AOC boycotts Ed Sheeran, blames Robert Kraft for Macklemore’s tour exit

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, said this week she is done listening to Ed Sheeran’s music over rapper Macklemore’s removal from Sheeran’s Loop tour, though she placed most of the blame on New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft rather than Mr. Sheeran himself.

“We need to be very clear about how dangerous a precedent this is,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told TMZ.

The dispute traces back to Sept. 4 and 5, when Macklemore, opening for Mr. Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, told the crowd he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten, repeating the phrase “Free Palestine” and performing his song “Hind’s Hall.” The remarks drew a petition from the Israeli American Council calling for his removal from the tour.

Messina Touring Group, the promoter of Mr. Sheeran’s U.S. dates, subsequently dropped Macklemore from the remaining shows, citing venue pushback. In a lengthy Instagram statement, Macklemore said Mr. Sheeran told him Mr. Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, one of the tour’s stops — had barred him from performing there and had rallied other stadium owners to issue Mr. Sheeran an ultimatum. That claim about other venues is Macklemore’s alone; Mr. Kraft’s own statement addressed only his decision on Gillette and did not respond to the broader allegation.

In that statement, Mr. Kraft said the venue would not “provide a platform for hate speech” and cited what he called Macklemore’s history of antisemitic imagery, adding that the decision was not meant to diminish Palestinian suffering.

Mr. Sheeran addressed the fallout in his own Instagram statement, saying “I am not complicit” and maintaining that Macklemore’s removal was the promoter’s call, not his. In the wake of the split, several of the tour’s remaining opening acts — Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe — withdrew in solidarity, as did Beoga, Mr. Sheeran’s own touring band.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said she has “empathy for the situation” and that Mr. Sheeran “plays a role” but argued the bigger issue is Mr. Kraft’s ability to pressure multiple venues at once, calling it a warning sign about how a small number of stadium owners “can prevent an entire massive issue.” No replacement support acts for the tour’s remaining dates had been announced as of this writing.