Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White and billionaire Mark Cuban sparred over their presidential picks on Wednesday.
Cuban, who is backing Vice President Harris, spoke ahead of White in a town hall on NewsNation’s “Cuomo” show, praising Harris on her plans for health care, and pinned the start of high inflation issues on former President Trump.
“I’ll tell you exactly when the very first kernel of inflation was set, and that was in April of 2020 … right at the early days of the pandemic,” Cuban said. “The gas prices were $1.87. The oil companies went to Donald Trump [and said], ‘We are getting crushed with gas prices at $1.87. Please go to Saudi Arabia and your friend [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman], please go to Russia and your friend Vladimir Putin, and ask them to reduce production.’”
“So, he had a choice to make. Does he help his oil company cronies, or does he help keep gas prices low? You already know what he did. He went to his oil — he went to support his oil company cronies, went to MBS and Putin and said, ‘Please reduce production.’ That was the day inflation started,” Cuban continued.
NewsNation host Chris Cuomo later asked White, who followed Cuban, “how” the “argument” made by Cuban “lands with the voters.”
White, who is backing the former president, said Trump “has already proven he can build a strong economy, he can secure the borders and he is somebody that allies and adversaries respect.”
“Those are all very important things,” White added, then turning to talk about Harris.
“She has never — what has she proven? What has she done over the last four years? And you cannot make the excuse that she was the vice president and she wasn’t in charge of anything, I think that’s ridiculous. She is the sitting vice president of United States right now. She’s proven nothing. She’s done nothing.”
Cuban, while stating his “love” for White, replied to him: “You’re so wrong.”
The billionaire argued that “Trump inflation was up 25 percent over the Obama economy he inherited” and then went after the former president on tariffs.
“What worked with his tariffs? He had four years to make tariffs work with China, China kicked his a–,” Cuban said. “China took him to court, right, because he didn’t know how tariffs work, and it hurt the economy.”
Cuban also slammed Trump over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that it was a “point of reckoning.”
“And what does he do?” Cuban said. “He says, ‘If we don’t test people, the viruses didn’t really happen.’ He holds back on resources, except for Vladimir Putin, to keep people from getting healthy. That is not an accomplished president, Dana.”
The race between Harris and Trump is currently extremely tight, as the vice president is only 0.8 points ahead of the former president in an average of polls from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ.
The Hill has reached out to the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment.
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.