David Ortiz shared his thoughts on Alex Cora and the Red Sox White House visit
"You don’t want to go and shake hands with a guy who is treating immigrants like [expletive] because I’m an immigrant."
David Ortiz delighted in his multiple visits to the White House after Red Sox World Series wins, but says he wouldn’t be a part of the 2019 trip if he were still on the team.
The now-retired slugger recently explained his position in an interview with WEEI’s Rob Bradford.
After noting that previous teams’ attendance lists for White House visits were less scrutinized — including the times Ortiz’s Red Sox visited during his career — the 43-year-old noted that the difference lies with the office’s current occupant, President Donald Trump.
“Nowadays with all the controversy going on with the president we have now and the sports teams not wanting to go it’s more of a challenge,” Ortiz explained.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was Ortiz’s teammate in Boston from 2005-2008, has decided that he will join the list of players skipping the trip. Ortiz was asked if he would join Cora and the players deciding not to go to Trump’s White House.
“Of course, bro,” Ortiz told Bradford. “Alex is in a tough spot right now, going there and acting like nothing is happening. It’s like you are going to shake hands with the enemy. Think about it, all the stuff that has been going on since he took office. People are angry. People are mad. He has divided people, that’s how it feels like.”
As far as the motivation for not attending, Ortiz elaborated.
“I don’t think it’s the political side of it,” said Ortiz. “I think it’s more of what is going on. I’m an immigrant. When it comes down to the political side of it I don’t know much about politics and things like that. But when it comes down the way immigrants have been treated it’s something that goes a long way. You don’t want to go and shake hands with a guy who is treating immigrants like [expletive] because I’m an immigrant.”
Ortiz said that after immigrating to the United States from the Dominican Republic, he took pride in “learning how to stay together” as a group of people.
“That’s not the situation right now,” he noted.
The Red Sox visit with President Trump is set for Thursday at 3:45 p.m. in the Rose Garden.
