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January 8, 2025 71 mins

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.

Stephen A. and “Reporter Tori Cooper, recap the FS1 lawsuit involving Joy Taylor and Skip Bayless. He comments on the war of words between Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick and “Inside the NBA’s” Charles Barkley and interviews “Real Time” host Bill Maher about President-Elect Donald Trump’s second term, the role of billionaire Elon Musk, and his HBO standup comedy special, “Is Anyone Else Seeing This?” Stephen A. also discusses President Joe Biden’s USA TODAY interview and declaration he could have won the 2024 election. 

Support the show: http://www.youtube.com/@stephenasmith

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, there's a lot of things that's been going
on in the sports world today that's been invading the news,
invading the headlines and the digital stratosphere, especially as it
pertains to what's transpiring at Fox Sports. And here's the
one conclusion that I deduce from all of this, there's
a lot of people out there that just ain't worth

(00:25):
I'll explain Steven A. Smith Show in the house.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Let's roll. What's up, everybody. Welcome to the latest edition
of The Steven A.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Smith Show, coming at you at the very least three
times a week over the digital airways of YouTube and
of course iHeartRadio. As always, I like to take a
moment just to pause, to thank and show gratitude to
my subscribers and followers. We've now eclipsed well over one
million subscribers. I think we've had about an additional twenty
four to twenty five thousand subscribers over the last three

(00:56):
days alone. Can't thank y'all for the love and support enough.
Of course, there's been millions of downloads over the last
few months on iHeartRadio. The level of support and love
that y'all have given this show. Can't thank y'all enough.
As I always promise you, and I keep my promises.
You keep on coming, and I'm gonna keep on coming.
To continue to like and follow the show, just click
the bell in the right end corner, and you too

(01:18):
shall consider yourself the latest member of the stephnis S
Minister Stephen Aix Smithschrow Family. Since you'll be, you'll have
access rather to all of our newest content. And of course,
while you're doing that, never failed to take a moment
to pick up a copy of my New York Times
best selling book, Straight Shooter, a Memoir of Second Chances
and First Takes, now in paperback. Just go to straight
shooterbook dot com to get yourself a copy.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Once again, that straight Shooter.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Book dot Com a New York Times bestseller, Feel free
to grab it. There's a lot that I have to
get into today, and I'm definitely going to get into it.
But we all know where we got to get started
on this particular day, and that's getting started with the lawsuit.
The recent lawsuit filed against Fox Fox Sports and several
current and former peronel there, including my former colleague, the

(02:02):
one and only Skip Bayless. The forty two page document
filed by a woman named Nushen Faraji, a former hairstylist
for the company, cite several instances of workplace misconduct. The
suit named several defendants, including Fox Sports executive vice president
Charlie Dixon and host Joy Taylor. Faraji alleges Dixon grabbed

(02:23):
her behind at a birthday party, and when she relayed
the encounter with Joey Taylor, the Fox host allegedly told
her to quote, get over it. And that is where
I feel compelled to begin today. There's been a lot
of reaction to this story all over social media. Has
it been about Charlie Dixon, Not that much. Has it
even been about Skip Bayless, not that much at all.

(02:45):
Has it been about Fox Sports overall? Really not that
much at all. It's all significantly paled in comparison to
the level of vitriol, venom, insults and and beyond aimed
at one missus, Joy Taylor. And that's why I want
to bring on my next guest. I shouldn't call her

(03:09):
a guest. She's a journalist. She's a former news anchor
in Atlanta. She's a personally personal good friend of mine,
and she's a damn good friend of the show. Over
the last few days, and I'm talking about the one
and only Tory Cooper. She's back here with yours truly
right now, Toy, how are you?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
How's everything going?

Speaker 3 (03:23):
I'm doing well?

Speaker 4 (03:24):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Listen?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
I had to bring you back because I wanted to
get your thoughts on what I just brought up about
Joy Taylor. And as you've watched all of this unfold,
I know you like myself, we've read the forty two
page you know allegations you know righte with allegations against
Joy Taylor, against Charlie Dixon, against Skip Bayless, specifically pertaining

(03:50):
to Joy Taylor. I want to know what your thoughts
are about all the heat that she's been taking over
the last few days.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Why is such a focus on Joy Taylor. First of all,
she's not being accused of sexual battery, She's not being
accused sexual harassment. She's being accused of engaging in sexual
behavior to earn her spot that she has on Fox Sports. Now,
the problem I have with this, Steven, is this continues

(04:18):
to be the issue in this industry. Is when a
man gets there in any industry, really, when a man
gets there, he earned it. When a woman gets there,
she slept your way to the top seven half. And
so that's issue number one. Issue number two is that
we're just going to completely negate her experience and the
fact that she is more than qualified to be in

(04:38):
this role. And if you just read this lawsuit at
face value, and this is my problem with these lawsuits
is people just take it as fact. These are allegations
at the end of the day, and when you look
at this lawsuit and you comb through it at face value,
they paint her as a bartender who had little experience,
who was a radio experience in radio and was not
qualified for Fox Sports. So she was working as a

(05:00):
a fill an anchor and a bartender at the same time.
I've worked two jobs to get into this industry. I
worked behind the scenes first, so we don't earn these
spots lightly. And that's where I get really frustrated with
people on social media who are trying to come for
this woman's experience and credibility to be considered for this role.
So let's just go back into the history really quick,
into her experience, and so we want to talk about it.

