Missouri’s attorney general is demanding “accountability” from the Mayor of Kansas City after Kansas City’s official X, formerly Twitter, account taunted the star NFL kicker Harrison Butker by revealing the town where he lives. 

The offending tweet came after Mr. Butker, a devout Catholic and social conservative, gave a commencement speech at Benedictine College on May 11 in which he praised women for getting degrees but added that he felt they must be most excited about “marriage and the children [they] will bring into this world.” 

The following Wednesday, amid growing uproar over the speech, the city of Kansas City posted on X just after 7:40 p.m. Wednesday saying, “Just a reminder that Harrison Butker lives in …” and then stated Mr. Butker’s town of residence.  

About 40 minutes later, the city deleted the post and tweeted out an apology, with a spelling error: “We apologies for our previous tweet. It was shared in error.”

Now Mr. Bailey, the attorney general, is racing to defend Mr. Butker as a beacon of religious freedom. The attorney general’s office issued an official press release stating that the attorney general had “demanded Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas turn over all documents, records, and communications relating to his office’s X (formerly Twitter) post retaliating against Kansas City Chief’s kicker Harrison Butker for comments he made in a commencement speech at Benedictine College in which he openly discussed his Catholic faith.”

On X, Mr. Bailey went further. “My office is demanding accountability after @KansasCity doxxed @buttkicker7 last night for daring to express his religious beliefs,” he wrote on X. “I will enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act to ensure Missourians are not targeted for their free exercise of religion. Stay tuned.”

Mr. Butker, 28, who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, is not shy about sharing his Catholic faith. The three-time Super Bowl champ, whose own mother is reportedly an accomplished physicist, used his commencement speech at Benedictine College to  praise his wife for embracing the role of homemaker, “one of the most important titles of all.”  He told women they had been told  “the most diabolical lies,” by liberal elites, slammed some Catholic leaders for “pushing dangerous gender ideologies” onto America’s youth and condemned the celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month, among other things.

Most of the graduates and spectators at the college, a small Catholic school, gave Mr. Butker a standing ovation, but the AP reports that “student interviews showed a more mixed reaction.” And social media has been ablaze with all sorts of commentary.  

Many people have voiced their disapproval of Mr. Butker’s speech, including the Benedictine Sisters of Mount Saint Scholastica – the nuns who represent the organization that co-founded the Catholic college where Butker spoke.

“The sisters of Mount St. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested,” their statement reads. “Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division.” 

The NFL has tried to distance itself from Butker, saying that his views were contrary to the league’s “commitment to inclusion.”

“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity,” a statement from NFL senior vice-president Jonathan Beane, the league’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, read. “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”

But Mr. Bailey is not alone in his support for Mr. Butker. Many people are using his speech – or, rather, the backlash he’s received because of it – as an opportunity to comment on the importance of “freedom of speech” and to attack liberals as a whole. 

Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves’ communications director took the time to speak out in support of Mr. Butker’s call for men to be “unapologetic in [their] masculinity.”

“This is indeed a brave and rebellious message for our current age,” Hunter Estes wrote on X. “The world needs more good men like Harrison Butker.”

Mr. Bailey, who is facing a primary challenge from the right in August, is also waging a crusade against Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis. In March, Hazelwood student Kaylee Gain, who is white, was savagely beaten and left with head trauma in a fight with a fellow student, Maurnice DeClue, who is Black, about half a mile from the school. Mr. Bailey has launched an investigation into what he calls “radical DEI,” or diversity, equity and inclusion, policies at the school which he alleges were a cause of the fight. Lawyers for the school, which is 97 percent black, have fired back, accusing Mr. Bailey of race-baiting.