President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers on the White Home on Friday within the first go to by a sports activities workforce because the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The occasion within the White Home East Room honored the Main League Baseball workforce for its October World Collection victory.
“I believe what we found [during the pandemic] is that we want sports activities greater than we ever realized,” Biden stated.
Biden stated the “sense of group and satisfaction” from sports activities is a “uniting characteristic.”
“After we undergo a disaster, fairly often sports activities brings us collectively to heal, to assist us really feel like issues are going to be okay,” Biden stated.
The Dodgers already had been in DC for a four-game sequence in opposition to the Washington Nationals and defeated the house workforce 6-2 on Thursday in a match shortened by intense thunderstorms.
Visiting sports activities groups give presidents a possibility to court docket voters who don’t often take note of politics and usually are extra light-hearted than most official visits.
Former President Donald Trump famously served piles of quick meals to the Clemson College soccer workforce in January 2019 throughout a partial authorities shutdown.
On Friday, Biden teased Harris, a former San Francisco district legal professional and a presumed San Francisco Giants fan, for not really being a fan of the Dodgers, not like her husband Doug Emhoff.
“I’ve a combined household and he or she’s received a combined household primarily based on baseball and sports activities,” Biden joked.
“I’m not going to say that workforce in northern California within the San Francisco space. And I’m not going to say that workforce in Philadelphia. My spouse is a Philly lady from her belt buckle to her shoe soles. And if I root for anyone however the Phillies, I’ll be sleeping within the Lincoln Bed room alone.”
Second gentleman Emhoff is an intense Dodgers fan, based on the workforce, which on Thursday posted pictures of the second gentleman hanging out with gamers.
“Lifelong Dodger fan and Second Gentleman @DouglasEmhoff visited the Dodgers clubhouse previous to tonight’s sport,” the workforce tweeted.
The Los Angeles workforce hasn’t visited the White Home since 1988 when Ronald Reagan was president, the Los Angeles Occasions reviews.
The Dodgers carried the World Collection final 12 months by defeating the Tampa Bay Rays. Sean Gilmartin, the husband of then-White Home Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, is a pitcher for the Rays.