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

Published Nov 24, 2024, 9:00 PM

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

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 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. 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. 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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? 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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. Facts are facts.