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Megyn Kelly criticizes harshly; Megan Rapinoe Has ‘Poisoned’ Soccer Team Against U.S.

Megyn Kelly and other right-wing commentators are claiming that Megan Rapinoeโ€™s progressive activism is bringing down the performance of the U.S. soccer team in the Womenโ€™s World Cup.

On Wednesdayโ€™s episode of Kellyโ€™s podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, she and her guests blasted the team for celebrating a 0-0 tie with Portugal Tuesday. The tie, however, allowed the U.S. team to advance to the knockout, or elimination, round. The U.S. will play Sweden in that round Sunday.

โ€œThese morons on the womenโ€™s soccer team continue to embarrass us on the national stage,โ€ Kelly said on the podcast. After the tie, โ€œtheyโ€™re celebrating out there like theyโ€™ve just won the whole thing,โ€ she said. โ€œThey wonโ€™t sing the national anthem. Half of them wonโ€™t put their hands over their hearts. Even the ones who are singing are half-assing it. They clearly donโ€™t want to be doing it. I mean, they look like they donโ€™t even want to be there. Itโ€™s like some sort of inconvenience to be representing the USA.โ€She then played a clip of Fox Sports analyst Carli Lloyd, a former member of the team, calling its performance โ€œuninspiringโ€ and โ€œlackluster.โ€ โ€œIt started to shift post-2020,โ€ Lloyd said. โ€œI just think there are a lot of off-the-field things that are happening.โ€

Megyn Kelly and other right-wing commentators are claiming that Megan Rapinoeโ€™s progressive activism is bringing down the performance of the U.S. soccer team in the Womenโ€™s World Cup.

On Wednesdayโ€™s episode of Kellyโ€™s podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, she and her guests blasted the team for celebrating a 0-0 tie with Portugal Tuesday. The tie, however, allowed the U.S. team to advance to the knockout, or elimination, round. The U.S. will play Sweden in that round Sunday.

โ€œThese morons on the womenโ€™s soccer team continue to embarrass us on the national stage,โ€ Kelly said on the podcast. After the tie, โ€œtheyโ€™re celebrating out there like theyโ€™ve just won the whole thing,โ€ she said. โ€œThey wonโ€™t sing the national anthem. Half of them wonโ€™t put their hands over their hearts. Even the ones who are singing are half-assing it. They clearly donโ€™t want to be doing it. I mean, they look like they donโ€™t even want to be there. Itโ€™s like some sort of inconvenience to be representing the USA.โ€

She then played a clip of Fox Sports analyst Carli Lloyd, a former member of the team, calling its performance โ€œuninspiringโ€ and โ€œlackluster.โ€ โ€œIt started to shift post-2020,โ€ Lloyd said. โ€œI just think there are a lot of off-the-field things that are happening.โ€

Kelly commented, โ€œ2020, that was post-George Floyd [the Black man killed by Minneapolis police], when you had the Megan Rapinoes of the world saying weโ€™re not singing the national anthem, weโ€™re all taking a knee, weโ€™ll never sing the national anthem again.โ€ The team โ€œwonโ€™t respect our country โ€ฆ and yet they celebrate themselves like crazy,โ€ she said.

Rapinoe actually began taking a knee in 2016 as a protest against racism and in support of NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who was doing so and receiving backlash for it. The lesbian star has also been outspoken for equal play for women, transgender rights, and other progressive causes.National Review reporter Caroline Downey agreed with Kellyโ€™s criticism. Although she admitted to being โ€œsports-illiterate,โ€ she said the U.S. team is โ€œclearly settling for mediocrity.โ€ She claimed the teamโ€™s performance has declined from previous World Cups because the players are โ€œprioritizing other issuesโ€ and โ€œinvesting a lot of energy into woke things,โ€ using the rightโ€™s word of choice these days. She went on to slam Rapinoe for saying sheโ€™d welcome a trans player to the team. โ€œClearly sheโ€™s not convinced of the overwhelming physical advantages that men have,โ€ Downey said.

Kelly said Rapinoe โ€œis the leader in all this.โ€ She noted that Rapinoe is not on camera during the national anthem because sheโ€™s not a starter in this World Cup; Rapinoe had announced that she would have a reduced role and was planning to retire at the end of the year, making this her last World Cup. โ€œSheโ€™s poisoned the entire team against the country for which they play,โ€ Kelly said. She said sheโ€™s not rooting for the U.S. women and hopes they lose.

Another guest, Will Witt, acknowledged he knew nothing about womenโ€™s soccer and had to look everything up, but he likewise criticized the U.S. team. โ€œThis team reminds me of the Republican Party in America. Itโ€™s full of losers, and they love losing is what it seems like,โ€ said Witt, editor in chief of The Florida Standard, a conservative publication.He contended that the teamโ€™s performance is symptomatic of much American culture. โ€œTheyโ€™re fine with mediocrity, theyโ€™re fine with foreigners coming in and eating our lunch here in America, theyโ€™re fine with sending our jobs overseas so that they can work cushy jobs and that working hard is a relic of the past,โ€ he said. โ€œThatโ€™s what it seems like this team is doing.โ€

Kelly concluded, โ€œItโ€™s shameful. These girls are shameful. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.โ€

So far thereโ€™s no record of a response to Kellyโ€™s show by Rapinoe or anyone connected with the team. Co-captain Lindsey Horan, however, responded to Lloydโ€™s critique. โ€œIt’s kinda frustrating for me to hear,โ€ Horan said, according to Yahoo! Sports. โ€œEspecially knowing this team and knowing how much we put into every single game, how much preparation we put into every single game, seeing our trainings, seeing how hard we work.โ€Head coach Vlatko Andonovski also countered Lloyd, saying, โ€œTo question the mentality of this team, to question the willingness to win, to compete, I think itโ€™s insane.โ€

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