Donald Trump calls off trip to Georgia vs Alabama football clash due to Hurricane Isaias
As Hurricane Isaias continues to strengthen, President Donald Trump's trip to Bryant-Denny Stadium for Saturday's top-10-ranked SEC football game is off.
Trump confirmed to White House reporters Friday
that he will no longer attend Oct. 10's matchup between No. 2 Georgia and No. 7 Alabama in Tuscaloosa because of expected weather impacts along the Gulf Coast and across Alabama.
Saturday's college football game would have marked the second SEC game that Trump attended in a matter of weeks, as he was on Rocky Top for Arch Manning and No. 1 Texas' win over Tennessee on Sept. 26. It additionally would have been the fourth Alabama-Georgia regular season game he would have attended over the course of his two terms in office, including when he was the presidential nominee.
Alabama Georgia game weather: Tracking Hurricane Isaias path, latest news
There were discussions earlier this week that Trump's visit would not take place due to Isaias. Those discussions have come to fruition.
"Hurricane and football. I love Alabama," Trump told reporters on Wednesday, Oct. 7. "I have to go to a game. Would be awfully hard. If there's an emergency, if there's a hurricane, I wouldn't do anything to take the focus of all the of the great people who work in those things. They have tremendously great people. I don't want to take the focus off.
"We'll have to see. I haven't heard about a hurricane. If a hurricane is going in the vicinity of Alabama, that's not good. Certainly I'm going to let the hurricane determine (if I'm going). I want people to be safe, that's all."
Georgia and Alabama are still scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff amid the storm. ESPN's "College GameDay" will now broadcast from inside Coleman Coliseum on Alabama's campus due to the forecast.
Donald Trump statement
Trump further confirmed he would not be attending in a statement on his platform Truth Social, in which he added he would be visiting Alabama and Georgia at a later date.
He wrote, in part:
Based on the fact that a huge Hurricane/Storm is coming, it is important to have our wonderful First Responders, Law Enforcement, and others, focused on that Storm, and in no way be thinking about the safety, or presence, of the President of the United States, ME! Therefore, I will miss that potentially unbelievable Game, Alabama vs.Georgia but, hopefully, the Game will go on despite the weather! I will be visiting both of those Teams at a later date.
Trump said he will be in Tennessee instead this weekend.
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