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During an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Wednesday, July 15, Vice President JD Vance said that the backlash toward a UFC fighter’s disparaging comment toward Michelle Obama was “totally disproportionate” to the comment itself.

During an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Vance talked about attending his first live UFC event last month, with Rogan asking the vice president whether he was more surprised by the submission holds during matches or by fighter Josh Hokit referring to the former first lady as a man after his victory at the White House.

“Definitely the armbar part,” Vance said. “I work in politics. People say crazy stuff all the time, man.”

Rogan pushed back on Vance’s answer, saying that the context was different for an event hosted at the White House and that Hokit has created a “bad-guy persona,” making similar disparaging remarks.

“Again, not the best thing to say at the White House. ‘Michelle Obama is a man’ is not the best thing to say,” Rogan said.

“Fair,” Vance replied. “But the reaction to it to me was still totally disproportionate.” The vice president continued, saying, “people lost their minds about it.”

Hokit has no regrets

After the incident, Hokit was the subject of intense criticism, but the UFC Heavyweight seems unfazed, saying he would not backtrack from his comments.

“You’ll never hear me backtrack from what I say,’’ Hokit said during an appearance on ‘’The Ariel Helwani Show” last month.

When asked by Helwani about what came to his mind in that moment, Hokit said he did it in the name of freedom of speech.

“I thought it was a perfect opportunity to show the world how great this country is with the freedom of speech,’’ Hokit said. “You go somewhere and you say something like that and you die. And I’m not suicidal, by the way. I’m in good spirits. I’m a little under the weather right now, but other than that, I’m good.”

As of July 16, Michelle Obama has not responded to Hokit’s remarks.

USA TODAY’s Josh Peter contributed to this report.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.