Sean Doolittle, the veteran reliever for the Washington Nationals, said he struggled with the decision as he wanted to be with his teammates but just couldn't. Trump's hateful, divisive rhetoric just too much. The World Series-winning team will attend a ceremony at the White House on Monday.

Source: Washington Post

Doolittle chose to not attend a White House ceremony slated for Monday. He is the first Nationals player to publicly confirm that, although multiple people close to the team said a handful of players are wrestling with the decision. He explained his reasons in a lengthy interview with The Washington Post on Friday night. It starts with not compromising his beliefs and an aversion to President Donald Trump’s actions, despite wanting to celebrate with teammates as much as possible.

“There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country. My wife and I stand for inclusion and acceptance, and we’ve done work with refugees, people that come from, you know, the ‘shithole countries,' ” Doolittle said, mimicking when Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “shithole countries” in a January 2018 meeting.

“At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it,” Doolittle continued. “I just can’t do it.”

Damn. This guy has more balls than every Republican in the House and Senate combined.

Nats closing pitcher, Sean Doolittle, on declining White House invite: ‘I don’t want to hang out with somebody who talks like that’#saturdaymorning #AMJoyhttps://t.co/MrylWHtRgm pic.twitter.com/wFAkOqJEWY

— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) November 2, 2019