Florida’s attorney general says he would have charged MAGA darling Sophie Cunningham’s rival with “assault and battery” if the game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky had been played in his home state.
Republican AG James Uthmeier was incensed after Cunningham, who has sparked controversy for her views against transgender athletes playing in women’s sports, was fouled by the Chicago Sky’s DiJonai Carrington during their Saturday match-up in Chicago.
The Sky’s 5-foot-11 guard and forward was ejected from the game.
“The WNBA knows better than to play games down here in Florida, because I’ll be charging people with assault,” Uthmeier said. “I should probably clarify… assault and battery.”
Cunningham was driving towards the basket and going up for a layup when Carrington, in a seeming attempt to guard her opponent, hit Cunningham in the face with her arm.
Photos and videos of the play show Cunningham’s head being jerked backward as Carrington largely misses contact with the ball and strikes Cunningham instead.
Cunningham immediately got up and charged at her opponent, but was held back by a teammate and referee.
“Clearly I think it was unnecessary,” Cunningham, 29, said after the game. “I’ve never really spoken to her, and I have no beef with her, but I guess she has some pent-up stuff.”
Indiana Fever’s head coach Stephanie White denied that the 28-year-old’s foul was intentional.
“I don’t think that DiJonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did, but it did happen, and I thought it was the right call.”
Carrington almost immediately posted on social media after the call, suggesting the decision was racist.
Cunningham has advocated for what she has called “common sense”: keeping transgender women— those who have transitioned from male and now identify as women— out of women’s sports.
“I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” Cunningham said in an interview with ESPN.
She has since gained the support of many right-wing politicians, including Vice President JD Vance and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“We want to protect women and girls, and the backlash she is receiving from Democrats and left-wing thinkers across the country is astonishing,” Leavitt said in Cunningham’s defense.
Complex was the first to report that Cunningham had gained the nickname ‘MAGA Barbie’ during her college days in Missouri due to the people she followed and engaged with on social media.
However, Cunningham claims to be “very much in the middle” when it comes to politics.
The Florida Attorney General weighed in on the ongoing transgender athlete controversy in another social media post.
“The WNBA continues to view the question of ‘what is a woman?’ as something that is ‘complex and nuanced’ instead of recognizing the simple truth. That’s the problem. What’s next, men assaulting women on the WNBA courts?”
The WNBA currently does not have a team based in Florida.
