Politifact Runs Interference for Stacey Abrams After Revisiting Issue of MLB Pulling All-Star Game

Politifact Runs Interference for Stacey Abrams After Revisiting Issue of MLB Pulling All-Star Game

Stacey Abrams understandably caused an uproar in Georgia politics when she told a group of Gwinnett County Democrats during a Saturday “gala” event that “I am tired of hearing about how we’re the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live,” before “contextualizing” her comments by alleging the state ranked poorly in mental health and maternal mortality and had rising incarceration rates and declining wages.

Almost every prominent Republican running for office in the state, including Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who is running for reelection, slammed Abrams:

Our state’s No.1 ranking for business has transformed hundreds of thousands of Georgians’ lives.

Just like when she supported the #MLB boycott, Stacey Abrams’ reckless & condescending comments continue to harm the state she claims to want to govern.#gapol https://t.co/F1D0pfizn5

— Chris Carr (@ChrisCarr_Ga) May 23, 2022

The Democratic apologists Politifact got wind of Carr revisiting the controversy surrounding Major League Baseball pulling the All-Star game out of Georgia last year in response to the Democrat/media-driven uproar over the election reform bill that Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law. Politifact has become infamous for riding to the rescue of Democrats who open their mouths and insert their feet.

In response to Carr’s tweet, here’s what Politifact wrote:

Prior to the boycott, which was announced on April 2, 2021, Abrams urged Major League Baseball not to move the game away from Atlanta, citing the economic harm to the metro Atlanta region. She repeated that concern after the game was moved away.

• In a Twitter video released March 31, Abrams said: “I understand the passion of those calling for boycotts of Georgia following the passage of SB 202. Boycotts have been an important tool throughout our history to achieve social change. But here’s the thing: Black, Latino, AAPI (Asian American-Pacific Islander) and Native American voters whose votes are the most suppressed under SB 202 are also the most likely to be hurt by potential boycotts of Georgia. To our friends across the country please do not boycott us. To my fellow Georgians, stay and fight, stay and vote.”

• Abrams told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an article published April 1 that critics of Georgia’s new law shouldn’t rush to boycott “yet.” Instead, she said corporations should publicly condemn the law, invest in voting rights expansion and support federal legislation.

The Journal-Constitution reporter, Greg Bluestein, later tweeted that Abrams spoke to an MLB senior adviser “and ‘strongly’ urged the league to keep the All-Star game in Atlanta before the decision to yank the event.” A spokesperson for Major League Baseball offered a similar characterization of the call to PolitiFact at the time.

Last April, when CNN’s Daniel Dale and Politifact predictably swooped in to save Abrams after MLB made their announcement, these fact-checkers ignored vitally important context regardless of what Abrams said as MLB prepared to make their announcement. And they’re still ignoring it.

Abrams making public statements against boycotts ahead of MLB’s decision was a way for her to try and save face because she knew the inevitable was coming. And she also knew that once it happened, the media and fact-checkers would be eager to run interference for her in the aftermath – which they did.

Also, she knows very well from previous boycott campaigns against Georgia (like the one over their pro-life bill three years ago) that left-wing activists typically respond to legislation they don’t like—and to prominent figures like Abrams giving hellfire and brimstone speeches about it—by immediately jumping on the boycott bandwagon.

Abrams knew the moment she started referring to the bill as “Jim Crow in a suit” how the outrage mobs on the left would respond, and yet she continued for weeks to lie about it.

Further, an op/ed Abrams wrote in USA Today right before MLB decided to move the game was stealth-edited by Abrams with the paper’s blessing after the announcement was made and after the op/ed was published to soften her comments on boycotts.

Even after Major League Baseball said they were moving the game, Abrams claimed that though she was “disappointed” by their decision, she “commended” the players and MLB for taking a stand. This is classic political speak for trying to have it both ways:

Um, her own statement kinda reads like she supported it… pic.twitter.com/rznCJAtKLi

— Trying to point out the BS (@BowdlerizeM) May 24, 2022

Abrams and her knights in shining armor in the media can play word games all they want to on this issue, but the actual facts about the toxic atmosphere she and other Democrats, including President Joe Biden – who explicitly said he would support Major League Baseball moving the game – stirred up over the law speak for themselves.

— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.