Country music icon Travis Tritt took to Twitter to thank the Atlanta Braves for refusing “to be bullied” by “wing nut cancel culture’ after he sang the National Anthem before game six of Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series (NLCS) between the Braves and Dodgers.
“So the wing nut cancel culture tried to pressure the Atlanta Braves into forcing me not to sing the National Anthem at Game 6 of the NLCS,” Tritt tweeted. “I’m so thankful that the @braves did not cave to this pressure and refused to be bullied. Thanks for allowing me to pay tribute to America.”
The announcement that Tritt would be singing the National Anthem sparked outrage on the left as Tritt recently “announced he will not perform at venues that require proof of COVID vaccination, mask mandates, or testing.”
Tritt doubled down on his sentiments in a statement to the Daily Wire:
I’m putting my money where my mouth is and announcing that any venue or promoter mandating masks, requiring vaccinations, or pushing COVID testing protocols on my fans will not be tolerated. Any show I have booked that discriminates against concert-goers by requiring proof of vaccination, a COVID test, or a mask is being canceled immediately.
A USA Today opinion piece, published on October 23, took shots at the Atlanta Braves for their selection of Tritt to sing the Star-Spangled Banner:
“But for the Braves to choose Tritt as the performer for this particular game, after this particular week, can only be interpreted as a middle finger to the segment of its fan base that stands on the side of science and an endorsement of the kind of misinformation that keeps the COVID-19 pandemic going strong,” the article reads in part.
The article later called the Braves selection of Tritt to sing the Anthem “very unnecessary” and suggested Tritt’s “cause” is “pathetic.“
“This is all, of course, very unnecessary by the Braves — and they know that,” the opinion piece reads. “There are plenty of Atlanta-based musical acts and artists that would have been able to handle anthem duties without drawing undue attention to a pathetic cause.”
On October 19, Tritt appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News and spoke about mandates that venues impose on concertgoers.
“These people have been shut out from getting a chance to go see concerts for over a year, and they’re finally getting a chance to do that again and now, they’re being turned away for some unexplained reason,” Tritt said. “So this is not about — this is not about following the science or trying to look out for the safety of the people there, this is about something else. This is trying to divide people.”
The country star went on to add, “This is trying to shame people. This is trying to basically discriminate against people that they don’t feel are clean enough to be a part of enjoying a concert like that.”
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW: