LSU superstar Angel Reese confirms plans to attend White House visit: 'I'm a team player'
Angel Reese and national champions LSU are headed to Washington, DC, where they’ll get to personally meet President Joe Biden as a prize for their great run. However, after attending the LSU-Iowa national title game herself, First Lady Jill Biden took it upon herself to invite both the Tigers and Iowa after seeing the Hawkeyes put up a strong fight.
Angel Reese did not like that move by the First Lady and publicly bashed her for the invitation, leading to questions about whether Reese herself would even end up joining her team during their eventual White House visit. That issue was brought up during an ESPNU interview Friday morning. Regarding her possibly skipping the White House trip, Reese cleared up confusion and confirmed she would be going.
“Yeah, I’m a team player,” Reese said. “I mean, it would look crazy for me not to be there, for one. And then, for two, I think going back home to the DMV … you don’t really get those chances often. So just being able to go back with the team and just following along with my coaches, since they have the best interest for me.”
Reese had also hopped on SportsCenter earlier, where she went into more detail on her decision to visit the White House.
“At the beginning, we were hurt, it was emotional for all of us because we know how hard we worked all year for everything,” Reese said of Biden’s invitation to both teams. “And just being able to see that hurt us in the moment. But just going back on it, I mean, you don’t get that experience ever. And I know my team probably wants to go for sure and my coaches are supportive of that. I think we’ll all come together and it will be good.”
You can see that full clip right here:
So Reese and the Bidens will get to exchange pleasantries after the initial dustup. Because, when the First Lady initially suggested they’d invite runner-up Iowa, Reese was very outspoken about what she thought was a slight towards LSU.
“If we were to lose, we would not be getting invited to the White House,” Reese said on I Am Athlete. “I remember she made a comment about both teams should be invited because it’s sportsmanship. And I’m like, ‘Are you saying that stuff because of what I did?’ Stuff like that, it bothers me. You are a woman at the end of the day and you’re supposed to be standing behind us before anything.”
After Biden walked back her comments and invitation to the Hawkeyes, Reese still wasn’t having it.
“I don’t accept the (apology),” Reese said. “I said what I said. You can’t go back on certain things that you say. I mean, you felt like they should’ve came because of sportsmanship, right? They can have that spotlight. We’ll go to the Obamas. We’ll see Michelle.”
Quite the drama for Angel Reese ahead of LSU’s visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.