OAN Staff James Meyers
1:16 PM – Thursday, October 17, 2024
The owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, Clark Hunt, said on Wednesday that he has no issue with kicker Harrison Butker forming a political action committee (PAC) to encourage conservatives to vote for what the PAC describes as “traditional values.”
The Chiefs kicker announced his UPRIGHT PAC last weekend, during the team’s bye week, in a series of postings on social media.
“One of the things I talk to the players every year about at training camp is using their platform to make a difference,” Hunt said. “We have players on both sides of the political spectrum, both sides of whatever controversial issue you want to bring up. I’m not at all concerned when our players use their platform to make a difference.”
Butker is front-and-center on the website of the UPRIGHT PAC, along with Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who received the kicker’s endorsement last week before his upcoming faceoff with Democrat Lucas Kunce.
“We’re seeing our values under attack every day. In our schools, in the media, and even from our own government. But we have a chance to fight back and reclaim the traditional values that have made this country great,” the PAC says on its website. “We are working to mobilize Christians across this country to make sure we protect these values at the ballot box.
Butker made headlines in May in what he referred to as a “very intentional” commencement speech at Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas.
The three-time Super Bowl winner maintained that women should, most importantly, feel a sense of pride in becoming good mothers and wives after graduating college, as opposed to solely focusing on their careers. Detractors labeled him a misogynist and questioned why he gave the female graduates advice but not the male college graduates. In the speech, Butker also mentioned how some Catholic leaders were “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America,” and he condemned abortion and Pride Month, which are considered two important topics to the Biden administration.
After the comments, the NFL began to separate from Butker, issuing a statement in response that said: “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
“I’ve just decided, ‘You know what? There’s things that I believe wholeheartedly that I think will make this world a better place,’ and I’m going to preach that,” Butker said, when asked about the address during training camp. “If people don’t agree, they don’t agree, but I’m going to continue to say what I believe to be true and love everyone along the way.”
Meanwhile, the Hunt family has supported a group pleading with Missouri voters to reject a ballot measure that would overturn a near-total ban on abortion in the Show-Me State through the Unity Hunt, which is a company that looks over the assets of the Lamar Hunt family.
In August, Butker criticized 45th President Donald Trump for saying that his administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.” Butker added that he hopes the Republican party would return to a point where “there can be no compromise for defending the unborn.” Nevertheless, the kicker still recently endorsed Trump in an interview with Fox News, labeling him the “most pro-life president.”
Butker’s PAC has not yet been required to report its donations for the 2024 election cycle.
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