Eric Snowden Update: Senator Lindsey Graham Says U.S. Should Boycott 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia

Rumors continue to swirl around where Eric Snowden will seek out asylum following his escape from the United States, but it seems for now that Russia is the most likely option. As such, Senator Lindsey Graham (R. SC) is suggesting that the United States should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia as punishment. 

"I love the Olympics, but I hate what the Russian government is doing throughout the world," Graham, R-S.C., told NBC News on Tuesday. "If they give asylum to a person who I believe has committed treason against the United States, that's taking it to a new level." 

Graham compared it to the 1936 Olympics, when the United States travelled to Berlin and performed in front of Adolf Hitler, prior to World War II of course. 

"If you could go back in time, would you have allowed Adolf Hitler to host the Olympics in Germany?" asked Graham "To have the propaganda coup of inviting the world into Nazi Germany and putting on a false front?"

The Obama administration took a non-confrontational stance, saying that the Olympics were "a long way off." Speaker of the House and fellow Republican John Boehner was more adamant in shooting it down, calling the idea "dead wrong." 

"Why would we want to punish U.S. athletes who have been training for three years to compete in the Olympics over a traitor who can't find a place to call home?"

Naturally, the U.S. Olympic Committee was also against. 

"While we acknowledge the seriousness of the issues at hand, we strongly oppose the notion that a boycott of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is in our country's best interests," said spokesman Patrick Sandusky. 

Technically, the U.S. government has no say in whether American athletes attend or not, as all responsibility rests in the hands of the U.S. Olympic Committee. However the organization has folded to pressure before, when the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games, citing the U.S.S.R's invasion of Afghanistan.