Donald Trump delivers bold verdict on Pete Rose MLB Hall of Fame induction as he pays tribute to disgraced baseball legend during VP debate

Donald Trump had more than one debate on his mind as his Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance took on democrat Tim Walz Tuesday night.

Midway through Tuesday’s Vice Presidential debate, Trump joined the sporting as he weighed in on Pete Rose and the controversial MLB legend’s lifetime ban. 

Rose, a three-time World Series winner, passed away at the age of 83 on Monday at his home in Las Vegas. It was later revealed that the all-time hit king died from heart disease and that he’d also been battling diabetes.

While he is considered one of the greatest players in history, the MLB icon’s career was a highly controversial one after he was banned from the sport for betting on the Cincinnati Reds as both a player and manager of the team. 

The ban prevented him from induction into the Hall of Fame, something which Rose pleaded with MLB  to reverse multiple times until the end of the life. 

And the former president rallied behind Rose’s cause Tuesday night, urging MLB to induct the Reds legend before his funeral. 

‘The GREAT Pete Rose just died,’ the 78-year-old posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

‘He was one of the most magnificent baseball players ever to play the game. He paid the price! Major League Baseball should have allowed him into the Hall of Fame many years ago. Do it now, before his funeral! DJT.’

The Republican candidate wasn’t alone in his calls for Rose’s induction as Stephen A. Smith also blasted the ban, saying that ‘murderers have been let off quicker’ than he has.

‘People make mistakes. Murderers have been let off quicker than Pete Rose has,’ he said on First Take, Tuesday morning.

‘And baseball wants to sit up there with its high and mighty hypocritical self and literally denigrate this man. In 1999 he got a standing ovation in Atlanta during the World Series…they gave him a standing ovation! The American public said ‘bump all that, we want this man here!’

 Just a few weeks before his passing, Rose admitted he was still hoping for forgiveness.

‘There’s nothing I can change about the history of Pete Rose,’ he told Texas television station KLTV in an interview published on September 7.

‘I keep convincing myself or telling myself, “Hang in there, Pete, you’ll get a second chance.”‘

‘This is the one country that gives you a second chance,’ Rose added. ‘I continue to hope that someday I’ll get a second chance, and I won’t need a third.’

As well as his betting scandal, in recent years Rose was also accused of having an improper sexual relationship with a minor in the 1970s.

In 2017, the Phillies canceled his induction onto the team’s Wall of Fame after a Cincinnati woman said in federal court that she had a sexual relationship with the married Rose that began during his first stint with the Reds in 1973, when she was 14 or 15.

However, Rose has never been charged with statutory rape and the statute of limitations has expired.

Although he has reportedly admitted to the relationship, he has insisted that he believed she was 16 at the time of the affair, making her old enough in the state of Ohio to consent to sexual activity.

In recent years, Rose has made appearances at Reds games in Cincinnati, where he is still regarded as one of the best player’s in team history and one of the city’s favorite home-grown athletes.

Rose spent the majority of his baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds but also enjoyed stints with the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos.

Baseball’s all-time leader in hits (4,256), singles (3,215), games played (3,562), and at-bats (14,053), the Cincinnati native won a pair of World Series with the Reds, another with the Phillies, while hitting .303 for his career.

A 17-time All-Star, Rose was also the 1973 National League MVP, the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, and the 1975 World Series MVP.

He returned to Cincinnati, where he finished his career as a player-manager for the Reds, hanging up his spikes as a player for good in 1986.