President Biden acknowledged that boycotts of states by large corporations could hurt lower-income workers, in comments at a White House press conference on Tuesday.
Biden was asked at the conference if he thinks the Masters Tournament, a major golf competition, will move out of Georgia because of the state’s recently-passed election law.
“I think that’s up to the Masters,” Biden said. The president’s statement comes after he backed Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver, Co.
The MLB moved the game in protest of Georgia’s election law, which Republicans have characterized as enhancing election integrity, while Democrats view it as an attempt at voter suppression. The All-Star game is estimated to bring millions in revenue to host cities.
“It is reassuring to see that for-profit operations and businesses are speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws are just antithetical to who we are,” Biden said. But “the other side to it, too, is when they in fact move out of Georgia…people who are making hourly wages sometimes get hurt the most.”
The president added that the “best way to deal with” the threat of boycotts would be for states to “smarten up” and not pass legislation similar to Georgia’s.
Republicans slammed the MLB for its decision to relocate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) warned on Monday of “serious consequences” for corporations that act like “a woke parallel government.”
“Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want big business to amplify disinformation or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signaling,” McConnell said. “Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order.”