Olympian Adam Rippon says he doesn't
believe Vice President Mike Pence tweeting that he's for the openly
gay figure skater.
Appearing on CNN's New Day,
Rippon, the first openly gay American to medal at the Winter
Olympics, was asked whether he had actually declined to speak to
Pence ahead of the Olympics in South Korea.
Rippon said that Pence reached out to
him after he criticized the vice president's opposition to LGBT
rights.
“That was two weeks before the
Olympics,” Rippon explained. “This came out after I did an
article on what were my thoughts on Mike Pence leading the U.S.
delegation. And I'm pretty sure Mike Pence didn't know who I was an
hour before that article came out. And that he wanted to meet with
me right after I thought was fantastic that this article got his
attention, but it wasn't the right time.”
“Now is the right time. The Olympics
are over.”
“What conversation would you want?
What would be the goal?” host Chris Cuomo asked.
“I don't have anything personally to
say to Mike Pence. The conversation isn't for me. It's for people
whose lives have been changed by legislation that he's pushed,”
Rippon
answered.
Pence said in a tweet before the Winter
Olympics directed at Rippon that he was “for you” and all the
athletes. Rippon said that he found the message to be
“disingenuous.”
“I think that's great, but I don't
believe it, because when I go home are you still for me? Are you
still for other LGBTQ Americans? Are you still for that trans man or
woman that wants to join the military? Are you still for that
lesbian couple that wants to get married? That's where I feel like
the tweet is almost disingenuous,” Rippon said.
In a separate appearance on Bravo's
Watch What Happens: Live, Rippon told host Andy Cohen that he
would not compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
“Everyone I compete against is 18.
I'm not 18. I'm falling apart,” Rippon,
28, said.