WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 23: U.S. President Donald Trump throws a baseball on the South Lawn of the ... [+]

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Trump announced at a White House briefing Thursday he would throw the pitch at an August 15 Yankees game, saying the team's president "asked me to throw out the first pitch."

The announcement came an hour before Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, threw the first pitch at a Nationals-Yankees game in Washington D.C.

"Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won't be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the Yankees on August 15th," Trump tweeted, adding "We will make it later in the season!"

Trump stoked controversy when he expressed hope that players would not kneel for the national anthem during the game in protest of police brutality-a form of protest he has frequently and strongly condemned (every player at Fauci's game knelt).

"I hope everyone's standing; I hope they're not going to be kneeling when the flag is raised. I don't like to see that," he said, asserting "that would hurt a lot of people in our country. They don't want to see that with the NFL, or baseball, or basketball, or anything else."

I am a news desk reporter covering politics and the 2020 election. I have previously worked for MSNBC and Chronogram Magazine. I attended Vassar College and the London

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