not declining an invite to meet with Pence, despite that quote coming right before the soundbite she opted to highlight.
She also failed to mention that Vice President Pence turned off the replies on his Rippon tweet.
‘You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy?’ said Rippon in that interview.
‘I don’t think he has a real concept of reality. I’m not buying it.’
Red, white and blue: Rippon has taken issue with Pence over his decision to campaign on a platform that recommended gay conversion therapy to combat AIDs back in 2000 (Mike and Karen Pence with figure skater Sarah Hughes above)
Rippon wen on to further explain his reason for refusing to meet with Pence as well in the interview.
‘If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a friend of a gay person but that they think that they’re sick,’ said Rippon.
That comment was also made in response to the administration’s decision to have Vice President Pence lead the delegation at the Winter Olympics, which is the first in US history to have openly gay athletes.
There are actually three out and proud members of Team USA include Rippon, speed skater Brittany Bowe and freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy.
In 2014, the US team had no openly gay athletes in Sochi but was led by lesbian tennis star Billie Jean King in a move meant to shame Russia for the human rights violations occurring in that nation to members of the LGBT community.
Both Rippon and Kenworthy have made it clear that they have no interest in chatting with the former Indiana governor, who while running for Congress in 2000 posted a controversial comment on his campaign statement.
‘Congress should support the reauthorization of the Ryan White Care Act only after completion of an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus,’ read that passage.
‘Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.’
That line has dogged Pence ever since, despite his claims that they are false.
This meanwhile is the fourth major sports feud that the Trump administration has become embroiled in this year.
In September, President Trump called NFL players who kneel for the anthem ‘sons of b****es’ and soon after Vice President Pence walked out of an Indianapolis Colts game.
President Trump also rescinded a White House invite to Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors around this same time.
This latest feud is all about Rippon trying to grab the spotlight according to Don Jr, who on Monday responded to the figure skater stating he did not want to make his Olympic experience about Pence by tweeting: ‘Really? Then Perhaps you shouldn’t have spent the past few weeks talking about him. I haven’t heard him mention you once???’
He was quickly cut down to size by Brennan however, who stated:’ I see Donald Trump Jr. has joined conversation. Here are the facts: Mike Pence escalated this story, shockingly so. Adam Rippon’s comments would have come and gone had VP not jumped in. Also, Pence absolutely mentioned Rippon, tweeting about him Feb. 7.’