Fresh from winning a gold medal, members of the U.S. men’s hockey team arrived at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, two days after President Trump invited them to visit the residence and then attend his State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill.
The president had excitedly extended the invitation on Sunday by speakerphone, when he placed a call to the equally jazzed F.B.I. director, Kash Patel. Mr. Patel was at the Winter Olympics in Italy, celebrating and spraying beer in the locker room with the men’s team.
Mr. Trump did not get far into his call before mentioning that he would have to include some other winners as well: “We’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Mr. Trump told the athletes. A few of the players laughed. “I do believe I probably would be impeached,” Mr. Trump said, a suggestion that Democrats would hold him politically accountable if he did not invite the members of the women’s hockey team, which also won a gold medal.
And with this offhand joke, Mr. Trump kicked off another culture-war firestorm, drawing criticism from people who think that he belittled the women’s team.
The men’s team defeated Canada, 2-1, at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, winning their third gold medal and the first since 1980. The women’s team defeated Canada, 2-1, at the Winter Olympics last Thursday, securing their third gold medal and the first since 2018. One team’s victory was talked about as an afterthought by the president, and one team’s was celebrated.
Now only the men’s team is in Washington. On Tuesday, several players from the men’s squad walked through the White House, wearing U.S.A. sweaters and holding their gold medals in the air. They also posed for a photo with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office.
On Monday, the women’s team said that their athletes had been invited by the White House but would not attend, because of “timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments,” according to a statement from USA Hockey. The team was thankful for the recognition of its achievement, the statement said. “They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment,” it said.
The White House did not respond to a question about whether or not Mr. Trump had called the women’s team after it won the gold medal.
In the days since Mr. Trump’s invitation, members of the men’s team have been making the rounds to counter the negative publicity. Jack and Quinn Hughes, brothers who played for Team U.S.A., appeared on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday morning to say that they would be attending the State of the Union. Both praised the women’s team.
“We’re extremely happy for them,” said Quinn Hughes, 26. “There’s a lot going on on social media right now surrounding our team and their team. But in the last couple summers, we did a lot of training with them and got to know a lot of those girls really well.”
Jack Hughes, 24, pointed out that the men’s team had stayed up with the women’s team until 3:30 a.m. after the men won their gold, celebrating American dominance in hockey at the Olympics.
A day earlier, the brothers had told The Daily Mail that the criticism was overblown and that critics were just looking to make trouble.
“People are so negative out there and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down,” Jack Hughes said. He added: “Everything is so political. We’re athletes.”
Their mother, Ellen Hughes, the player development consultant for the women’s team and herself a former hockey player, said in an appearance on the “Today” show on Tuesday that the men’s team and the women’s team were equally supportive of each other.
“If you could see what we see from the inside, and the men and women sharing, you know, dorm rooms and halls and flex floors and the camaraderie and the synergy and the way the women cheered on the men and the way the men cheered on the women — that’s what it’s all about,” she said. “And the other things they cannot control. They care about humanity. They care about unity, and they care about the country.”
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
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