Fox News hosts celebrate UFC fighter for wearing an “a woman in every kitchen” t-shirt
Pete Hegseth: “It's good First Amendment and it's good business”
Published
Citation From the January 22, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
JESSE WATTERS (HOST): It's funny that he would expect censorship, because there's censorship everywhere. I guess the UFC is the place where it doesn't exist.
PETE HEGSETH (FOX & FRIENDS HOST): It doesn't. UFC in the United States is one thing. The UFC in Canada is a whole 'nother, right? They don't have the same First Amendment protections. They're happy to censor speech. Everything is politically correct. And then the UFC shows up, which is basically like permanent locker room talk.
WATTERS: Right.
HEGSETH: This guy talks like the guys I served with in the infantry. Right? They make better arguments than anybody else, but none of it could ever go on TV, it all makes sense, and everyone listening -- I mean, the guy is wearing a shirt that says “A woman in every kitchen and a gun in every hand.”
WATTERS: I didn't even see that!
HEGSETH: What did you think he was going to say? Nothing he's saying will be politically correct. You don't have to agree with everything he said, and I'm sure Dana White doesn't, but standing firmly behind the idea that you should be allowed to say it is quintessentially American. At a time where it's “Freedom of speech, oh, except for misinformation. Freedom of speech, except for misgendering. Freedom of speech, except for the latest hate speech.” They're not playing that game --
WATTERS: Why do these sports journalists ask about transgender rights?
HEGSETH: Because it's “gotcha.” It's “gotcha.” They want clickbait. See, Will talks about this a lot. A lot of sports reporters actually hate the sports they cover.
WATTERS: They do?
HEGSETH: They do. And so they want to find a wedge to get at these athletes who are smarter than them and faster than them and bigger than them and have hotter girlfriends than they do. And so they're angry about it, and so they try to ask “gotcha” questions and throw them under the bus.
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HEGSETH: It's good First Amendment and it's good business. What are you going to do? Try to control these guys? You can't.