In the wake of Kamala Harris’ defeat in the 2024 presidential election, countless TV pundits and political analysts are weighing in on what went wrong with the Democrats’ campaign. Well, rest easy because Stephen A. Smith knows exactly who to blame.
Yes, the same Stephen A. who is constantly laughing at the perils of the Dallas Cowboys, screaming at players to “stay off the weed” and can’t seem to understand that he has a microphone and doesn’t need to scream at his audience.
The ESPN personality has decided that it’s Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey’s fault that Donald Trump was re-elected. On his podcast, the “First Take” host criticized the former First Lady’s much talked about speech on reproductive rights where she passionately laid out the consequences this election could have on women’s body autonomy.
He played a clip of her proclaiming that, “a vote for [Trump] is a vote against us.” Then he used his patented condescending voice to go after her words.
“If we don’t agree with you, we’re against you?” he said. “How do you think the men felt about that? So we have to do what you tell us to do; otherwise, we’re anti-you? You thought that worked? Do y’all know anything about most men? You think that’s going to work?”
Are you actually trying to tell women that they’re not allowed to tell the American people exactly what’s at stake for their health care, unless they do it in a way that makes men comfortable? Seriously, Stephen A...is that what you’re saying to women the day after an election that will have dire consequences for many of them?
As if that wasn’t enough, he turned his attention to Oprah, taking issue with her comments about how putting Trump in power puts the future of voting at stake. He cited the Civil Rights Act and Voring Rights Act as reasons why people won’t lose the right to vote. Has he missed out on Republicans’ non-stoo attempts at voter suppression?
“Who’s going to go for that in a general election? With an economy rife with inflation, with over 12 million people crossing the border?” he said.
Despite the schtick that we assume is part of his TV persona, Smith seems like a smart guy who understands the reality of the world we live in. For him to take these comments out of context and act like they exist in a vacuum is disingenuous. These women are discussing real problems that the Republican party themselves made issues. Acting like Obama and Winfrey brought them up out of nowhere without reason insults our intelligence.
We don’t really need Stephen A’s opinion on politics, but apparently there are some people who are interested in seeing him become more politically involved. While appearing on Thursday’s episode of “The View,” co-host Sunny Hostin asked Smith about the possibility of entering politics.
“Now, you’ve been asked, I hear, about running for political office in the future, and some people have said that they could see you running for president,” Hostin said. “Would you do that? You think you’re qualified to run for president? I mean, the bar is pretty low, anyway.”
While we think we know what she was trying to say, co-host Whoopi Goldberg requested that she “rephrase” the question. This led Sunny to clarify things, saying, “I just think that the bar is really low, because [Donald] Trump really had no political experience and went from 0 to 100…anyone can run.”
Smith made it clear that politics wasn’t one of his goals, explaining, “on many occasions” he’s responded “hell no” to the idea. Of course, in typical Stephen A. fashion, he’d “love to be on the debate stage going up against these guys with the presidency on the line.” Whoopi let him know that the show “will arrange that.”
Thankfully, neither Smith or the hosts seemed to be taking the conversation seriously, as the sports journalist joked that he’d “definitely consider” a run if he “had a legitimate shot to win the presidency.”
Turns out, we don’t really need Stephen A. Smith’s opinion on women’s sports or politics.