US Vice-President JD Vance was met with boos and jeers from the crowd during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan on Friday, but American viewers watching NBC’s coverage would not have heard the negative reaction. The network appeared to cut the audio of the boos, instead showing Vance and his wife Usha without comment on the reception.
The booing was captured on the Canadian broadcaster CBC’s feed, with a commentator noting: “There is the vice-president JD Vance and his wife Usha – oops, those are not … uh … those are a lot of boos for him. Whistling, jeering, some applause.” The Guardian’s Sean Ingle and USA Today’s Christine Brennan, both present at the ceremony, also reported the boos.
This is not the first time US broadcasters have been asked to avoid showing dissent against the Trump administration. At September’s US Open, tournament organisers requested that broadcasters refrain from showing the crowd’s reaction to Donald Trump. The White House later posted a clip of Vance applauding from NBC’s broadcast, with no boos audible.
Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people protested the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at the Games. The US state department confirmed that several federal agencies, including ICE, are in Italy to protect visiting Americans, but said the unit is separate from those involved in the domestic immigration crackdown.
Freestyle skier Hunter Hess expressed mixed emotions about representing the US in the current political climate, saying: “There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US.”
IOC spokesman Mark Adams addressed the crowd reaction on Saturday, calling for fair play and noting that the booing was not limited to Vance: the four Israeli athletes were also greeted with boos. “We don’t like to see any booing, regardless of what countries athletes are from,” Adams said, adding that athletes should not be punished for the actions of their governments.
