Transcription
At yesterday's UFC match on the White House lawn, this moment made national news.
"Hey, shout out to Trump for having the balls to put some like this on. And if I'm going to say anything, THERE'S ONLY ONE PERSON MORE INCREDIBLE than the Incredible Hulk, and that's my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now listen, Alex Pereira, I WANT A SHAMA ON YOUR MAMA. And lastly, MICHELLE OBAMA IS A MAN. AM I RIGHT, AMERICA? LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, JOSH HULIT."
Obviously a disgusting and reprehensible comment, not only to be made at the White House at an official White House event, but also just in general in life. For a grown ass man to think that that's clever or funny is really just a testament to the mental stuntedness that this guy suffers from. And I know that the right is going to claim that Donald Trump can't be held responsible for what somebody else says at this event. And he might have plausible deniability if this fighter hadn't done the exact same kind of thing in the past.
"Lie. AND PS, BRITNEY GRINDER IS A MAN."
How about that? A guy who has a history of saying derogatory things about black women was invited to the White House and said derogatory things about black women. Yes. How could we possibly blame Trump for that? What's next? Blaming Trump for the crimes that his pardoned insurrectionists committed despite knowing those people were dangerous. Come on.
In fact, this fighter didn't just make headlines for what he said about Michelle Obama. He also did this earlier in the event.
"Josh Hoken."
"So what? Maybe I was drinking last night."
"But who would it?"
"Who wouldn't be? I have a a giant black man that wants to knock me out. He has the most knockouts in UFC history."
"Beast, Josh."
"231."
"231 the official weight for Josh Hoken."
And ladies and gentlemen, if you would please. Now, I've seen reporting that this was a bit. I personally doubt that he showed up hung over and vomited on himself in public. But then again, I wouldn't put anything past somebody trashy enough to say what he said about Michelle Obama.
Now, even some outspoken Trump supporters have pushed back on what happened here. Here, for example, is Dave Portoi.
"There was one moment I do think Trump has to denounce and anybody associated with it has to denounce, and that's that crazy fighter guy. Um, I don't even have his name up here, but he won the fight. He took the microphone and he made a derogatory comment about Michelle Obama. To me, that on the White House lawn. Now, you you these are UFC guys, all right? They're crazy. They're idiots. You have uh Sean Strickland, who's one of the craziest people of all time to the point you can't even pay attention to what he says, snuck in. But when you have that on the White House lawn, an event you put down, I don't care what you think about the Obamas or anything. That has to be an immediate denounce. Like wrong, doesn't speak for me. I have no problem with the event. I guess you run that risk because these guys are lunatics. But that was the only thing. If Trump should denounce it, he should say that was totally wrong. The event itself, listen, the troops seemed to love it. All the people there seem to love it. I have no problem with it. I think you're crying over spilled milk if you are upset about the actual event. But that comment, if you're gonna do it, own it and be like, 'We don't that that was wrong and should never happen.'"
Now, I'm not sure who Portoi thinks Donald Trump is. But Trump will never denounce anything, but especially not criticism of Michelle Obama. You think he's going to stick his neck out for her? Like, Portoy has literally met Donald Trump. The notion that he thinks Trump is going to backtrack goes to show that Port Noise is just saying words regardless of their relationship with reality.
Here's another one.
"Hey Shane, how'd you enjoy the night, man?"
"Pretty cool."
"What do you think of Josh?"
"What do you think? What do you think of him saying Michelle Obama's a man?"
"I didn't love that."
"Didn't love it. How come?"
"A lot a lot of people have said the opposite? That's why. Oh, I don't like that."
And yet, while some people were willing to acknowledge the depravity of that comment, you of course have people like this who outright refused to do so.
"So, is it was everything you hoped for?"
"It was pretty great. Yeah. A lot of excitement. Yeah, it was a good time, man. I I like the fights anyway. So, yeah. Yeah. Couple quick knockouts. The last fight was pretty good. So, yeah, good stuff."
"I got to ask, what do you think of Josh Hoett saying Michelle Obama is a man?"
"I think it was uh it was probably the most unexpected and unintentionally hilarious moment of the night. The whole place kind of erupted. So I think you see online like that kind of blew up."
"It was kind of weird though because you know it's celebrating America event and then you know she's part of American history."
"You got to smile a little bit. It was funny. Just joke around. He's he's hen. He's it's hoken. You're not tear reading the Declaration of Independence. Surprise, surprise. Dan Bonino thinks it was funny."
Here's what I think is funny. Dan Bonino thinking that he has any credibility as a guy who spent years saying stuff like this.
