City Council Candidate Claims Derek Jeter Endorsement; Jeter Denies It

Derek Jeter is denying that a statement in which he seemingly endorsed Ronnie Cho’s bid for a Manhattan city council seat was in fact an endorsement.

Let’s go to the tape:

Apparently, the last part of Jeter’s explicit endorsement was invented by the Democratic hopeful. Per a spokesperson to the Daily News:

“Derek does not endorse any political candidates, so this is no different. He was speaking to Ronnie’s character and the relationship he and the foundation had with Ronnie,” Tom Corsillo, spokesman for Turn 2, said.

Cho’s campaign said due to a “communications mix-up” a draft release had been sent out prematurely — but that a corrected version was being sent and that Cho looked forward to working with Jeter to empower city youth.

Jeter has never been one to express an opinion about literally anything, so it’s not surprising that he’d try to draw the line at “I acknowledge that I know this person” when it comes to making endorsements.

Maybe Cho really did put words in Jeter’s mouth, or maybe Jeets is just a flip-flopper. Either way, Jeter wanting to stay in the center of the political spectrum makes sense—he’s always had trouble going left or right.