RACE: The pitiful fighter's pitiful claim...

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2026

...dates all the way back to Joan Rivers: On Sunday evening, June 14, a UFC fighter made a strange, inane remark right there on the White House lawn. 

As we noted yesterday, the news report in the Washington Post started off like this:

After White House bout, UFC fighter disparages Michelle Obama as ‘a man’

UFC fighter Josh Hokit used his post-bout interview Sunday night at the White House to disparage former first lady Michelle Obama.

In a post-fight interview, the heavyweight fighter praised President Donald Trump for hosting the event, which was intended to celebrate America’s 250th birthday.

He then insulted the mother of one of his rivals, thanked Jesus and ended by shouting: “And lastly—Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?”   

Some in the audience laughed at Hokit’s remark, which is rooted in a baseless far-right conspiracy theory. Right-wing podcaster Joe Rogan, who was conducting the post-fight interview, did not follow up with Hokit on the comment.

Searching for the appropriate term, Amy Wang initially said that the nitwit Hokit had "disparaged" the former first lady. Much later in her report, she explicitly described Hokit's screeching statement as an "insult." 

In some ways, Hokit screaming statement can almost seem like a strange sort of insult. We say that for this reason:

Presumably, there's nothing "wrong" with being a man. Similarly, it's routinely believed, within the broad expanse of modern American culture, that there's also nothing "wrong" with being a woman. 

On the other hand, gender identity has always tended to play an important role in the vast sweep of the planet's human societies. It almost automatically seems like an insult for a woman to be called a man, or for a man to be called a woman.  

Then too, there's the burgeoning throwback movement known as "masculinism"—the throwback movement currently sweeping substantial portions of the Red American male world. Within this realm, the claim that the former first lady was really a man would be recognized, by one and all, as an attempt at an ugly disparagement—as an ugly (if dimwitted) insult. 

So it probably seemed to those who laughed that night. Hokit had insulted the former first lady, or at least he had "owned the libs."

In her report, Wang somewhat oddly said that Hokit's idiotic behavior was "rooted in a baseless far-right conspiracy theory." It's unfortunate that Wang had to dignify Hokit's inanity that way, but she was trying to describe disordered behavior, her somewhat peculiar statement can almost be said to be right.   

The inane remark by the UFC performer does, in fact, enjoy a type of privileged status within the contemporary far-right "manosphere." On the far-right "cable news" TV show Gutfeld!, the notion that Michelle Obama is really a ma is frequently floated by the program's 61-year-old misogyny-adjacent host. 

On that show, the notion that Mrs. Obama is a man is typically accompanied by a second disparaging claim, this time about the former president. Is this "the baseless conspiracy theory" to which Wang somewhat awkwardly referred?   

Wang never explained what she meant by that statement, but the pair of disparagements / insults date back at least to the increasingly sour work of Joan Rivers in the year 2014.    

If memory serves, it seemed to us that Rivers, who had always been an insult/shock comedian, grew a bit less pleasant with age. In a news report filed on July 4, 2014, CNN reported her latest attempt at mirth. 

For whatever it may be worth, Rivers had just turned 81. Way back on July 4, 2014, pithy headline included, CNN's instructive report started off like this:

Joan Rivers jokes Obama is gay, first lady is transgender

Who needs Fourth of July fireworks when you have Joan Rivers around?

The comedian known for her lack of self-censoring recently officiated a same-sex wedding and was asked by a photographer if she believed the United States would ever see the first gay or female president. Her response was typical Rivers.

“We already have it with Obama, so let’s just calm down,” she said. “You know Michelle (Obama) is a trans.”

When asked to further explain Rivers said, “A transgender. We all know it.”

Those are the things Rivers said.

Barack Obama is gay, we the people were stupidly told. In this formulation, Michelle Obama wasn't exactly a man. Instead, she was "trans"—"a transgender," River said.

"We all know it," she added.  

Pathetic? Pitiful? Hapless? Sad? What exactly is the word for such dimwitted conduct? Whatever the answer might be, we can tell you this:

To this day, this twinned pair of disparagements is routinely floated by the mutt who hosts the Gutfeld! program. He's sent out to do so by the Fox News Channel's Suzanne Scott. Perhaps for the obvious reason, the major organs of Blue America refuse to report or discuss such facts.   

Blue stars speak up when Hokit does it. Fox News is given a pass.

At any rate, is this the "conspiracy theory" to which Wang referred in last week's report in the Post? We don't know, but as she spoke with CNN back in 2014, Rivers concocted this braindead explanation for her twin disparagement:   

[continuing directly from above]
A representative for Rivers released the following statement to CNN from the comic about her remarks to the photographer:

“I think it’s a compliment. She’s so attractive, tall, with a beautiful body, great face, does great makeup. Take a look and go back to La Cage Au Follies (sic). The most gorgeous women are transgender. Stop it already … and if you want to talk about ‘politically correct,’ I think this is a ‘politically incorrect’ attack on me because I’m old, Jewish, a woman and a ‘hetty’—a heterosexual … and I plan to sue the reporter who, when he turned off his camera, tried to touch me inappropriately on the a**—luckily he hit my ankle. Read the book … if you think that’s silly, wait to (sic) you see what I say about FDR and Eleanor!”  

[...]  

Of course, this latest dust-up coincides with Rivers’ book, “Diary of a Mad Diva,” which was released on July 1. Rivers’ representative told CNN, “These are all funny jokes. The book is hysterical. The prologue says if anyone takes anything in the book seriously (he or she) is an idiot. And (Rivers) says if anyone has a problem with that, they can feel free to call her lawyer Clarence Darrow.”

Truly, that statement by Rivers was completely pathetic.   

That statement was pathetic. But is that where this "conspiracy theory" got its start? We have no idea.  

That said, many people in the world are insecure and angry, and this "theory" has never died. Sadly, PolitiFact has posted at least three reports in recent years debunking claims within our poisonous social media—debunking posts in which people claimed that Mrs. Obama is transgender and/or a man. 

(These claims were scored as Pants On Fire. As a starting point for your walk on the wild and profoundly stupid side, you can just click here.) 

Joan Rivers, who had a book to sell, peddled her dimwitted claims in The Summer of 14. She was frequently reported to be a registered Republican. Did she mean for her claims to be directed at the Obamas as political targets?  

We can't answer that question—but she told CNN that "we all know it." On that basis, we'll guess that, in the American underground, the kinds of angry people who can't quite adjust were already pimping this garbage around. 

If so, why were they doing it?  

Within the halls of Blue America, an explanation quickly formed concerning what Hokit did. On last Tuesday's Deadline: White House, Maya Wiley assigned the motive.  

As we noted yesterday, she started by saying this:   

Well, let me start by saying this. This is racist.  

Later, she added this:  

It is bigotry...and it must be called out for that.    

Earlier, Nicolle Wallace had played tape of Senator Warnock, speaking on The Last Word the night before. This is what Senator Warnock had said:   

This is bigotry. This is evil come alive in the world.   

On Deadline, Wiley mentioned Joan Rivers. She also mentioned the fact that, inevitably, the public madman Alex Jones had been involved in the promulgation of this pathetic claim about the former first lady.

Wiley joined Senator Warnock in advancing a fairly obvious possible claim about the idiot Hokit's motive. It's a claim we Blues are strongly inclined to make, in a wide array of situations. 

It's a claim which is often correct. It's a claim which has been accurate down through the annals of our nation's brutal racial history.

But is the claim accurate in this case? In this case, because we monitor the Gutfeld! program, we weren't even slightly sure.

Tomorrow: Also the French first lady!