Stephen A. Smith slammed both Republicans and Democrats for the nation’s $36trillion debt but saved his sharpest rebukes for the American left and its focus on trans issues at an inopportune time.
Speaking on his eponymous YouTube show, the ESPN pundit lectured the Democratic Party for ‘frivolous arguments in regards to identity politics.’ In particular, he blasted the left for highlighting ‘transgender issues, as opposed to LGBTQ-overall issues,’ while reminding the party that Americans are more concerned with economics.
‘That’s not what people care about when their wallets are being pinched, when eggs and milk and gas and bread and everything is expensive,’ Smith said as egg prices reached record highs this week amid a deadly strain of avian flu. ‘They don’t care! They only care when they’re comfortable. They don’t care when they’re suffering. Get used to it.’
A recent poll revealed Smith may have more political support than many big-name Democratic presidential hopefuls, although he has yet to declare interest in any office, including the White House. He recently admitted to feeling like a ‘damn fool’ for supporting Kamala Harris and has ingratiated himself to conservatives as a frequent guest on right-wing pundit Sean Hannity’s Fox News program.
But 57-year-old Bronx native isn’t afraid to direct criticism at the right as well, particularly after the national debt rose by almost $8 trillion during Donald Trump’s first term in office.
‘The Republicans’ hands ain’t clean in all of this, Trump spent,’ Smith said before listing predecessors such as George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.
Stephen A. Smith has more support than several big-name Democratic presidential hopefuls
Smith recently admitted to feeling like a ‘damn fool’ for supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz
‘It’s not about spending because they all spend,’ Smith said. ‘It’s who’ya gonna spend on? What’chya gonna spend on? Democrats and Republicans, they’re all guilty. All of their hands are filthy in this $36 trillion deficit that we operate under.’
Smith also took issue with Trump and his followers’ war on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, many of which have already lost funding or government approval in the new administration.
‘DEI, oh everybody’s in an uproar about DEI,’ Smith said. ‘Know what my uproar was? I don’t like the fact that you’re acting like everything associated with DEI involves some incompetent people that weren’t getting jobs based on their merit.
‘But you’re forgetting why the need for DEI was necessary to begin with, similar to why the Rooney Rule in the National Football League was necessary to begin with, similar to why affirmative action was necessary,’ Smith continued, listing hiring initiatives started by the NFL and federal government that have come under fire. ‘If you hadn’t been so insidious, so vicious, so inequitable in terms of how you treated other human beings that weren’t white, those programs wouldn’t have needed to be in existence.’
Once again, Smith then turned his attention to Democrats.
‘But that doesn’t mean that the left didn’t go overboard in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis by those police officers, mainly Derek Chauvin, and that they didn’t use it as an opportunity to try to guilt the nation into voting for them regardless of the incompetence and the tone deafness that they operated under,’ he said.
‘Everybody’s hands are dirty. Everybody. The difference is Trump doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty and dirtier.’
John McLaughlin – Trump’s chief pollster – surveyed 1,000 people, several of whom had a positive response to the possibility of Stephen A. Smith running for president in 2028
Smith then returned to the topic of the government spending freeze – something the White House has already rescinded amid widespread confusion over the initial memo that issued the directives.
‘So yeah, you’re right,’ Smith resumed. ‘This whole thing with the federal freeze has been somewhat mishandled, particularly in the public eye. And he had to… backtrack a little bit to make sure that they dotted their Is and crossed their Ts appropriately before moving forward with it at a later date.
‘But make no mistake, he has sent the message: He ain’t messing around.’
Then Smith explained what he sees as the left’s role during the second Trump administration.
‘Now the Democrats can get back to doing the job they were supposed to do: Legitimately pointing out the flaws in his vision,’ he said.
