Stephen A's Take: UFC President Dana White declares he's done with "disgusting" politics.

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We got to get into politics for a second. Where
there's been a shocking turnaround in some people's eyes. Anyway,
from a high profile Donald Trump supporter who would happen
to be named Dana White, the UFC president now says
he wants absolutely, positively nothing to do with politics, after
being one of the biggest and louder supporters of the
president elect. White was asked by The New Yorker about

(00:25):
politics Saturday night at UFC three or nine at Madison
Square Garden, where Trump and some of his cabinet picks
attended as well. By the way, I was there too,
not with them, but I was in the building. Look
at this quote from White right here where he said
this about being a political pundit quote, I'm never fucking
doing this again. I want nothing to do with this shit.

(00:46):
It's gross, it's disgusting. I want nothing to do with politics.
End quote. Ladies and gentlemen, you might think this far
fetch is far reaching, is something that you make front
page news and all of this. Other of all Dana
White expressed is how most of us feel about Capitol
Hill and the politicians that reside there. We can't stand them.

(01:10):
I'm not talking about individuals. I'm talking about the apparatus.
I'm talking about the structure. I'm talking about our government
and how corrupt it has become because of their behavior,
salacious and otherwise against one another, and how unproductive they've
been to the betterment of American society as a whole
because of it. Dana White wasn't getting political. Dana White

(01:30):
was supporting his friend. Donald Trump has been a friend
of Dana White spanning nearly forty years. Donald Trump was
one of the original supporters of the UFC. That's how
far back hend Dana White go. Dana White has said
on numerous occasions that Donald Trump assisted in helping the

(01:50):
UFC become what it ultimately became, which was a multi
billion dollar establishment. You, Dann Wright, he was going to
stick out his chest and help Donald Trump because Donald
Trump helped him before he became who he is now.
Fair Enough, we all do that, all of us, at
least we should. But I'm gonna tell you this, when

(02:11):
you go a step further and you dig deeper into
what Dana White had to say about politicians and politics,
and when he says the world is dirty, think about this.
This man is associated with a pugilistic sport. This man
has to sit a course from promoters, he has to
sit a course from fighters, he has to go lawyers,
he has to negotiate deals. Things like that get ugly.

(02:34):
His sport has been compared to us for the boxing,
where you got promoters ruined in the sport because they
refuse to give us the fights that we want to
see when we want to see it. And still in
the face of all of that and all the unsavory
behavior he's been associated with throughout the years, this brother said,
politics is disgusting, It's disgraceful. It's this, It's that you

(02:57):
know how bad you got to be to hear that
from Dana White. That's what we're dealing with with America.
And this is what I'm talking about when I brought
up Morning Joe the other day, I don't have any
acts to grind with Morning jo Joe Scarborough and Mika
Razinski have always been cool with me. I'm simply saying,
in the interest of fitness, when you call somebody a

(03:19):
racist and you have no problem with their name being
associated with Hitler or with Nazis, as they did not
have a problem with with Donald Trump, associating Donald Trump
with such a thing. How do you then go tomorrow
lago to speak with him and then come back over
the airways and don't tell us what the hell you said?

(03:42):
What you say? I got one of my producers. They
A'm a man, Gala, been a producer for years, Yo, Gayla?
What's up? If the man or his wife called Donald
Trump such a thing? Should they not have said, hey,
we're sorry, or we met everywhere we said. Shouldn't their

(04:06):
audience have had the right to know that. That's what
I'm talking about. That's why I mentioned them, because you
got to be consistent. You got the same politicians were
with listening to Representative Clyburn where Neil Cavuto on Fox
brought up Nazis being having Donald Trump's name associated with

(04:26):
Nazis and asking was that not out of line? And
Clyburn had no problem with it. Well, here's the problem.
Now that he's the president elect, and the Republicans have
the Senate, and the Republicans have the House, and the
Republicans have the Supreme Court, how are you gonna do business?
How are you gonna get anything passed? How are you

(04:48):
going to serve your constituency? And make their lives better.
If your incendiary rhetoric made it worse to do business
with the other side, are we not gonna be grown ups?
That's what I'm talking about. You heard me say a
lot of things. I didn't vote for them. You heard

(05:08):
me say that. You heard me talk about childishness. We
already talk about his unwillingness to galvanize and bring people together.
You heard me talk about those things. You didn't hear
me bring up racists. You didn't hear me bring up
Hitler or Nazis. You didn't hear me bring up stuff
like that. It's kind of productive, it's unfair, it's irresponsible
when you know that if he wins, you're gonna have

(05:32):
to do business with them. That's the problem with this
bindary system we're living in. People get ugly and ugly
and uglier because they want their way devoid of compromise.
And then when you lose and find out you have
to compromise, you don't know what to do. But it

(05:54):
isn't it time to ask if at least half this
country was wrong on how it conducted themselves. You can
feel differently all you want to and vote in a
different direction. That's your right as an American citizen. But
when you engage in vitriol, particularly of the irresponsible kind,

(06:18):
you cut yourself off from the ability to do business
on behalf of the people you purport to represent. And
where does that leave you? With the president you don't want,
but at least half the country said it wants, which
means most of the country told you to go kick rocks.

(06:39):
Facts are facts.