ESPN’s perceived liberal bias was null and void Monday afternoon as Dana White praised Donald Trump during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
The recent assassination attempt of Trump was broached by McAfee when he asked White about Connor McGregor and Michael Chandler responding to the shooting on social media and claiming their fight will happen this year. White didn’t have much to offer about the potential fight, but he did have plenty to say about Trump.
“Imagine if somebody took a shot at Biden or Obama or Clinton…If it happened to anybody, any of our presidents, every American on earth should be horrified by this.” – Dana White on The Pat McAfee Show and ESPN pic.twitter.com/9YpfHztUm7
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 15, 2024
“This is the former president and a candidate,” White said. “Imagine if somebody took a shot at Biden or Obama or Clinton. It’s like, this is our president. If it happened to anybody, any of our presidents, every American on earth should be horrified by this and disgusted and upset and angry.”
About 10 minutes later, McAfee gave White the floor to talk about Trump again by asking the CEO and president of the UFC to comment on the current mindset of the former President of the United States.
Dana White spent more than five minutes praising Trump, labeling him the “ultimate American badass of all time” pic.twitter.com/GZNVyXpKyA
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 15, 2024
“Everybody wants to act like a tough guy, well when the sh*t goes down, you find out who tough guys are and who tough guys are not. This guy is the legitimate, ultimate American badass of all time,” White said.
White, who spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention and recorded a video message for the 2020 convention, will reportedly introduce Trump at the RNC in Milwaukee on Thursday.
While McAfee owns editorial control of his show, it was still jarring to hear White waxing poetic about Trump on ESPN as the now-famous photo of the former president standing with his fist in the air and blood streaking down his face was flashed on the screen.
It’s the same ESPN that has a stick-to-sports mandate.
The same ESPN that is often criticized for holding a liberal bias. The odds of Biden or whoever the Democratic nominee for president ends up being in the coming months getting this type of obsequious praise on ESPN ahead of the election seems improbable. Yet ESPN will still be painted by many as a liberal sports network.
“The narrative that is put out there about Donald Trump is completely false, absolutely disgusting,” White continued. “This guy loves this country so much, and every American in this country. He loves every American…this guy is literally fighting for this country and for every American in it. He’s one of the greatest human beings I have ever met.”
Referring to Trump as the “ultimate American badass” and “one of the greatest human beings” is the ultimate example of revisionist history. Two things can be true, even in politics. We can agree no American president or presidential candidate should be the victim of an assassination attempt, as Trump was Saturday evening. We can also agree to not forget about Trump’s criminal conviction, his role in the Capitol insurrection, or his history of division and deceit, which won’t devoid him of consideration as the country’s next president, but it should devoid him of consideration as “one of the greatest human beings.”
Nothing White said about Trump was groundbreaking; it was just surprising to hear it on ESPN. But as partners with The Pat McAfee Show, and with White through their UFC package, ESPN can’t really bemoan the more than five-minute-long Trump endorsement that aired on their network Monday afternoon.
