White House Waffles On USA Attending 2018 Olympics

The Hill reports:

The White House on Thursday left open the possibility that U.S. athletes won’t participate in 2018 Olympics in South Korea.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders during the daily media briefing said “no official decision has been made” on whether the U.S. will send its athletes to the games in February, which will take place in Pyeongchang, roughly 50 miles from the demilitarized zone with North Korea.

Sanders said the goal is to attend, but “that’ll be a decision made closer to time.” Sanders later walked back her remarks, saying that the U.S. “looks forward to participating” in the games.

More from CNBC:

A senior U.S. official has cast doubt over whether U.S. athletes will able to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea amid heightened tensions with the North. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said the prospect of U.S. athletes participating in February was an “open question.”

When asked by Fox News Wednesday night if it was a “done deal” for American athletes to participate in South Korea, Haley replied: “I have not heard anything about that. But I do know in the talks that we have, whether its Jerusalem or its North Korea, it’s always about how we protect U.S. citizens in the area.”