Ron Klain — a regular MSNBC guest and former chief of staff to both Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden — told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace that President Donald Trump is probably glad that white baseball players showed up and some non-white players didn’t at Thursday White House ceremony for the Boston Red Sox.

The one-time “Ebola Czar” was part of a panel, along with Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker and Alexi McCammond of Axios, discussing the World Series champion Red Sox event, which some players and manager Alex Corahave opted to skip. In fact, NPR reports that every white player attended “while almost every person of color who wears a Sox uniform opted out.” And it was that fact, Klain told Wallace, which probably pleased Trump.

The Globe’s Adrian Walker said that most fans would focus on the sports part of the day, and the team itself, but also that there was “some feeling” in Boston that Cora ought to have gone to the White House and made his case for Puerto Rico. “But they’ve opted to go in a completely different direction,” he said. Klain built on the point about the event not being first about sports.

“Look sports is supposed to be something that brings us together as a country, and White House visits of sports teams are supposed to be something that bring us together as a country,” said Klain. “And among the many, many sad chapters of Donald Trump is that he relishes in dividing us as a country.”

“I bet he was happy today that he was able to say that the white players were here, and the players of color weren’t,” said Klain. “That’s the kind of division he fosters deliberately. It’s the exact opposite of what presidents, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, are supposed to do around these kinds of events.”

At the event, President Trump did not mention the players who chose not to show up.

Wallace then asked McCammond whether the fans are sick and tired of everything being about politics and that they can’t just enjoy sports without it being about Trump. McCammond said people are tired of it, and people want things that are less politicized. Each of them made it clear that the politicization was on Trump, and not on the players who did not show or on networks like MSNBC discussing sports as politics, as in this very segment.

“I think the fans are largely behind the players who decided not to go, the fans here in Boston,” said Walker. “But the fans are, as you would expect, and perhaps as President Trump wanted, divided.”

“Oh God, it’s so sad,” said Wallace. To her credit, the show got the name of the team and the sport they play correct. Not true of everyone today.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.

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