On Deadline: White House, Angelo Carusone discusses the slur about Michelle Obama at the UFC event and how rhetoric like it went from the right-wing media ecosystem to the White House lawn
Carusone: “The people with power to draw a line are not only not doing it, they’re enabling this”
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From the June 16, 2026, edition of MS NOW's Deadline: White House
NICOLLE WALLACE (CO-HOST): Angelo, these are the polls I was talking about. Reuters-Ipsos asked, "Is it appropriate for Donald Trump to host the event, the UFC event, at the White House?" Just 16% of Americans said yes. 46% said no. 38% said neither. They were unsure. So, 84% of Americans either think it's inappropriate or aren't sure about its appropriateness.
So, you've only got 16% of Americans who are enthusiastic about this event. And then you've got Dana White, the president of the UFC, attacking the comments attacking Michelle Obama, and you've got Dave Portnoy, sort of the poster boy for the manosphere, the original, condemning the lack of people denouncing the comments. What a mess.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): Yeah. I mean, look, a couple of things. One, obviously 84% of the people don't want this, but it doesn't really matter, right? Because a 100% are going to pay for it in some way. And that's part of the -- there's sort of a few mechanics or machines operating in simultaneous here. And that's why I think this is actually a significant story because it puts a spotlight on a few things.
One, it puts a spotlight not on what, you know, these comments from this gross doofus, but on the fact that all the people with power, all the entities with power to draw a line decided not to. So, now, in this one-off, if that was the end of it, it would just be a one and done. But part of the issue here is it puts a spotlight on the second thing, which is how something, as Maya noted, ten years ago was relegated to the fringes, makes its way to the front lawn of the White House. That's this larger right-wing media ecosystem. And when you have people in power to draw a line that don't draw a line at these significant one-offs, and in fact, think it's in their business interest not only to not draw a line, but maybe to help clear the way so that these -- that the machinery supporting Trump's lies and storylines, that right-wing ecosystem can operate with impunity, that people can get away with this kind of stuff, in fact even make it a business model, you actually help make it -- you speed that process along. You enable it. You make it possible for things to go from the fringes to the front lawn of the White House. You mainstream these ideas.
And, like I said, it isn't just about this. It's about how so much has transformed. This is just a reflection of the larger corruption and grift that's happening underneath the surface, and that then gets to the final point that you were making with those stats. I mean, it's remarkable that only 16% of the country doesn't want -- thinks it's inappropriate, although certainly, I bet those numbers are worse now, and yet it still happened. And yet, still people are paying for it. And you can look across the spectrum, and that's the case in all kinds of places. Iran, the ballroom, these monuments, all the gilding he's doing. I mean, this was supposed to be a public event, and it was behind a paywall. I mean, the grift is so obvious now that people are anticipating it. They didn't know that some ridiculous comment was going to be made. They were responding to the grossness of the event itself.
And that's, to me, the big throughline. Everybody knew, the public knew, but so did all the participants. This is not the first time this guy has said that. Hokit has said that, he started saying that a year ago after he won fights. Dana White knew that he was saying this afterwards. This is not a new thing. He's been saying this. He says it on right-wing media podcasts. They could have told him to knock it off beforehand, but nobody did. And that's it. The people with power to draw a line are not only not doing it, they're enabling this.
And so even when it's stopped, you know, the real question of who's going to, you know, are we going to end this party? Will be in November or there's going to be a lot of clean up even if we do end the party. And that to me is what I see when I look at this whole picture. Spotlights on a few things, this engine of corruption and grift and grievance that is sort of polluting our day to day lives.
WALLACE: What is the grievance? What are they mad about? They're literally doing -- I don't like their thing. I don't think they look like they're doing anything great, but they must be happy in their tights. Like, what are they so pissed off about, Angelo?
CARUSONE: Yeah, look, the Michelle Obama stuff started way back. Rush Limbaugh -- this is a bridge between the old school Rush Limbaugh and sort of the fringe ideas. Because he did two things there. He didn't just say that she was a man, which is sort of a fringe conspiracy. He used the Moo-chelle comment, which is what Rush Limbaugh used to call her. And that's where it started. A lot of the conservative, the right wing, the part of the MAHA people, back then their frustration with Michelle Obama was all on the dietary stuff and all the food. They said she was controlling their food. She was trying to manipulate them and control them. And it became sort of a way to attack the Obamas broadly, not just about control, but then it got into all the other racial elements to it.
And then the last thing we can't ignore is that she is wildly popular. I mean, in 2021, Joe Rogan, not once, but several times, predicted that if she ran in 2024, she would beat Donald Trump, because she's smart and likable and she represents the right things. I mean, he was a Michelle Obama booster. And so, of course, they attack the strengths. And there's no actual real grievance underneath it. It's just that they have to go after what they see as popular. And it's to reinforce that they're, you know, even if they can't drive the culture, they can at least tear things down, as they demonstrated both with physical monuments, but also so much of our norms.