Another week, another pasty white boy entertainer crying “I’m not political!” while defending his presence at a Trump party. All month Robert Van Winkle — pka Vanilla Ice — has been milking his 16th minute of fame by doubling down on his participation in Trump’s Freedom 250 concert. Among Van Winkle’s arguments were “I’ve never voted in my life!” and “Who throws a better party than Trump?” Now milquetoast comedian and worst Emmys host Nate Bargatze is delivering the same lines after he was caught on camera at Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 birthday mess on Sunday. Cheryl Hines — Mrs. Secretary Brain Worm — posted a selfie on her Instagram of her and RFK Jr. posing with Bargatze at the White House before everyone exited to the desecrated South Lawn for the match. I guess Bargatze thought he was so inoffensive that no one would even notice he was there, but now that Hines outed him Bargatze’s rep is playing defense saying “He’s not political!” and “He just loves the sport!”
On Sunday, actor Cheryl Hines, the wife of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., posted a photo to her Instagram story of her, her husband and comedian Nate Bargatze. The photo appears to have been snapped inside the White House, considering that Vice President JD Vance is seen in the background, just behind Bargatze.
Hines’ other Instagram stories as of Monday include a photo of her and Kennedy in front of the White House, and a few featuring the UFC cage that was erected on the White House’s South Lawn to celebrate President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday — a literal “is this real life?” celebration that felt disturbingly reminiscent of a few key scenes from 2006’s “idiocracy.”
“Nate is family friendly entertainment first,” a representative for Bargatze told HuffPost in an email Monday. “He is not political nor is anything he produces. He is also a huge UFC fan and has been since before it became political.”
His rep noted to HuffPost that Bargatze has “fans from both sides of the aisle,” and that he “appeared on The View and Fox and Friends” to promote his new movie “The Breadwinner.”
The rep also noted that the comedian “doesn’t turn down photo requests.”
“For example, there’s a photo of him and Don Lemon somewhere,” his rep said.
“He went last night to enjoy a sport he loves,” his rep continued.
A quick gander of Bargatze’s official social media accounts also show he made no mention of attending Trump’s birthday bash, with his posts on Instagram showing mostly promotion for his new comedy movie and snippets of recent stand-up gigs.
The top-selling and beloved comedian is known for his clean and nonpolitical comedy, and has hosted “Saturday Night Live” twice as well as 77th Emmy Awards last year.
But his fans may be a bit surprised to see Bargatze at a Trump-centric event, however, being that his mere presence at the party could be interpreted by critics as the comedian being Trump-friendly.
Bargatze (or his people) trotted out this same talking point last year, in the wake of Bargatze absolutely bombing his Emmys hosting duties. “He’s not political! He’s not controversial!” was supposed to somehow explain away the fact that he had NO jokes planned for the awards show after the opening sketch, except for maybe sort of one joke that was so “subtle” he had to point it out to everyone days later. So I know that this is Bargatze’s schtick, being the stand up who doesn’t take a stand on anything. BUT HE ATTENDED AN EVENT AT THIS WHITE HOUSE! The attendance itself IS political, Nate! And he’s plenty rich enough to afford going to ANY OTHER UFC event. To all right wing entertainers: please stop insulting our intelligence with these crap “We’re not being political, YOU are!” rebuttals. Either own the move or don’t make it at all. And by the way, Bruce Springsteen has fans from both sides of the aisle, but that doesn’t stop him from expressing his beliefs clearly and eloquently. To quote the actually beloved John Oliver: “F–k you Nate Bargatze.”
Lastly, “There’s a photo of him and Don Lemon somewhere” is positively sending me.
To say I’m massively disappointed is to put it mildly. Am I massively surprised? Not really. But as a consumer, I won’t be handing over any $$$ to support any show/movie this man does. Harsh times call for harsh measures, and he chose his side, so to speak.
As Kismet says, he made his choice, and now I’m making mine.
He sure did choose his side.
Showing up to a party designed to celebrate a PDF and convicted r@p1st is NOT family friendly, except by MAGA world’s definition of family values.
Not gonna like. Nate had that one hilarious joke about aging and when you’re young being down for whatever and by the time you’re 30 you’re not down for anything and I mistook that for him being funny. He’s not really. He’s basic and he’s a bad fellow citizen. Anyone who goes to support DT is. Period.
I don’t even know who this guy is really, but I hate this response because it’s so cowardly. You in the past may have been able to argue that with some administrations, but not this one. This is an administration that has actively weaponized the DOJ, the Department of Energy, the CDC, the FDA, and the Supreme Court.
This is not a apolitical situation where you may not agree with the administration in office, but you support the arts, or military spouses, or the work that USAid was doing. This is you giving your implicit okay with the widespread actions of an Administration and acting like people are just supposed to look the other way. People are such cowards. Going to a UFC fight at the White House was not the type of event where you really had to weigh out whether you wanted to be implied as supporting Trump.
Months ago I was curious about this guy, so I put on one of his specials. I turned it off after 15 minutes because the guy gave me the ick. I really couldn’t understand why he was so popular. My gut is usually correct.
Interesting. I’ve only heard him in a podcast interview with Seth Meyers maybe a year ago. I thought he was okay, not great and not terrible, but it sounds like your instincts were correct. I wonder how Seth feels supporting him, as he does many up and coming comics.
Right, he went to an event that was a birthday party for Trump, not a recognition of anything else. If Milli Vanilli can recognize attendance as a bad idea and turn down being paid to be there, Nate can turn down attending.
