Why Did Phil Mickelson Apologize for His Tax Rate Comments?

Earlier this week, golfer Phil Mickelson said that he thought tax rates were too high both federally and in his home state of California. Mickleson quickly apologized for the comments claiming that he wants to pay his “fair share.”

“My apology is for talking about it publicly because I shouldn’t take advantage of the forum that I have as a professional golfer to try to ignite change,” Mickelson said.

So, why did he walk his comments back so quickly? Andrea Tantaros led today’s chat about it on The Five.

Eric Bolling argues that it’s simply a sponsorship issue. Records show that Mickelson recently made $57 million a year from sponsors. Bolling hypothesized that with half the country being liberal, advertisers probably asked Mickelson to apologize so that he didn’t alienate half of all potential customers. “I guess he had to do it very quickly or maybe risk losing some of those advertisers,” Bolling said.

Gutfeld chimed, saying that this is evidence of “the true accomplishment of the modern progressive era,” which is the “absence of shame in every arena except when it comes to success.”

Gutfeld said, “You could do a moronic end zone dance in any sports game but if you complain about taxes, that’s evil.”