Democrats Chide GOP Over Decision to Allow Dana White to Speak at Convention: ‘Trust the Republicans to Use a Wife Beater to Give the Nomination to a Convicted Felon and Serial Philanderer'
July 11 2024, Published 9:30 a.m. ET
The Biden campaign is rebuking the GOP for its decision to allow Dana White to speak at next week’s Republican convention in Milwaukee in the moments before Donald Trump accepts the party’s nomination.
White, the powerful chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship, will be the penultimate speaker at the convention on its final night in a move that highlights his tight friendship with Trump, it was confirmed on Wednesday evening.
It is also a controversial choice. On New Year’s Eve in 2022, White was caught on camera viciously slapping his wife Anne during a heated argument at a bar in Mexico.
After the incident made global headlines, White released a statement, saying there were no excuses for his actions: “There’s never, ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman.”
While referencing the incident and Trump’s alleged affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, a top Biden official quipped to RadarOnline.com: “Trust the Republicans to use a wife beater to give the nomination to a convicted felon and serial philander.
“The GOP has a serious problem with women, and its tone-deaf to the issue. On the other hand, with Joe Biden, you have a president who champions women’s rights and equal opportunities.
“Women’s rights have been a central part of the president’s life work and a key focus of his administration since day one.”
While the campaign attempts to make the Trump-White alliance an issue, it remains to be seen if it will gain traction as Biden, 81, faces growing calls to exit the race following dogged questions and leaks about his apparent cognitive decline.
In a double blow to Biden on Wednesday, former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to explicitly endorse the president as the party’s election candidate, declaring that “it’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run.”
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George Clooney, the Hollywood star who is a lifelong Democrat and donor, also called on him to stand down and warned the party to find a new candidate or lose to Trump.
Clooney wrote in a bruising New York Times opinion piece: “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
The GOP convention starts on Monday and will run for four days. Other speakers are expected to include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a one-time Trump presidential rival, along with West Virginia’s Jim Justice.