{"id":260868,"date":"2026-09-03T02:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/03\/shes-never-come-out-and-said-that-shes-maga-riley-gaines-defends-sophie-cunningham-after-wnba-star-gets-labeled-a-trump-voter-and-grifter\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T02:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:02:00","slug":"shes-never-come-out-and-said-that-shes-maga-riley-gaines-defends-sophie-cunningham-after-wnba-star-gets-labeled-a-trump-voter-and-grifter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/03\/shes-never-come-out-and-said-that-shes-maga-riley-gaines-defends-sophie-cunningham-after-wnba-star-gets-labeled-a-trump-voter-and-grifter\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cShe\u2019s Never Come Out and Said That She\u2019s MAGA\u201d: Riley Gaines Defends Sophie Cunningham After WNBA Star Gets Labeled a Trump Voter and \u201cGrifter\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"5212638\" data-slug-id=\"2831341\">\n<div class=\"vidazoo-player-container\">\n<span class=\"vidazoo-close-btn  hidden \"><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Conservative political activist Riley Gaines, who has been supporting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/us\/wnba\/sophie-cunningham\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Sophie Cunningham<\/a>&#8216;s stance on transgender athletes, defended the Indiana Fever star anew.<\/p>\n<p>In an episode of &#8220;The Riley Gaines Show&#8221; on Tuesday, Gaines came to the defense of Cunningham, whose popularity had spiked recently. Gaines addressed the criticisms the Fever star had received on social media, including accusations of being a &#8220;grifter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s never come out and said that she&#8217;s MAGA, that she&#8217;s a Trump voter,&#8221; Gaines said (Timestamp: 16:45). &#8220;Not that she should feel shame in saying that, and people can&#8217;t assume her political opinions. That was even further solidified when she&#8217;s on the bar singing Toby Keith&#8217;s &#8216;Red, White and Blue.&#8217;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><template id=\"also-read-articles-template\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;But nonetheless, she&#8217;s never said that. She&#8217;s never affiliated herself in that way. Yet, you&#8217;ve got people like this calling her a grifter. I hate, hate, hate that word, grifter.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"yt-wrapper\">                    <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"I Went Back to the WNBA\u2026 This Time Was VERY Different | Riley&#039;s Vlog\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3tsX23T-Xeg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript>                    <\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube\" data-embed=\"3tsX23T-Xeg\">\n<div class=\"play-button\"><img height=\"370\" width=\"660\" data-img=\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/3tsX23T-Xeg\/sddefault.jpg\" data-img-low=\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/3tsX23T-Xeg\/sddefault.jpg\" class=\"lazy-img\" alt=\"youtube-cover\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sophie Cunningham said in an ESPN interview in July that she supports protecting young girls and women against biological men in sports. Her comments were viewed as polarizing and sparked an ongoing debate on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Both critics and supporters of Cunningham have expressed their opinions on the issue, with rallyists and counterprotesters demonstrating outside several of Indiana&#8217;s games.<\/p>\n<h2>Riley Gaines shares her experience watching Sophie Cunningham and Co.<\/h2>\n<p>In the same podcast episode on Tuesday, Riley Gaines talked about her WNBA experience watching Sophie Cunningham, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/us\/wnba\/caitlin-clark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Caitlin Clark<\/a> and the Indiana Fever.<\/p>\n<p>Gaines attended her first WNBA game when the Fever visited the Minnesota Lynx on Aug. 2. She also went to Indiana&#8217;s most recent game, Friday&#8217;s 111-91 win over the Connecticut Sun at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The Fever game was a totally different experience,&#8221; Gaines said (Timestamp: 1:52). &#8220;It was cool because the Fever was down after the first quarter, and they came back to win by a pretty big margin. And our seats (were) so good.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Gaines expressed her delight in experiencing a Fever home game and seeing Sun star Brittney Griner in person.<\/p>\n<p>Friday&#8217;s game was also attended by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/college-football\/royce-white\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Royce White<\/a>, one of two former NBA players who declared their intentions to enter the 2027 WNBA draft. He argued that he is eligible under the league rules, claiming to identify as transgender and a woman.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/us\/wnba\/news-of-course-went-blonde-wnba-fans-explode-as-royce-white-makes-surprise-appearance-at-fever-vs-sun-clash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">&#8220;Of course he went blonde&#8221; &#8211; WNBA Fans Explode As Royce White Makes Surprise Appearance At Fever vs Sun Clash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/us\/wnba\/news-two-players-who-bet-their-own-games-fans-go-wild-angel-reese-paige-bueckers-reunite-fiba-world-cup-behind-the-scenes-content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">\u201cTwo Players Who Bet on Their Own Games\u201d: Fans Go Wild as Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers Reunite for FIBA World Cup Behind-the-Scenes Content<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-post-rating-widget\">\n<p><template id=\"post-rating-feedback-modal-template\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-feedback-box\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-content\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-data\">\n<p>Why did you not like this content?<\/p>\n<p><textarea id=\"dislike-feedback-text\" rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"Please type your feedback...\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<button class=\"close\">Cancel<\/button><br \/>\n<button class=\"submit\">Submit<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-widget-parent hidden\">\n<div class=\"rating-parent-container\">\n<div class=\"rating-content-holder\">\n<p>Was this article helpful?<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-action-container\">\n<div class=\"like-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-like-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"like\" title=\"like article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"like selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dislike-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-dislike-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"dislike\" title=\"dislike article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-dis-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"avatar selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nThank You for feedback\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"publisher-name\">Edited by Kim Daniel Rubinos<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/us\/wnba\/news-she-s-never-come-out-said-that-she-s-maga-riley-gaines-defends-sophie-cunningham-after-wnba-star-gets-labeled-trump-voter-grifter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conservative political activist Riley Gaines, who has been supporting Sophie Cunningham&#8216;s stance on transgender athletes, defended the Indiana Fever star anew. In an episode of &#8220;The Riley Gaines Show&#8221; on Tuesday, Gaines came to the defense of Cunningham, whose popularity had spiked recently. Gaines addressed the criticisms the Fever star had received on social media, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-260868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}