By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. males’s hockey group visited President Donald Trump on the White Home on Tuesday afternoon and later acquired a few two-minute bipartisan standing ovation throughout his State of the Union handle that evening.
Trump additionally introduced that the ladies’s hockey group, which additionally defeated Canada to win gold, will “quickly” go to the White Home. The ladies’s group had declined an invitation to attend the State of the Union as a result of timing of the handle.
Males’s gamers entered the Home chamber by means of two units of doorways and walked down the rows of the press gallery. Lawmakers on each side of the aisle not solely stood and cheered however chanted “USA!” a number of occasions, many even pumping fists. Rep. Lisa McClain, the Republican Home Convention Chair, shouted “Love you!” to the gamers.
“I need to thanks all,” Trump informed the gamers. “What a particular job you probably did. What particular champions you might be.”
Trump additionally mentioned goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who stopped 41 shots within the gold medal recreation, will obtain the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Hellebuyck tapped his coronary heart as these within the chamber applauded.
Movies and photographs shared on social media by Trump administration aides confirmed the hockey gamers posing for {a photograph} in entrance of the South Portico. They walked alongside the West Wing colonnade the place Trump has posted portraits of each U.S. president simply steps away from the Oval Workplace, the place they had been welcomed by Trump.
As they approached the Oval Workplace, a few of the gamers popped into the press workplace’s open door to flash the medals from their 2-1 additional time win over Canada on Sunday on the Milan Cortina Olympics. It was the People’ first gold medal in males’s hockey because the “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid, New York, in 1980.
Staffers applauded and shouted, “We love you!”
“I acknowledge each certainly one of you. I do know each certainly one of you,” Trump mentioned because the gamers entered the Oval Workplace, which he has redecorated with quite a few prospers of gold that matched the gamers’ medals.
“Huge guys,” he mentioned, standing close to his desk and shaking arms with the gamers, who wore darkish tops with “USA,” the American flag and the Olympic rings on the entrance and light-colored pants.
After their victory, a video that circulated on social media appeared to indicate Trump inviting the group on a cellphone name within the locker room, as he joked that he’d even have to ask the ladies’s group. After the president introduced the ladies quickly would obtain a White Home go to, the lads’s gamers made thumbs-up gestures whereas watching from up excessive.
For ahead Matthew Tkachuk, the journey to the White Home was turning into a daily go to.
“Good to see you once more,” Tkachuk informed Trump, because the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion made his third White Home journey in simply over 12 months. For a few of the roughly 20 gamers who made the journey, this was a primary.
Tkachuk, who received these Cups with the Florida Panthers, posted footage on social media of members of the group celebrating on what seems to be a U.S. authorities aircraft and a bunch shot of them deplaning at Joint Base Andrews. The group chartered into Miami on a flight from Italy on Monday, after which dined collectively in Miami Seashore and visited a nightclub the place a whole bunch of followers clamored to get inside. They had been additionally given a heroes’ welcome at Miami Worldwide Airport.
“Our sport simply received the most important stage on the planet of sport,” Panthers basic supervisor Invoice Zito, an assistant GM for the Olympic group, mentioned Tuesday. “That’s fantastic. And we have to have fun it.”
AP White Home reporter Seung Min Kim and AP Sports activities Author Tim Reynolds in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.
