When a caller named Wayne from Nebraska, himself a former cage athlete, phoned into The Chris Cuomo Project to discuss the proposed UFC event on the White House lawn, former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo made it clear that his criticism was not directed at MMA itself.
Wayne argued that no matter who occupied the White House, there would always be some form of spectacle attached to the presidency. Cuomo used that point to establish his own connection to combat sports before explaining where his real concern lay.
“I have no problem, Wayne, with the MMA being at the White House. I love MMA, which is why I say that,” Cuomo said. “I do not like horse races, so I wouldn’t care. The problem is not MMA.”
Cuomo then broadened the discussion, framing MMA as a reflection of American culture itself.
“Is MMA a metaphor for American culture? Oh yeah,” he said. “We are a br*tal, violent people. Our culture is br*tal and violent. Okay. We are a bully culture. We have to own this.”
After referencing DV, child abuse, and assault rates in the United States, Cuomo reiterated that his criticism was not aimed at the sport itself.
“Now that said, I’m one of us and I have made those kinds of decisions and I love the MMA,” Cuomo explained. “The problem with what’s happening with the pageantry at the White House is not that it’s the MMA.”
Instead, Cuomo argued that the UFC’s political alignment has changed how the sport is perceived publicly.
“MMA has been smeared by Dana White’s affiliation with Trump,” he said. “It has hurt the perception of what that sport is about and what that culture is about in my opinion.”
Co-host Dusty then pointed to the Republican National Convention as the moment that political association became unavoidable.
“You have to remember the convention, the Republican convention, when he had Dana White and he had Hulk Hogan and he had Kid Rock,” Dusty said. “And so they’re using the UFC as another point of that.”
Dusty also argued that critics likely would have complained regardless of what kind of event was held at the White House. Cuomo agreed to an extent, but said the more important issue was how Americans are struggling financially.
“How much is it costing? What could they have done with that money?” Cuomo asked. “What is he doing about the fact that very few American families have three or four of one of those bills in savings for an emergency. That’s the way to talk about it.”
Cuomo then criticized what he viewed as shallow political outrage.
“It’s not just, ‘Aren’t you tone-deaf?’ That’s you suck,” he said. “He does suck, but he’s been weighed and measured and kicked your ass. What does that tell you?”
According to Cuomo, the answer reflects dissatisfaction with the current system.
“It tells you that people are more pissed off about the status quo and desperate for something to be done than the fact that he sucks,” Cuomo said.
For Cuomo, the proposed White House UFC event represented less of a political scandal and more of a distraction from the frustrations driving ordinary Americans.
