FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A company has cut ties with a California minor league baseball team that played a Memorial Day video that included an image of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with images of Kim Jong Un and Fidel Castro.
The Fresno Bee reports the raisin company Sun-Maid terminated its sponsorship of the Fresno Grizzlies on Wednesday.
The company acknowledged the Grizzlies apologized but said terminating the sponsorship was the right thing to do.
The Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals has said it failed to properly vet the video found on YouTube.
The video has patriotic images and excerpts from President Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural speech.
When Reagan mentions “enemies of freedom,” the video shows the North Korean leader, Ocasio-Cortez of New York and the late Cuban leader.
“We’re embarrassed we allowed this video to play without seeing it in its entirety first,” the statement from the Grizzles said. “We unconditionally apologize to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez in addition to those we hurt.”
“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,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Tuesday.
“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,” she posted.
Later, she added that “words matter, and can have consequences for safety.”
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