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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Gustaf Kilander

Jenna Ellis ridiculed after slamming Rapinoe and Biles for receiving Presidential Medal of Freedom

AFP via Getty Images

Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis joined conservatives by taking to Twitter to slam President Joe Biden for awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.

“She’s one of the most accomplished soccer players and the first soccer player to receive the Medal of Freedom. Beyond the World Cup title to Olympic medals, Megan is a champion for an essential American truth – that everyone, everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect,” Mr Biden said during the White House ceremony on Thursday.

“Fittingly, Biden awarded his presidential medals to fellow losers, Biles and Rapinoe,” tweeted the twice-impeached president’s former senior legal adviser after learning that the Olympians had received the Medal of Freedom.

Online, commentators were quick to ridicule Ms Ellis’s remarks as they began stacking up the Trump-loyalist’s own wins and losses against the gold-medal winning athletes records.

“Jenna Ellis just got subpoenaed by a grand jury in Georgia. I guess she thinks they are losers because they are not criminal witnesses,” remarked one Twitter user, recalling how days earlier Ms Ellis had been subpoenaed by the Fulton County, Georgia grand jury investigating former president Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

“Simone Biles won 19 World Championship Golds, 4 Olympic Golds and is the most decorated gymnast in US history. Megan Rapinoe won 2 World Cups, an Olympic Gold and was named Best Player in the World in 2019,” tweeted Fred Wellman. “You lost 63 lawsuits and got farted on by Rudy Giuliani.”

Conservatives across the Twittersphere similarly picked up on the sentiment that Ms Ellis was promoting on her own account late Thursday night.

The managing editor of Townhall, Spencer Brown, tweeted that “Biden is giving the Medal of Freedom — America’s highest civilian honor — to Megan Rapinoe, a woman who bullied her teammates into kneeling for the national anthem”.

“You now have to be a social justice warrior to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom under Joe Biden, so it makes sense for Megan Rapinoe to receive the award,” MRCTV wrote.

“Wait a second..let me get this straight, Biden is giving Megan Rapinoe the highest civilian award, the President’s Medal of Freedom, to her who doesn’t sing our National Anthem and honor our flag?? Tells us where his priorities and loyalties are,” another Twitter user said.

Of her achievements, Mr Biden said of Ms Rapinoe that she “[did] something really consequential, she helped lead the change for perhaps the most important victory for anyone on our soccer team or any soccer team – equal pay for women.”

Republican Florida congressional candidate Lavern Spicer tweeted that “giving Megan Rapinoe the Presidential Medal of Freedom for kneeling for the anthem is like giving Obama the Nobel Peace Prize for bombing innocent civilians”.

Nick Adams, an Australian-born US conservative political commentator tweeted on 1 July in what he called a “major announcement” that “I am disgusted by Joe Biden’s decision to award woke Megan Rapinoe and quitter Simone Biles with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It should have been Tim Tebow! Megan Rapinoe does not deserve to walk in the footsteps of Rush Limbaugh and Tiger Woods!”

Mr Limbaugh and Mr Woods notably received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Donald Trump.

In a video posted to the social media platform, Mr Adams went on to say that Mr Biden “has invited somebody that has done the equivalent, the metaphoric equivalent of urinating and defecating in the most deliberately open way imaginable on the United States flag, America, our values, all of those things. It is beyond disgusting. It is beyond outrageous. There are no words that can properly convey just how awful and horrible and despicable this act of Joe Biden is. This tells you everything you need to know about how Joe Biden and this administration feel about America”.

Graham Allen tweeted that hot dog eating champion “Joey Chesnut should be getting the Presidential Medal of freedom NOT Megan Rapinoe”.

Rayland Givens wrote that “this s**t is unbelievable!!! They lowered the value of the medal of freedom, just awarding it to any bs political ally. Why in the hell Megan Rapinoe gets a medal after disrespecting the flag and the National Anthem!?? This is bs”.

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