“The dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my life” RUSSO on Trump’s Clemens honor

“The dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Chris “Mad Dog” Russo said when a caller asked about President Donald Trump’s plan to award Roger Clemens the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The exchange on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Unleashed followed Trump’s October 7 announcement at a San Antonio rally. Trump said he would give the former pitcher the honor and renewed his call for Clemens to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The caller, speaking from Central Texas, pointed to Clemens’ World Series championships with the Yankees in 1999 and 2000. Russo instead focused on the performance-enhancing-drug allegations that have followed Clemens since the Mitchell Report.

“Clemens cheated. He did the steroids. He lied about it,” Russo said.

Clemens has denied using performance-enhancing drugs. A jury acquitted him on all six charges in his 2012 federal trial over his testimony to Congress. Russo’s allegation is not a finding from that trial.

Russo contrasted Clemens with Andy Pettitte, saying Clemens “never came clean with it.” Pettitte publicly acknowledged using human growth hormone.

Russo also argued that Clemens did not deserve election to Cooperstown, while acknowledging his ability as a pitcher. Clemens received 65.2% of the writers’ vote in 2022, his final year on their ballot, below the 75% required for election.

“I mean, listen, Clemens was very good. I mean, he’s a legit Hall of Famer. Don’t get me wrong,” Russo said. “But he’s not the greatest pitcher of all time.”

Trump’s wording at the rally was “maybe the greatest pitcher of all time.” Russo rejected that assessment and recalled conducting a question-and-answer event with Clemens at Mohegan Sun, saying the former pitcher had done “an excellent job.”

Russo questioned the choice of honoree through an imagined presidential decision.

“I don’t know how you wake up in the morning and say to yourself, you know what? I got an idea today,” he said.

He also cited Clemens’ confrontations with Mike Piazza. A Clemens pitch struck Piazza in the head in July 2000. In Game 2 of that year’s World Series, Clemens threw a broken-bat fragment in Piazza’s direction after a foul ball.

Clemens welcomed Trump’s announcement at the rally, saying it “supersedes anything that obviously I’ve done in my playing career.” The announcement concerned the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Russo also referred to the Medal of Honor during his criticism.

“I don’t care who the president is,” Russo said. “That doesn’t make any sense to me.”