While much of the attention surrounding Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour has centered on Sheeran himself, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Robert Kraft has not faced enough scrutiny over his role in the rapper’s departure.
Speaking with TMZ, Ocasio-Cortez called Kraft’s actions an “abuse of power.”
“When you see what Robert Kraft did to line up all of the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way, it’s become clear that this is not just about one music artist or two music artists,” she said. “This is about how just a handful of stadium owners and the elite can prevent an entire massive issue — in this case, Gaza — but it doesn’t stop there. It could be speaking out about AI, it could be speaking out about any issue. You can now just get a handful of stadium owners to ensure that an entire person’s career can be jeopardized if they speak out about any issue.”
“I have a huge amount of empathy for the situation because I think people want the focus here to be about Ed Sheeran — and he, of course, plays a role — but they’re not putting the focus on Robert Kraft and the actual people who are kind of twisting things here,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “Everyone has responsibility in the situation, everyone plays a role. But we need to be very clear about how dangerous a precedent this is.”
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In a statement released earlier this week, Kraft acknowledged his role in pushing for Macklemore’s removal from Sheeran’s tour after the rapper advocated for a free Palestine during two New Jersey concerts earlier in the run. Kraft said he threatened to block Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium and reached out to other stadium owners about similar action, which ultimately contributed to Sheeran removing Macklemore from the tour.
“Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech. Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line,” Kraft said in his statement.
🗣️ Rep. AOC tells @hicharliecotton she is boycotting Ed Sheeran because she says he’s complicit in Robert Kraft and other stadium owners’ efforts to silence Macklemore. pic.twitter.com/zuISc3zaFs
— TMZ (@TMZ) September 15, 2026