LAME: ABC, NBC Try to Trap Hughes Family Over Trump Inviting Hockey Team to SOTU

Curtis Houck
February 24th, 2026 6:07 PM

Early Tuesday, America’s new leading family — as in the Hughes klan, including USA Hockey star and gold-medal-winning goal scorer Jack Hughes  — waded into network morning newscasts and were sadly met on ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today with attempts to sully their reputations and maim both their character and the entire men’s team for taking a phone call Sunday from President Trump and accepting his invite to the State of the Union.

Jack and brother Quinn Hughes both woke up early to appear on the two leading newscasts despite having arrived back from Italy less than 24 hours prior and spent the night partying in Miami.

They first appeared on the superficial-yet-cartoonishly-partisan GMA and things seemed to be going well. Co-hosts Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos asked each brother if they had seen the replays of Jack’s game-winning goal over Canada.

This continued with co-host former NFL player Michael Strahan wondering if they had dreamed of being NHL players seeing as how their dad was a coach and mom had played in college before becoming a USA Hockey executive.

But in-between Roberts asking about Jack about a letter he wrote to himself seven years prior about winning a gold medal and Strahan welcoming Hughes as a new kindred spirit with misaligned teeth, Stephanopoulos interjected with the partisan hot take: “Quinn, Quinn, Jack mentioned the celebration with the women’s hockey team. They’ve said they’re not going to be able to go to the State of the Union tonight. Will you guys be going?”

Quinn conceded he’s unsure “how much we’re allowed to say, but yes” they’d be going and “we’re excited to go” because it’s “[s]omething you don’t get to do — I don’t know what today is — every Tuesday.”

He went on to further expound on that as well as his support for the women’s team that dates back to before the Olympics:

But yeah — but, it’s going to be special for us, but I’m glad you mentioned the women’s team again. You know, we’re really happy for them. Obviously, a lot going on on social media right now surrounding our team and their team. But, you know, the last couple we’ve done a lot of training with them and got to know a lot of those girls really well. We’re extremely happy to come and, obviously, [inaudible].

Shifting to NBC’s Today, the entire Hughes family (except for younger brother Luke, who also plays in the NHL, but was’ ton the team) appeared at one point or another, starting with mother Ellen from the base of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

It evolved in the same fashion as ABC’s did with basic questions about what her experience was like both on Sunday and in the days leading up to the final. At one point, co-host Carson Daly even asked her to weigh in on how proud she was of Jack “not taking any credit for the goal, giving it to his team, talking about the future of USA hockey, the Brotherhood, talking about his patriotism for this country.”

Hoda Kotb dragged out the Trump angle and sought to have her nitpick the men’s team and/or the President for the latter’s comments — which she said gained “a little traction” — joking about needing to also invite the women’s team to the State of the Union or he’d risk being impeached.

Ellen similarly didn’t fall into the trap and instead focused on how “at the end of the day, it’s just about the country and the moment that these players, both the men and women, can bring so much unity to a group and to a country.”

Ellen said that the games brought together “[p]eople...that don’t watch hockey, people that have politics on one side or on the other side, and that’s all both the men’s team and the men’s team care about.”

Also sensing the media’s attempts to drive wedges between the two, Ellen brought up the camaraderie:

If you could see what we see from the inside and the men and women sharing, you know, dorms — dorm rooms and halls and flex floors and the camaraderie and the synergy and the way the women cheered on the men and the way the men cheered on the women. That’s what it’s all about. And the other things they cannot control. They care about humanity. They care about unity, and they care about the country I love.

Later, she concluded by reemphasizing that “I hope everybody just understands what we did in the moment, both the men and the women, to bring this country together and let everybody cheer in the same direction.”

Jack and Quinn Hughes appeared roughly a half hour later on Today and, unlike ABC, there was no direct question about Trump.

Having just come off ABC with Stephanopoulos’s gotcha, they seemed prepared and made sure to go out of their way to compliment the women’s team as “a very special team” that were “amazing to spend time with” and also bask in having achieved something for the country:

Thankfully, the fourth hour of Today (with Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones) brought on Jim Hughes (and Ellen for a second visit) and completely avoided the forced politics and smears. Instead, they asked them to talk about what their sons achieved and advice for parents raising sons hoping they become as hard-working and patriotic as their boys:

CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil closed Monday’s show with an apologetically pro-America commentary that was a contrast to the purposeful injection of partisanship into what should be a unifying moment seemingly out of yesteryear.

Dokoupil told viewers that he observed the team’s victory and postgame interviews “rang some sort of a bell in America” that “gave people chills, goose bumps, made them cry even” and reminded us that, while “America is a complicated place,” it’s our “home and, therefore, easy to love” (click “expand”):

DOKOUPIL: Only in America, a moment that called to mind a picture of this country that it turns out millions of us were missing. I’m talking of course about Sunday’s USA hockey game. The men’s team won its first Olympic gold and 46 years, beating Canada in overtime and, by now, you’ve seen the images of Jack Hughes, 24, Florida born who left blood on the ice quite literally before scoring the winning goal and telling a reporter through broken teeth, “this is all about our country right now. I love the USA.” 5,000 miles away, those comments, as much as the win itself, rang some sort of a bell in America. It gave people chills, goose bumps, made them cry even. Countless masses took a social media to say exactly that and more. It was everything about this team. A bunch of guys who played Toby Keith in the locker room celebration, drank beers during the postgame press conference, cheers to you guys, even thanked the troops in another interview. Hughes was even patriotic in his commentary on American health care.

JACK HUGHES: I’m lucky I’m from the best country in the world and we got great dentists there too, so I’m lucky I’m American.

DOKOUPIL: They were gracious in victory and big hearted too, bringing to the ice the children of a teammate who was killed 18 months ago by an alleged drunk driver. They were, in short, American and nothing about that fact seemed complicated for them, even though we’re all grown ups and we know America is a complicated place. What they remind us is that it is also home and, therefore, easy to love.

To see the relevant transcripts from January 24, click here (for ABC) and here (for NBC).