Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday expressed support for three cheerleaders of the Lamigo Monkeys baseball team who said they had been bullied by netizens for supporting her.
Hung yesterday held a news conference to express gratitude to her supporters, including the three cheerleaders, who recently sparked a furor among the team’s management and fans after they were featured in Hung’s campaign calendar and openly pledged their support for the KMT candidate.
The Lamigo Monkeys have since announced that they would halt cooperation with the three until the end of the year because they had worked for a third party without advising the club in advance.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Saying that she did not know what the trio had done wrong except for endorsing a presidential candidate, Hung said society is not tolerant enough to accept people who hold different opinions.
Hung said she had also been bullied before and told the trio to forgive their bullies.
Saying that the three were shut out by the club immediately after the calendar was released, Tzu Ning (梓甯), one of the three cheerleaders, rejected the Lamigo Monkeys’ accusation that the trio had violated their contracts by using the team’s name during their participation in Hung’s campaign, saying they had not signed any legally binding contract with the team, so there could not be a breach of contract.
In response to reporters’ questions about whether they would keep supporting Hung and attend Hung’s campaign activities, Tzu Ning, after a moment of hesitation, said: “We have not thought about this.”
Pressed again by Hung, who sat next to them at the news conference, for a more substantial reply, Tzu Ning said: “We support whatever is right.”
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