Boehner: Don’t Boycott Olympics If Russia Grants Snowden Asylum

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Wednesday the U.S. should not boycott the upcoming Winter Olympics in Russia if NSA-leaker Edward Snowden is granted asylum there–rebutting fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC), who first suggested the boycott. 

“I love Sen. Graham. We’ve been close friends for 20 years. But I think he’s dead wrong,” Boehner said, according to the Washington Examiner. “Why would we want to punish U.S. athletes who have been training for three years to compete in the Olympics over a traitor who can’t find a place to call home?”

The 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia. 

On Tuesday, the Hill asked Graham if President Obama should consider an olympic boycott if Russia allows Snowden to say there.

“I would. I would just send the Russians the most unequivocal signal I could send them,” Graham responded. “It might help, because what they’re doing is outrageous. We certainly haven’t reset our relationship with Russia in a positive way. At the end of the day, if they grant this guy asylum it’s a breach of the rule of law as we know it and is a slap in the face to the United States.”

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