Biden Admin Faces Backlash Over Banning Unvaccinated Djokovic From US Open
10:51 GMT 22.07.2022 (Updated: 05:35 GMT 30.04.2023)
© AP Photo / Mark Baker
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Novak Djokovic has already missed this year's Australian Open due to his vaccination status and has no plans to get a jab in the near future. He is also set to miss the US Open next month, as overseas travelers aren't allowed to enter the United States if they haven't taken mandatory twin doses.
The Biden administration is facing an increasing amount of backlash over its decision not to allow Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic to participate in the August-September US Open.
After American tennis legend John McEnroe and Texas State Senator Drew Springer hit out at the US president for not letting Djokovic enter the country, television personality Rachel Campos-Duffy, noted radio talk show host Charlie Kirk, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, and Senators Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, and Roger Marshall have now all come out in the Serbian's support.
"This is the dumbest thing ever! Can someone wake sleepy Joe up from his nap and tell him the pandemic is over? Our government continues to work for #BigPharma?" Campos-Duffy's angry Twitter post said.
After American tennis legend John McEnroe and Texas State Senator Drew Springer hit out at the US president for not letting Djokovic enter the country, television personality Rachel Campos-Duffy, noted radio talk show host Charlie Kirk, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, and Senators Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, and Roger Marshall have now all come out in the Serbian's support.
"This is the dumbest thing ever! Can someone wake sleepy Joe up from his nap and tell him the pandemic is over? Our government continues to work for #BigPharma?" Campos-Duffy's angry Twitter post said.
"So let me get this straight. The US Gov't will let millions of unvaccinated illegals stream across the border and buy them plane tickets to anywhere they want to go, but they won't let the world's best tennis player come to New York and compete in the US Open? This is a disgrace," Kirk stated on the social network.
"This is absolutely despicable. @DjokerNole is the best tennis player in the world who performs at an ultra elite level is unable to compete in a premier athletic event in the US because of politics," Tenney wrote on the microblogging platform.
However, the harshest criticism of Biden's vaccination policy came from Senators Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, and Roger Marshall.
While Cruz bluntly demanded "let Novak Djokovic play," Kansas Senator Roger Marshall called the ban on the 21-time Grand Slam winner "a shame," before emphasizing that the 35-year-old tennis player was "an extremely healthy individual with a low risk of death from COVID."
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn labeled the policy as "absurd."
Netizens also jumped into the debate, slamming the decision not to allow Djokovic into the US.
Who's a bigger threat to America?
— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) July 21, 2022
Joe Biden: A sick man who removes his mask to cough.
OR
Novak Djokovic: An elite athlete.
pic.twitter.com/Di599zAuMw
The growing support for Djokovic comes days after the US Open organizers released a statement that said they will follow the government's guidelines on COVID-19 vaccination for players' participation in the event.
According to US government rules, a foreigner must be double vaccinated to enter the country, so unless the authorities make changes to their immunization policy, Djokovic won't be able to play in the US.
According to US government rules, a foreigner must be double vaccinated to enter the country, so unless the authorities make changes to their immunization policy, Djokovic won't be able to play in the US.