"You wondering why we're not hearing more about this Epstein case? I mean, the guy was only connected to just about every major player in the swamp internationally. And yet, you don't hear much about it. And what the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epste? And yet, when he actually joined the White House, joined the FBI, well, suddenly this was the story we were fed. Those two cases obviously are of significant public interest. I'm just telling you what we see in the file. I am I just want to be crystal clear on this. I am not asking anyone to believe me. I'm telling you what's there and what isn't."
"Right?"
"There is nothing in the file at this point on the Epstein case. And there's going to be a disclosure on this coming shortly. We are working through some there is video. That is something the public..."
"There's video of him killing himself."
"No. No. not the actual act, but there the the entire um MCC bay. It was only one camera. There were other there's video that when you look at the video and we will release that's what's taken a while on this. We are working on cleaning it up to make sure you have an enhanced and we're going to give the original so you don't think there were any shenanigans. You're going to see there's no one there but him."
"There's just nobody there. So I say to people all the time, if you have a tip, let us know. But there's no DNA, there's no audio, there's no fingerprints, there's no suspects, there's no accomplices, there's no tips, there is nothing. If you have it, I'm happy to see it. There's video clear as day. He's the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it."
So, if you're looking for funny, for comedy, for humor, this guy going back to an audience who now knows he's completely full of is probably peak humor if you ask me. But all of that puts on full display just how ridiculous this statement was by Dana White.
"Yeah. Hopefully we we we we created some unity uh in the country and in the world and and uh brought in some new fans. I hope that's what we walk away with tonight."
Unity. You hosted an event at the White House where one of the fighters called President Obama's wife a man. Yes. Truly, this event brought the country together. Bravo, Dana. Bravo.
The reality is that nothing that Donald Trump does brings the country together and it was never intended to. In fact, the whole reason that Trump focused on UFC specifically is expressly because that is the one sport where he is most popular. This wasn't about mending fences. It was always about doubling down on where Trump already had the most support.
"Why do you think Trump loves the UFC so much?"
"Yeah. Okay. You know, we've seen Donald Trump go to these UFC fights before, right? We see that there may be UFC fights, you know, on the White House lawn come this weekend. And, you know, it's because the UFC and MMA is a safe space. It is a safe space. It's a nice place. It's warm and lovely for the president of United States. Party party ID league among fans of MMA. Look at this. Republicans hold the lead among MMA fans. Look at that. Plus 14 versus soccer. If he goes to World Cup, I don't think that's going to be friendly territory for for the president. Look at that. Democrats hold the party ID lead there of plus 12. And we know that Donald Trump was booed at the Garden. Look at that. Democrats hold a 28-point lead. I'm fans of the NBA."
And look, I've said this before and I'll say it again. I'm not against the UFC. I wrestled for a decade. Combat sports are a part of who I am, a part of who this country is. But it is not the government's job to host human fighting because the god king wants entertainment. This isn't Rome in the coliseum. And more importantly, we've got people in this country who are hurting, who can't afford food or healthcare or housing. And the message being sent to them right now is that Trump is more focused on hosting blood sports in his front lawn than helping anybody.
And yet, this is who Trump is. He is in it for himself. That's why he spent his presidency building himself a ballroom, buying himself a jet, repaving the Rose Garden for himself, slapping his name on the Kennedy Center, putting banners with his own face on it on side of government buildings, trying to build a new arch. This is about Trump, which would be bad enough by itself, but even worse given the fact that the entire pitch he gave to voters was that he would finally usher in an America first agenda. He would finally focus on the little guy, the forgotten person. Apparently, that meant cutting healthcare and food assistance while boosting his own net worth, $4 billion. Yeah, real populist champion we've got there.
And what's worse, we can expect it from Trump. He has been conning people his entire life. This is who he is at his core. From stiffing contractors in the 80s and 90s to now wasting billions of dollars in taxpayer money on his own birthday celebrations. But the rest of the GOP lets him. They have the power as a co-equal branch of government to serve as a check on him. But they won't. They are all too collectively chicken that they outright refuse to lift a finger to stop him. They are there to serve not their constituents, but rather to contract every ounce of power to dear leader because their only actual allegiance is to him. The Republican party more broadly promised America first, but the only person thriving in this country right now is the guy sitting in the Oval Office.
Before you go, I'm very excited to announce that I've written a new book titled The Day After: How to Wield Power in a PostTrump World. The book explores what is, in my opinion, the single most important theme that we're dealing with in politics today and moving forward. Power. Specifically, how Republicans abuse it and how Democrats refuse to wield it. This book explains how we got here and more importantly, how we should finally wield power if we're fortunate enough to get it back. It is the blueprint for progressives who want to do far more than just restore the status quo. Please pre-order today by visiting the link in the episode description or go to brianttylercohen.com/book. You can grab yours from any of the major retailers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble or find an independent bookstore closest to you that's also listed on that website. Thanks so much for supporting Independent Media.