Biden would back MLB moving All-Star Game out of Georgia

President Biden on Wednesday said he would support Major League Baseball moving this year’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to recently signed legislation that tightens voting laws in Georgia.

“I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them doing that,” Biden told ESPN in an interview on the eve of baseball’s opening day.

“The very people who are victimized the most are the people who are the leaders in these various sports. And it’s just not right,” Biden added. “This is Jim Crow on steroids … what they’re doing in Georgia.”

A number of figures within the MLB, including the head of the players association, have called for potentially relocating the All-Star Game in response to the Georgia voting law.

League Commissioner Rob Manfred told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he and union leader Tony Clark have discussed the idea, but would not elaborate on when the league would make a decision about the mid-July game.

“I am talking to various constituencies within the game and I’m just not going beyond that in terms of what I would consider or not consider,” Manfred said.

The Georgia law, which Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed last week, has become a flashpoint in the debate over GOP efforts to restrict voting access in the wake of the 2020 election.

The Georgia legislation expands early voting hours, requires additional voter ID to complete mail-in voting, grants additional authority to electors to challenge voter eligibility and makes it a crime for non-election workers to provide food and water to voters standing in line.

Democrats have decried the law, arguing it disenfranchises voters and curtails access to the ballot. Several other Republican legislatures are considering similar measures after former President Trump made repeated false claims that the 2020 election was riddled with voter fraud.