Megan Rapinoe has once again turned a moment of national pride into a platform for grievance, this time targeting the United States mens hockey team for the apparent crime of celebrating their Olympic gold medal with someone she personally dislikes.
During a recent episode of her podcast, A Touch More, co-hosted with her wife Sue Bird, Rapinoe unloaded on Team USAs locker-room celebration with FBI director Kash Patel, as reported by the Daily Caller. She claimed the players had allowed themselves to be co-opted by a clown after inviting Patel to join them for a modest post-victory beer, turning what most Americans saw as a harmless, joyful moment into yet another culture-war lecture from the activist soccer star.
In what I like to call a classic ripping defeat from the jaws of victory, the United States mens hockey team, in their utter moment of glory, childhood dreams come true, sensational, ruined it for themselves. They allowed themselves to be co-opted by a clown. And now youre a clown. You look like a clown, Rapinoe said, dismissing the athletes once-in-a-lifetime achievement with characteristic contempt. She went on to sneer at Patels presence in the locker room, declaring, Kash Patel is in the locker room, partying, chugging beers. Im not decorum over everything. Thats not what I need out of my FBI director. Like, what are we doing? 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.
For many on the right, Rapinoes tirade fits a familiar pattern: a left-wing celebrity athlete using her platform not to celebrate American success, but to scold those who do not share her politics or priorities. Rather than applauding a group of young men who brought home gold for their country, she chose to belittle them and smear a Trump-aligned official whose mere presence appears to offend her.
This episode is less about Kash Patel or President Donald Trump than it is about Rapinoes ongoing resentment toward the fact that Americans have rallied enthusiastically around the mens hockey triumph. She appears unable to accept that the country is more energized by a hard-fought Olympic gold on the ice than by the endlessly politicized exploits of the U.S. Womens National Soccer Team, and instead of introspection, she reaches for the same old script of bitterness, envy, and ideological scorn.
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