



The Washington Nationals will be missing at least one major contributor when visiting the House on Monday.

Closer Sean Doolittle told The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty on Friday that he does not plan to attend the team’s White House visit. Doolittle is the first member of the Nationals to publicly confirm he will not attend the event, currently scheduled for 1:15 p.m. ET on Monday.

The White House announced the visit early in the morning on Friday, two days after the Nationals won their first-ever championship in seven games.

The 2019 World Series Champion Washington @Nationals will be visiting the White House on Monday! ⚾🏆 pic.twitter.com/4Ri6pwDv7z — The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 1, 2019

Dougherty additionally reported that while Doolittle is the first to shoot down visiting the White House, people close to the team said a “handful of players” are also wrestling with the decision.

Why Sean Doolittle will not visit Trump

In an interview with Dougherty, Doolittle cited Trump’s public conduct as the reason for his decision:

“There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country. My wife and I stand for inclusion and acceptance, and we’ve done work with refugees, people that come from, you know, the ‘s---hole countries,' ” Doolittle said, mimicking when Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “s---hole countries” in a January 2018 meeting. “At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it,” Doolittle continued. “I just can’t do it.”

Doolittle also reportedly cited Trump’s past violations of the Fair Housing Act, his treatment of the Central Park Five and his comments following the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, as well as his mocking of a disabled reporter.

Washington Nationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle throws during the seventh inning of Game 5 of the baseball World Series against the Houston Astros Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) More

When it comes to athletes skipping visits to Trump’s White House, the refrain against them is often that they should simply respect the office of the president. Doolittle’s response is simply that Trump hasn’t respected the office himself:

“People say you should go because it’s about respecting the office of the president,” Doolittle said. “And I think over the course of his time in office he’s done a lot of things that maybe don’t respect the office.” “The rhetoric, time and time again, has enabled those kind of behaviors,” Doolittle continued, referring to racism and white supremacy. “That never really went away, but it feels like now people with those beliefs, they maybe feel a little bit more empowered. They feel like they have a path, maybe. I don’t want to hang out with somebody who talks like that.”

Doolittle has been outspoken on social issues

Since well before he joined the Nationals, Doolittle has been one of the most outwardly liberal players in baseball.

The southpaw and his wife, Eireann Dolan, proactively supported Pride Nights and hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for Syrian refugees during his time with the Oakland Athletics, and have also penned an op-ed on veterans’ issues. Not much has changed since Doolittle and Dolan moved to the nation’s capital.

Doolittle hadn’t spoken out much against Trump specifically before Friday, but he did offer a direct repudiation of Trump’s “locker room talk” defense back in 2016 when the infamous “Access Hollywood” tapes rocked Trump’s presidential campaign.

As an athlete, I've been in locker rooms my entire adult life and uh, that's not locker room talk. — Obi-Sean Kenobi Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) October 10, 2016

A fan favorite, Doolittle was one of only two reliable options in the Nationals bullpen during the postseason, alongside right-hander Daniel Hudson. The 33-year-old struggled with injuries during the regular season on his way to an iffy 4.05 ERA, but he was a force in the postseason with a 1.74 ERA in 10.1 innings