Charles Barkley ripped the political uproar over President Donald Trump inviting Team USA hockey champions to the White House, calling the outrage flat-out “stupidity.”
The Hall of Famer unloaded on his “Steam Room” podcast as backlash swirled around Trump’s post-game call with the men’s Olympic gold medal team after their overtime win against Canada.
Trump congratulated the team and said he would invite them to his State of the Union address. He joked that he also needed to invite the women’s team or he would be “impeached.”
Critics seized on the comment and accused the president of taking a swipe at the women’s squad, which also captured gold in Italy.
Barkley rejected the media’s reaction and blamed the culture of constant political outrage.
“I’m proud of the United States men. I’m proud of the United States women. You should have invited both of them to the White House, but it shouldn’t have been disrespect, misogyny,” Barkley said.
He turned his frustration toward media and political commentators. “Like, yo, man, why do y’all have to mess everything up? Everything isn’t Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal. That’s why we got this divided, screwed up country. Stop it man,” he scolded.
“Because, you know, the public, they’re idiots. They’re fools. They can’t think for themselves. I know y’all say stuff to trigger them. Y’all say stuff and y’all know they’re going to be fools.”
Barkley argued that Americans do not have to fall into every manufactured controversy.
“We don’t have to fall for stupidity. But we do – that’s my point. These people out here are stupid,” he raged. “They need something to trigger them. Just because they want us to be stupid. We don’t have to be stupid.”
He acknowledged that the president’s reaction to the historic wins should have been handled differently.
“He should have invited both teams to the White House. Simple as that. Guys who didn’t want to go shouldn’t have to explain why they didn’t go,” Barkley suggested.
The former Phoenix Suns star noted that he separates politics from the presidency.
“I’ve said this before, I’m not a Trump guy. But if I got invited to the White House, I would go. I’m not a Trump guy – I want to make that clear. But I respect the office,” Barkley said.
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“He’s the president of the United States. But if guys don’t want to go, I understand that too. It doesn’t have to be a talking point. It doesn’t have to be un-American.”
He ended with a plea to outraged liberals, concluding, “I just wish y’all would stop falling for the stupidity.”
One former Olympian who fell for the stupidity is liberal soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who criticized the men’s team for laughing during Trump’s phone call.
“In what I like to call a classic ‘ripping defeat from the jaws of victory’, the United States men’s hockey team, in their utter moment of glory, childhood dreams come true, sensational, ruined it for themselves,” Rapinoe said on her “A Touch More” podcast.
“They allowed themselves to be co-opted by a clown. And now you’re a clown. You look like a clown.”
She took aim at the president’s remark about the women’s team. “They get on the phone with Trump and Trump makes the comment about the women’s team. We’re not gonna play it, it’s all over the internet and we’re not gonna platform that trash,” Rapinoe ranted.
“You just accomplished this amazing thing. You just gave this whole moment over to this person who you know is only going to use it for him.”
Rapinoe’s comments triggered backlash from former Fox News host Megyn Kelly. She compared the uproar to President Barack Obama calling Rapinoe’s 2015 World Cup-winning squad.
“The nerve of this woman to call these guys clowns. She is jealous. She is full of hatred for anyone who is a white male,” Kelly said on her Sirius show. “She is like a rabid, angry lesbian.”
Kelly played footage of Obama joking that the women’s team drew more viewers than the men.
“President Obama called the women’s team after they won the World Cup in 2015,” Kelly said. “It’s only controversial when it is President Trump, you see.”
“She is just jealous that they are in the spotlight and she is not. In fact, she is loathed by more than half of the country, unlike these guys who are beloved and she can’t see straight,” she jeered. “Enjoy your bitter, bitter life.”
The teams themselves attempted to tamp down the tension. Players from both squads appeared together on “Saturday Night Live,” where they poked fun at the controversy.
“It was going to be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys, too,” women’s captain Hilary Knight joked.
Jack Hughes responded during the segment, “Nice burn. These gold medals aren’t just for us, they’re for all hockey fans.”
Hughes later addressed the uproar on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.” “We are hanging out with them so much, the women’s team. We were supporting them. Like, we were at their games, they were at our games,” Hughes said.
He pushed back against claims that the men disrespected the women. “Like all these people talking, how many of them watched their gold medal game? Me and Quinn Hughes were at the game,” he said about his brother and fellow teammate.
“We were at the game until, like, overtime ended on the glass, and we were jumping up and down so excited for these girls, so excited they won.”
“And how many of these people watched the gold medal game, watched their semifinals game?” he questioned.
“Like 10 of the 10 of our players went to their game in the round-robin. Like, we supported them so much, and we’re so proud of them.”
U.S. women’s captain Hilary Knight acknowledged the controversy but focused on her team’s achievement.
“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and, unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” Knight said on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”
“We’re just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time.”
The White House visit also sparked scrutiny of FBI Director Kash Patel after footage showed him chugging a beer and pounding a table during a locker-room celebration.
NBC News reported that Trump later rebuked Patel in private over the optics of the celebration and concerns about his use of a government aircraft for the Milan trip. The bureau defended the travel and insisted, “It is not a personal trip.”
Barkley, however, framed the entire saga as another example of Americans taking the bait. “We don’t have to fall for stupidity. But we do – that’s my point.”