Is Clinton a true Cubs fan? GOP accuses Hillary of jumping on World Series bandwagon

Clinton has worn the hats of both the Cubs and Yankees. (Photos: AP, Reuters)
Clinton has worn the hats of both the Cubs and Yankees. (Photos: AP, Reuters)

The 2016 World Series begins Tuesday, and Hillary Clinton will rooting for the Chicago Cubs to break the Curse of the Billy Goat and end its 108-year title drought.

But whether Chicago-born Democratic nominee can call herself a lifelong Cubs fan is up for debate.

On Saturday, Nick Merrill, Clinton’s traveling secretary, posted a photo of the former secretary aboard her campaign plane as she watched the Cubs clinch their World Series berth on a staffer’s smartphone. Clinton appeared ecstatic at the news.

The GOP isn’t buying the authenticity of Clinton’s enthusiasm. On Tuesday, the Republican National Committee published an extensive opposition-research file accusing Clinton of being a “bandwagon” Cubs fan.

“With the Cubs headed to their first World Series since 1945, Hillary Clinton is jumping on Chicago’s bandwagon,” the RNC said. “But like with every other matter, Hillary Clinton switches allegiance with sports teams like positions on issues.”

Her various positions on baseball teams, though, is well-documented.

In a 1996 op-ed, Clinton explained her affection for the North Siders began as “a family affair.”

“I have been a Cubs fan since I was growing up in the Chicago suburbs. Despite more than half a century of frustrated pennant dreams, the Cubs are still my favorite team,” she wrote. “Even when baseball has tested my patience and allegiance, I’ve always managed to hold on to my soft spot for the Cubs.”

Clinton continued: “Being a Cubs fan prepares you for life (and, I’ve discovered, for Washington and politics). Season after season, we learn that even though our faith will be tested, it can’t be extinguished, no matter how many setbacks or defeats we have to endure.”

Then first lady Hillary Clinton and the late Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray sing
Then first lady Hillary Clinton and the late Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field in Chicago, April 4, 1994. (Photo: John Zich/AP)

But in a 1999 interview with Katie Couric, then anchor of the “Today” show, Clinton pledged a different allegiance as she was exploring a run for the U.S. Senate in New York. [Couric is now with Yahoo News.]

“The fact is, I’ve always been a Yankees fan,” Clinton said.

A puzzled Couric said she thought the then first lady was a lifelong Cubs fan.

“I am a Cubs fan,” Clinton said. “But I needed an American League team, because when you’re from Chicago, you cannot root for both the Cubs and the Sox. … So as a young girl, I became very interested and enamored of the Yankees.”

The same day, Clinton attended a ceremony honoring the 1998 World Series Champions at the White House, where she donned a Yankees cap.

At the time, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and other Republicans criticized Clinton’s support for the Yankees as politically motivated. Giuliani was preparing to run against Clinton for the Senate.

Clinton reacts to the Cubs' World Series-clinching win on Saturday. (Nick Merrill/Twitter)
Clinton reacts to the Cubs’ World Series-clinching win on Saturday. (Nick Merrill/Twitter)

In her 2003 memoir, “Living History,” Clinton expanded on her embrace of both the Cubs and Bronx Bombers.

“In our neighborhood, it was nearly sacrilegious to cheer for the rival White Sox of the American League, so I adopted the Yankees as my AL team, in part because I loved Mickey Mantle,” she wrote. “My explanations of Chicago sports rivalries fell on deaf ears during my Senate campaign years later, when skeptical New Yorkers were incredulous that a Chicago native could claim youthful allegiance to a team from the Bronx.”

But during a 2014 speech to the Economic Club of Chicago, Clinton offered a different reason for rooting for the Yankees: The Cubs lost too much.

“My personality was such that I couldn’t stay hitched only to a losing team,” she said. “So I had to search for a team that would counterbalance the experience of losing every single year, so — I hate to say this, and I know you’ll probably boo me — I became a Yankees fan.”

Meanwhile, President Obama — a Chicago White Sox fan — congratulated the team on reaching the World Series.

Former Obama adviser David Axelrod, whose allegiance to the Cubs is unchallenged, says he has “no doubt” that Clinton is a Cubs fan. But Axelrod wonders whether she’ll be allowed to show her Cub colors during the World Series since they’re playing the Cleveland Indians — a team that makes its home in a crucial swing state.

“How enthusiastically she goes out there and touts her Cubs fandom is a question,” Axelrod said on CNN. “My hope is that she’ll throw all of that aside and let her true Cubs fervor show.”