(Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
A New York Congressman has suggested that President Joe Biden eschewed attending the annual Army-Navy college football game for fear of “Let’s Go Biden” chants, with such chants in the crowd amounting to an embarrassment to the administration.
Congressman Lee Zeldin made the speculation in remarks to Breitbart News Sunday, stating that there was a “good possibility” potential LGB chants are what deterred his presence.
“I don’t know exactly why he did not attend,” Zeldin said to host Joel Pollak. “However, I will say this –, and I’ll state it as my opinion, and it could very well be a fact — if President Biden showed up at yesterday’s game, there’s a good possibility that you would have had the largest ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ chant that has taken place.” Zeldin represents a Long Island constituency not far away from West Point, with the game occuring at New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium.
Only a small section of the crowds that attend Army and Navy football games are active duty military personnel, obligated to refrain from words regarding the Commander in Chief that could be considered contemptuous or unbecoming of an officer. The rest of the fans, many of them conservative-leaning alumni and veterans of the armed services, aren’t under any such obligation regarding political speech.
“If I had to guess which way the reception would have gone — I agree with you that the cadets and midshipmen would not be participating in the roasting — but there would have been several tens of thousands of other people who, I think, would have been giving Biden a greeting that he would not have liked... There are tens of thousands of other people in that arena who were not there in uniform, and that clearly was a stadium that is not happy with the performance right now of President Biden.”
The LGB phenomenon has primarily occurred at sporting events with teams with conservative-leaning fanbases, with the chant enduring at college football games. President Trump had been a fan favorite at the contests during his tenure on the presidential throne, often appearing and personally greeting Army cadets and Navy midshipmen.
Navy triumphed in the contest 17-13.