You know who else was there? And completely silent about the disgusting remarks about Michelle Obama? Even though his wife and sister in law have to deal with such degenerating comments like that for decades and his daughters likely will too? As do sooo many of the women athletes he claims to love and support? Alexis Ohanian.
Alexis Ohanian was there? That’s a bigger headline to me. How utterly disappointing is an understatement.
Agree completely. I was disappointed and disgusted when I saw that.
^^^THIS^^^
Oh, he was there? Wow. Nate doesn’t surprise me that much but Ohanian does.
Billionaires gonna billionaire.
Exactly. Tech bros were out in full force.
The pope’s maga brother was there too chatting with Vance. Despite what the administration has said about his brother.
Nate Bargatze went to the birthday party of a child rapist and posed for a picture with a man who kills children by spreading lies about vaccines. His squeaky clean act doesn’t hide his deplorable beliefs. I’m no longer a fan.
I’m quite enjoying how badly his team are handling this. ‘But he’s even taken a photo with a BLACK MAN’ is not the defence they think it is.
To paraphrase a comment I saw elsewhere, who would have thought a guy who made a film about a dad being a terrible parent and not knowing where his kids schools are as a comedy aligns to this administration?
I see the comment about the picture with Don Lemon as the equivalent to the comment “I have black friends, so I’m not racist”.
It was because Lemon is a lefty. But it’s hysterical that it gives the same “I have black friends “ energy. Plus you could name ONE person from the left? 😆
I am so tired of these people wanting to support their terrible party but not wanting to alienate their fan base. It is not possible to attend any event related to MAGA and remain neutral. I don’t even know this man but I clicked this article because I recently found out that my birth mom’s entire family is MAGA and I am black (they are not) and I wanted to read his reasoning. I did not know my birth mom prior to hiring an investigator to find her and she and that entire family are amazingly kind. We have very limited contact but it breaks my heart to know this.
Yeah, he doesn’t want to be SEEN as political but—ta daa!—now he is. I used to go to sleep listening to one of his comedy shows on Netflix because he seemed sort of soothing. Now I’m repelled bc he’s all about being a family man and has his young daughter introduce him (“My daddy, Nate Bargasatzeee!”). Imagine going to the big-boy birthday party for a man who would cheerfully rape your child, or taking pics with a man who would cheerfully let your child DIE!! Ew. Dead to me.
I read yesterday that he and his brother are connected to some shady church known for shady activities. Double ew for him hiding behind all this family values BS.
Whoever is handling this and NB don’t seem to grasp that being “apolitical” is, in fact, a political stance in and of itself. And it tends to fall along the lines of “I’m an opportunist who has no real moral or ethical compass.”
“He’s not political!” Okay, Jelly Roll.
He was /is a Trump voter. I stumbled across one of his older bits about voting for him because “winning” was the catch phrase at the time. I was a fan until then. Just something light to listen to in the background while doing something else. But this has sealed the deal for me unfortunately.
He is gross. Not to mention the fact that this “sport” is just tacky. What a thing to love.
On the one hand it feels very rural Tennessee of him to go to a fight on the lawn. Trae Crowder is an actually hilarious liberal comedian from Tennessee who got some fame for having a similar life story to Just Dance Vance. He has a bit about the difference between white and white trash that kills me every time.
I read somewhere yesterday Bargatzes brother is super involved in an evangelical cult in I think Nashville, Global Outreach Development (G.O.D.). He probably feels non political compared to who surrounds him, and that’s also damning.
I somehow missed this person entirely except for when y’all cover him but idk, I feel like “family friendly” and “huge UFC fan” do not make any sense. UFC is incredibly disturbing to watch and I feel like it points to a fetishization of extreme real-life violence in folks who enjoy it which, to me is very scary.
I’m from Texas and almost every straight, white Christian couple who thinks they’re cool and “edgy” by being friends with me (a man) and my husband (also a man) but still vote Republican and go to church on Sundays absolutely flood their basement over this guy. I watched his stand-up and was thoroughly unimpressed, but I tend to prefer raunchy women comics like Nikki Glaser and Wanda Sykes. I also tend to be skeptical of anyone or anything mainstream that conservatives latch onto. Their taste is horrible.
At this point, I feel like UFC itself has become MAGA-coded. But I never got the appeal of watching a bunch of brain-dead lunks who offer nothing of substance to this world other than being able to fight gud beat the daylights out of each other like we’re in the Roman coliseum anyway.
Well he is now.
When people show you who they are, believe them….
Such BS.
He outed himself as MAGA so he will have to find his audience among those who support the D-list.
A Tennessee Hillblilly who wouldn’t consider himself political? Right, I’ll just file that next to my San Francisco BART light rail engineer who probably isn’t gay. They are both likely to make me laugh with their denials of the obvious. Nate just “loves” the sport. Uh huh, and just showing up to a political event like a 4th of July bash 3 weeks before the 4th and just miraculously on Trumps 80th Birthday was as stupid as telling us you still have no political jokes. When I hear yhe joke about seeing ghe head of the worm peeking out of RFK Jr.s ear, I’ll believe him. Other than that, I’m sure he was onboard with the Obama is a man schtick. Even the MAGA goober Gillian, (whatever his real name is) from the Super Bowl Bud Light revival commercials even said he “didn’t love it” about the Obama “joke”. Nate whoever, however apparently has “no comment” because he wouldn’t wish to appear “political” after all. You go John Oliver, “Fuck you Nate”.
I saw a reel this morning talking about him and apparently he tried to say the same excuse previously when he posed for a picture with Marsha Blackburn. Hard to keep claiming you’re apolitical when you’re posing with MAGA politicians on more than one occasion. Disappointing yes, surprising no.