After 'f******' White House remark, Megan Rapinoe 'happily accepts' Chuck Schumer's invitation to visit Senate
US Women's National Soccer Team midfielder Megan Rapinoe has said that her team will happily accept Democratic senate minority leader Chuck Schumer's invitation to the upper chamber, according to reports.
Schumer, on Monday, congratulated the US team on winning the World Cup, and invited them to meet him in the Senate. The New York senator also stressed the need of the law on equal pay to be put to vote, saying that "all women need to be compensated fairly."
Rapinoe, however, had previously stated that she would never visit the White House, although President Donald Trump has not yet extended a formal invitation to the winning team. The winning team had previously visited Barack Obama's White House in 2015 after winning the World Cup in Canada.
The soccer star, in a magazine interview in June, had said: "I'm not going to the f***ing White House. No f***ing way will we be invited to the White House. [Trump] tries to avoid inviting a team that might decline. Or, like he did when the [Golden State] Warriors turned him down, he'll claim they hadn't been invited in the first place."
Meanwhile, the team is set to be feted for their victory over the Netherlands on Wednesday with a ticker tape parade in New York City, according to reports.
Schumer, the second-most senior Democratic lawmaker, while addressing the Senate floor on Monday, said: "And, while today we celebrate their victory, we also recognize that these women, these athletes, have challenges and they make us really think about the future of women's sports," the Daily Mail reported.
"They make us grapple with the deep unfairness in how female athletes are treated, and paid, compared to their male counterparts," he added.
The Senate minority leader later tweeted his support for the women's soccer team, writing: "What the USWNT team did was extraordinary, and they deserve to be compensated fairly. All women need to be compensated fairly. Period. And we ought to pay attention to this not just once every four years during the World Cup, but year-in and year-out."
Rapinoe, while talking to reporters on Monday, said she would be 'very happy' to accept Schumer's invitation to visit Capitol Hill to talk about equal pay legislation with the lawmaker and to celebrate their victory.
"That's great. I love that. Interested to see what McConnell does," Rapinoe told Fox News. "Thank you, Chuck Schumer, for inviting us out. We are very happy to accept your invitation to come."