Controversy as several US women soccer players seen turning backs on WWII veteran as he plays national anthem

Controversy erupted as several players on the U.S. Women’s Soccer team appeared to turn their backs on a 98-year-old veteran of World War II while he played the national anthem on a harmonica.

*Update: After footage and pictures went viral, the US Soccer communications team sent out a tweet denying disrespect was taking place and that the players were turning to face the flag.


U.S. Soccer Comms
@ussoccer_comms
To be clear, no one turned their back on WWII Veteran Pete DuPré during tonight's anthem. Some USWNT players were simply looking at the flag on a pole in one end of the stadium. The players all love Pete, thanked him individually after the game and signed a ball for him.


The alleged protest came ahead of a match against Mexico during an Olympic Send-Off competition in East Hartford, Conn., on Saturday, before the team heads to Tokyo next month for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, the Summer Olympics competition that was canceled last year due to COVID-19.

The veteran, Pete DuPre, served as a U.S. Army medic during the Second World War; some of the U.S. Women’s Soccer players were seen turning away from him as ESPN cameras panned the team as well as the crowd, many of whom sang the national anthem and stood with their hands over their hearts.

The scene was criticized by several social media users, some of whom compared the American players to their Mexican counterparts.

“My dad fought in WW II. He would have been 97 years old if he were alive today. Seeing this would have broken him just like it burns me to the core. This veteran gave his life for this country & is alive at 98 so he could have backs turned on him like this. Bulls**t,” TV and radio broadcaster Jon Linder noted.

“And some the USWNT turned their backs to it. Meanwhile Mexico, a country with much less quality of life than America, sung every word of theirs. Welcome to America,” wrote on Twitter user.

“This was one of the saddest things I’ve ever witnessed. This man risked his life and played this song and the team turned their backs on him because they hate him and hate the country they represent. Hard to watch this,” another user wrote.

“People have the right to protest. But guys like DuPré are why they have that right,” another user said.

Richard Grenell jumped into the melee as the controversy continued:



Richard Grenell
@RichardGrenell
You are wrong. The flag is to the women’s right. The women facing forward turned away from the US flag despite their teammates facing them.

Here’s a picture of the whole team. Which one facing forward has their hand on their heart?!


But the soccer team continued to do damage control with a tweet showing the team lining up to meet the WWII veteran:



continued:
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/07/06/several-us-women-soccer-players-turn-their-backs-on-wwii-veteran-as-he-plays-national-anthem-1099481/?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Get+Response&utm_term=EMAIL&utm_content=Newsletter&utm_campaign=bizpac

I don't care if there is NOBODY representing the U.S. If this is how they're going to act, they can stay home...........PERIOD. We don't need a bunch of ignorant, spoiled, disrespectful babies out there representing us with their bad behavior. If POC feel so hateful about this country, then please LEAVE!!! Immigrate to the country of your choice, but there is no return tickets.