LSU athletic department enters the White House invite chat room with their own stance

The Louisiana State University athletic department has entered the White House invitation chat with their stance.

Last night (April 5), CNN reported LSU’s athletic division would “certainly accept an invitation” from the White House after winning the NCAA Tournament for women’s basketball.

The latest announcement comes after continued chatter about whether or not LSU would make the trip to Washington D.C. after First Lady Jill Biden also invited runner-ups, the Iowa Hawkeyes. After the Southeastern Conference team beat The University of Iowa in the women’s NCAA Tournament championship, Jill spoke about the two groups at an event in Denver.

“Last night, I attended the NCAA women’s basketball championship,” she said. “So I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House. We always do. So, we hope LSU will come, but, you know, I’m going to tell Joe [Biden] I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”

And Jill’s comments were not met with a warm reception by a pair of LSU Tigers players. One of the team’s star athletes, Angel Reese, shared an article on Twitter with Jill’s remarks and called it “a joke.” Her teammate, Alexis Morris, also hopped on the social media app and asked Michelle Obama if the team could celebrate with her and Barack Obama instead. 

Afterward, the first lady’s press secretary issued a statement clarifying Jill’s intentions. However, Reese did not accept the apology as she stood by her response on the “I AM ATHLETE” podcast. During the interview, she told hosts Brandon Marshall and Ashley Nicole Moss: 

“I don’t accept the apology because you said what you said … You can’t go back on certain things that you say … They can have that spotlight. We’ll go to the Obamas.’ We’ll go see Michelle. We’ll see Barack.”

The Obamas have not yet responded to the comments made by the LSU players.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday (April 4), Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who was involved in a separate online discussion involving Reese, shared that her team should not be invited to the White House.

“I don’t think runner-ups usually go to the White House. I think LSU should enjoy that moment for them, and congratulations, obviously, they deserve to go there. Maybe I could go to the White House on different terms, though,” Clark said. “That’s for LSU. That’s a pretty cool moment, and they should enjoy every single second of being a champion.”

LSU’s head coach Kim Mulkey previously stated after winning the tournament that she would accept a White House invite.

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