The AAA baseball team associated with the Washington Nationals is apologizing after playing a Memorial Day tribute video at the ballpark between a doubleheader that included freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, former Cuban president Fidel Castro, and antifascist protesters as “enemies of freedom.”
After a Fresno Bee reporter tweeted about the “seriously offensive editing” in the video, the Fresno Grizzlies wrote that they were “embarrassed we allowed this video to play without seeing it in its entirety first.” The video—which includes images of Arlington National Cemetery, servicemembers in combat, iconic shots of the American countryside, and other patriotic over the audio of Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address—was taken from YouTube.
“A pre-produced video from outside our front office was selected” for the Memorial Day tribute video,” the Fresno Grizzlies wrote in a Twitter apology. “Unfortunately what was supposed to be a moving tribute ended with some misleading and offensive editing, which made a statement that was not our intent and certainly not our opinion. We apologize to our fans to our community for the error and for not properly vetting the video.” In a later tweet, the team apologized directly to Ocasio-Cortez.
A Grizzlies spokesperson told USA Today that the team has identified the “remorseful” employee who chose the video, and they will be loathe to broadcast more videos taken from the internet for the time being “in an abundance of caution.”
The Grizzlies signed a two-season player-development contract with the Nationals in 2018, the same year that the minor-league team gained new ownership. While the Nationals can call up a Grizzlies player, the Washington team does not share management with its AAA counterpart.
Since her underdog primary win, Ocasio-Cortez has become a media sensation and is often the target of outrage on the right. She responded to the video on Tuesday afternoon in a series of tweets, wherein she explained that her office sees a spike in death threats when critics use heated rhetoric to describe her.
What people don’t (maybe do) realize is when orgs air these hateful messages, my life changes bc of the flood of death threats they inspire.
I‘ve had mornings where I wake up & the 1st thing I do w/ my coffee is review photos of the men (it’s always men) who want to kill me. https://t.co/hiYbPghad7
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 28, 2019
This story has been updated with comment from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Rachel Kurzius