Jill Biden says both LSU and runner-up Iowa should visit White House

by Olafimihan Oshin - 04/03/23 9:46 PM ET

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey holds the winning trophy after the NCAA Women's Final Four championship basketball game — AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
LSU head coach Kim Mulkey holds the winning trophy after the NCAA Women’s Final Four championship basketball game against Iowa Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Dallas. LSU won 102-85 to win the championship.

First lady Jill Biden said on Monday that she wants both the NCAA Division I women’s national champions, the Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers, and the runner-up of Sunday’s game, the Iowa Hawkeyes, to visit the White House.

“I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come,” Biden said speaking at the Colorado state capitol in Denver on Monday. “But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”

Biden, who was in attendance at the championship, also marveled at how far women’s sports in the country have come since the passage of Title IX in 1972, which gave women equal rights in sports at schools that receive federal funding.

“It was so exciting, wasn’t it?” she said of Sunday’s matchup. “It was such a great game. I’m old enough that I remember when we got Title IX. We fought so hard, right? We fought so hard. And look at where women’s sports have come today.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for further comment.

LSU, led by second-year head coach and hall of famer Kim Mulkey, defeated Iowa 102-85, giving the school its first national championship in either its men’s or women’s basketball programs.

The game, which drew a record-breaking nearly 10 million viewers, made headlines over a moment between both teams’ star players, LSU forward Angel Reese and Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, when Reese taunted Clark during the final seconds of the game with a “U Can’t See Me,” hand gesture, popularized by WWE legend John Cena, and also pointed at her ring finger.

“I’m too hood, I’m too ghetto. Y’all told me that all year. But when other people do it, y’all don’t say nothing,” Reese, who transferred to LSU from the University of Maryland, said in response to the incident. “So this is for the girls that look like me.”

Reese also commented on the news of Biden’s proposal for a co-visit.

“A JOKE,” she wrote in a tweet on Monday, along with three rolling-on-floor-laughing emojis.