Scott Baio attends the same church as the fallen officer.

Police Chief Tim Hagel

The list of speakers for the event included both Democrats and Republican speakers.

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Police Chief Tim Hagel canceled the event telling the organizers, “That slogan ‘Make America Great’ is not favorable, popular, within 1,200 square miles.”

FOX 11 reported:

A charity flag football event in honor of fallen Ventura County Sgt. Ron Helus, the deputy killed in the Borderline mass shooting in 2018, has been put on hold after organizers say a local police chief and a Democratic politician derailed it because they didn’t want Republicans at the event.

Jerseys with Sgt. Helus’ name were donated by the L.A. Rams and footballs with his image were ready to be signed by Rams players. Sgt. Helus’ wife had already met with organizers and supported the event.

The Blue Bowl was supposed to happen at Newbury Park High School on Sunday. Thousands of dollars had already been raised for Sgt. Helus’ family, but now all that money is being returned to donors after organizers say Thousand Oaks Police Chief Tim Hagel convinced organizations to pull out of the event.

Mike Randall, Vice President of the Fallen Officers Foundation, which organizes the Blue Bowl, says things started going south when he allegedly got a text from Hagel saying there were serious issues with the event, specifically that the speakers would cause local political issues.

The Blue Bowl speaker list was bipartisan. It included Gov. Gavin Newsom’s public safety liason, Trump supporter Scott Baio, who went to the same church as Sgt. Helus, as well as Trump-supporting singer Joy Villa, who was to sing the national anthem.

Randall says in a phone call, Hagel questioned why the Trump supporters were invited.

“He basically said over and over in the conversation this is not Trump country, that slogan ‘Make America Great’ is not favorable, popular, within 1,200 square miles, that we don’t want Republicans here, I could not believe it… We were totally floored by this comment, ‘the only thing,’ and I quote, ‘the only thing you coulda made this worse, Mike, was to invite dick Cheney and Sarah Huckabee Sanders,’ and I went…wow are you kidding me?” Randall said.