'Pay now': Biden demands US Soccer give its women's national team equal pay or 'go elsewhere for World Cup funding' if he's elected president
- Joe Biden tweeted Saturday in support of the US Women's National Team's ongoing legal battle for equal pay.
- The former vice president and presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee tweeted one day after US District Judge R. Gary Klausner threw out the team's lawsuit over unequal pay.
- Biden urged the team to not "give up this fight," and demand US Soccer "pay now," or "when I'm president, you can go elsewhere for World Cup funding."
- The team slammed the decision as other claims from the lawsuit are set to go to trial in June.
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Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden chimed in on the US Women's National Team's ongoing legal battle against the US Soccer Federation concerning unequal pay.
The former vice president wrote on Twitter Saturday afternoon first addressing the four-time World Cup-winning team and sending a warning to US Soccer for "when" he is president."
"To @USWNT: don't give up this fight. This is not over yet," Biden wrote. "To @USSoccer: equal pay, now. Or else when I'm president, you can go elsewhere for World Cup funding."
The tweet came one day after US District Judge R. Gary Klausner threw out the team's lawsuit in which they are seeking $66 million in damages, writing in a 32-page decision that they had the opportunity to be paid in a comparable structure to the Men's National Team, Insider's Lauren Frias previously reported.
Molly Levinson, a spokeswoman for the USWNT, tweeted after the decision that the team was "shocked and disappointed," but "will not give up our hard work for equal pay."
"We are confident in our case and steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that girls and women who play this sport will not be valued as lesser just because of their gender," she wrote.
"We have learned that there are tremendous obstacles to change; we know that it takes bravery and courage and perseverance to stand up to them," Levinson wrote in a later tweet. "We will appeal and press on."
Klausner did allow claims on discriminatory travel and medical allocations to proceed, which is set to go to trial in mid-June.
The players hope to overturn Klausner's ruling to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which would delay the trial, according to the Associated Press.
Biden is currently facing his own legal troubles after his former staffer Tara Reade alleged he sexually assaulted her when she was a staffer in 1993. Reade filed a criminal complaint against Biden, who has denied the allegation and asked the secretary of the Senate to locate the alleged harassment complaint.