U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday evening that her girlfriend—WNBA and UConn legend Sue Bird—told her that she needs to slow her roll because left-wing activists are “going to ask you to run for president.”
While leading the women’s soccer team to its fourth World Cup, Rapinoe emerged as one of the symbols of the anti-Trump resistance by refusing to put her hand over her heart and sing the national anthem.
Rapinoe, who also gained notoriety when she started to kneel during the national anthem in support of Colin Kaepernick, told Eight by Eight before the World Cup that she didn’t want to go to the “fucking White House” if the team won the World Cup.
After informing Rapinoe about a left-wing Public Policy Polling poll that found Rapinoe beating Trump by a point in a hypothetical 2020 presidential matchup, Maddow said: “So, I mean, I don’t think you’re going to announce that you’re running for president.”
Rapinoe responded: “Yes. No, I’m not.”
When Maddow asked what is ahead for Rapinoe, she said: “My girlfriend actually just said, you need to be careful. They’re going to ask you to run for president. You need to slow your roll.”
Maddow said she was not asking Rapinoe to run but “just suggesting that others are polling on it.”
“They’re saying, people are saying it,” Rapinoe responded as Maddow agreed. “I don’t know, to be honest. I think things have changed dramatically in these, you know, just these couple of days. I’m excited to kind of dig in and see really where I can take this. I think that I’ve been kind of wanting that for a number of years and how do we – how do we bring it out of just sports and out of soccer and out of the things that we have been doing and that I’ve been doing into something way bigger?”
Rapinoe said when it comes to the equal pay argument, she is thinking about “what’s the best way to get people mobilized, whether that’s in voting or just getting people more educated and more plugged in to what’s happening in our politics and in our lives.”
“And I think I’m ready for that, like, next thing,” Rapinoe continued. “I want to be more impactful. I feel like the money where the mouth is the best way to go and trying to, yes, I guess leverage this moment but also understand there is something so much more.”
Maddow concluded the interview by telling Rapinoe: “I think the country is ready for you.”
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