Amber Searls-Imagn Images
Many people were less than thrilled with the American NHL players who visited the White House in the wake of their win over Canada at the Winter Olympics. That delegation included Brady Tkachuk, who was also not happy with a video that was posted ahead of his visit that used A.I. to make it sound like he bad-mouthed the nation that had to settle for a silver.
The men’s hockey team that represented the United States at the Winter Olympics featured two pairs of brothers who got the chance to join forces in Italy. That included Quinn and Jack Hughes, who emerged as the most valuable duo for the Americans after they respectively netted the overtime goals that sent Team USA to the semifinals and sealed the deal in the gold medal game against Canada.
They combined to score 15 points over the course of the tournament, as Jack had four goals and three assists while Quinn finished with one in that first category and seven in the second.
Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, who were viewed as the favorites to be the most dynamic duo ahead of the Olympics, were slightly less impactful with 11 points overall; the former had six assists while his younger sibling on the Senators scored three goals and tallied a couple of helpers.
Matthew had already gotten to visit the White House a couple of times as a member of the Panthers team that’s coming off back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, and Brady got to step into the Oval Office for the first time as one of the players who made the trek to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday after accepting an invitation from Donald Trump.
That trip was surrounded by plenty of controversy, and Brady had to do even more damage control courtesy of an A.I.-generated video that was posted by the administration that hosted him.
Brady Tkachuk distanced himself from a video the White House posted after using A.I. to make him badmouth Canadians
The United States and Canada have historically been fierce rivals on the hockey rink, but those meetings have taken on new meaning over the past couple of years as relations between the nations have become increasingly strained thanks in no small part to President Trump’s “51st State” rhetoric.
The current administration has also embraced a Terminally Online aesthetic with the help of social media accounts that are littered with memes it whips up to further its message.
That includes a video that was posted on the official White House account after Team USA’s win on Sunday, which featured a fake clip of Brady saying, “They booed our national anthem so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup-eating f— a lesson. Canada, we own you lil bro.”
@whitehouse Silver does NOT shine just as bright 🥇🦅
I sincerely hope there aren’t many people who watch that and genuinely thought Tkachuk uttered those words, as the stilted delivery and the fact that the actual footage that was doctored was from last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off should have been obvious clues (the “Contains AI-generated media” label added by TikTok also should have been a hint).
According to ESPN, Tkachuk felt the need to drive that point home after getting the chance to address the clip on Thursday, saying:
“Well, it’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice, not my lips moving. I’m not in control of any of those accounts. I know that those words would never come out of my mouth. So, I can’t do anything about it.
It’s not my voice. It’s not what I was saying. I would never say that. That’s not who I am, so I guess I don’t like that video because that would never come out of my mouth and never had that thought.”
He stopped short of calling for the White House to take it down, and it’s still on the account as of this writing.
Brady also became the latest member of the men’s team to address the moment he and his teammates laughed when Trump made a crack at the expense of the women’s squad, saying, “I don’t really have an answer. It’s a whirlwind of a moment. You can’t control what somebody says. I guess I got caught off guard a little bit,” adding, “We support them, they support us.”