Watch — Mike Pence on Lia Thomas: UVA Swimmer ‘Emma Weyant Won that Race’

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia — Former Vice President Mike Pence told a crowd of University of Virginia students Tuesday evening that the school’s swimmer Emma Weyant, who came in second place to transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the NCAA championship, “won that race.”

Pence’s comments were met with booming applause at a Young Americans for Freedom event after first-year Matthew Lawrence described UVA’s extensive achievements in sports during a question and answer session, saying, “our tradition of excellence has recently been upended by the woke left.”

“Our tradition of excellence was broken, but not of our own volition,” he continued. “Emma Weyant, a freshman and swimmer, the fastest swimmer in the nation, was robbed of a medal — beat by a man from the University of Pennsylvania.”

“What do you want to say to Emma and UVA as a whole about this embarrassing offense that cheated our school out of a gold medal?” Lawrence asked.

“I know that in his state of the union address President Biden promised to stand for the God-given right of men to compete in women’s sports,” Pence joked. “But common sense needs to reign.”

Pence’s address comes after the University’s student newspaper attempted to pressure the administration to ban him from speaking on campus.

Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.