(05:22):
She worked behind the scenes as an executive producer. That's
someone who writes the shows for the people you see
with the mic one. Then she worked her way into
a slot to be a co host on that show,
on that radio show in Miami. Then on top of that,
she took the show to number one. She took the
show to number one, and then after that then she

(05:42):
makes her way to California. Is essentially doing what it
appears to be freelancing, and it's filling in and working
to get that spot and eventually she gets called on
many people right now, stephen A would say, I'm not
even qualified to sit next to you. But it's not
always about experience. If it was about experience in this industry,
then so many people wouldn't even have the spots they have.
It's about a lot of other intangibles. But for this

(06:04):
specific issue, this woman was more than qualified. She's been
a credible a Fox Sports commentator and she's doing her job.
So that's the big issue. Another issue on social media
I'm saying that's very upsetting is that people are saying.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
You know, this is why women shouldn't be in sports,
This is why we don't want women involved in this
because we're going to be faced with these allegations and
this is give us our world back this is not
your world. You're not going to claim the sports environment.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
And this is the problem that I have because at
the end of the day, this is a form of
entertainment that anyone can share, not anyone, but people can
share their take on it, and people can be engaged
in this topic. Lastly, this is the main issue I
have with this. This is another woman who's a minority
to stay who's also claiming that another woman who's a

(06:54):
minority did this. So I know that the female sports
anchors of the world right now are all cringing because
they're like, wow, oh, you just continue to feed right
into this, the same narrative that we don't deserve to
be up here at the desk with these men who love, live, breathe,
and sleep this topic. So now it's always about us
sleeping with people to get to the spot we're in.

(07:15):
And then now another woman is going to feed right
into that with these allegations. So it doesn't help. We're
up against as women in this industry to have allegations
like this circulating around. But this also, she could file
her own lawsuit. She could. There's nothing has been proven,
So that's why all leaving.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
And here's the thing people need to understand. That's one
of the reasons that you might not be hearing anything
from her, nor skip baitlos to anybody else, because they
can turn around and.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Sue and they got there.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
I mean, think about the allegations that have been thrown
out against them, think about, you know, the need that
they may feel to retaliate, and as a result of that,
I think that is even further requirement for people to
be careful.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
But let me tell you why I wanted.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
You on here, Tory, because I have to admit I'm
pretty pissed off. That is a there's a few people's
names I'm not gonna mention because damn it, they ain't
worth it. Okay, and I get that, but there's a
few men out there that are acting like, you know,
this is the perfect excuse to justify why we make
the argument that women don't belong in the industry, which
is incredibly are an incredibly egregious thing to say. Okay,

(08:17):
they'll look at any woman sitting in a host chair,
or any woman that's a reporter out there, or any
woman that has to walk into the locker room, and
all of a sudden, their credibility is being questioned.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
My thing.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
What I'm more pulled at by, rather even that, is
the women all over social media that are allowing it
to happen. And that's why I wanted you on the
show today, because I said, I'm not gonna speak about
it just from from the male perspective. I'm gonna have
a female in front of me that I can bounce
this off of to check me in case I'm wrong

(08:48):
about this, correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't
spend a lot of time looking all over social media,
but I'm looking at an abundance of women, and I'm
saying the allegations.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
I understand what the allegations are.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
The allegations of joy Ta slept with Charlie Dixon, and
she oss and she did it while she was married,
and well, first of all, the marriage part of her
business is nobody else's. The boss situation, obviously is dicey,
Make no mistake about it. You got a girl that
was supposed to be her best friend that's supposedly diming
her out right now, that's incredibly unfortunate, But one could

(09:20):
easily argue it's really not about your guilt of innocence.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
It's about how guilty.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
I make you look forcing you to capitulate to the
demands that I'm making civilly.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
We can get into that a little bit later.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
But what I find most egregious, most egregious toy, is
the abundance of women out there who are laughing, who
are pointing the finger at Joey Taylor with a profound
level of guilt, as if they know. Even when they
throw in the word allegedly, they do it with smirks
on their face, sort of dismissive because in this business,

(09:53):
we know how to speak with our body language, not
just with words. And not only that, they're using it
as an excuse to question her credibility. Now, I don't
know what happened. You don't know what happened. We don't
know what level of truth or falsehood exists with the
allegations that no Shine Faraji has thrown in the direction
of the executive at fox Board, Skip Bayless, Joy Taylor,

(10:16):
or anybody else.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
But let me tell you what I do know.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
I know that I've seen Joy Taylor on TV a
lot over the years, and I think she's pretty damn good.
I think she's ready, I think she's very capable. I
think she's worthy of the position that she has on
Fox Sports. I think her podcast with Taylor Rooks is
a damn good podcast. I think her credentials in this

(10:39):
business have been established.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
I did an interview just yesterday. I was being interviewed
by a.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
God by the name of Sid Rosenberg, a longtime conservative
radio host, and he was telling me how Jason Taylor,
the former Miami Dolphin, that Hall of Famer.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Her big her brother.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Rather, he had called to see if he could help,
if Sid could help her get a job in the business,
and he ended up hiring her. And obviously, like you
pointed out, she produced when she had the opportunity, and
that's what created other opportunities for her. So I'm looking
at it, Toy, and I'm saying, wait a minute here,
am I watching this correctly? They're an abundance of women

(11:23):
out there that are using this as a license to
question her credentials based off of having you not have
you not watched her over the years on television, And
if you're going to do that, okay, why would you?
Why would you want to do that? Even That's where
I'm at with it, Toy. That's my problem. The fact

(11:43):
that people are using this as an excuse to question
her conventers if she just got the job yesterday or
last week or last.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Month or something, that would be one thing.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
She's been on TV for years showing her capability, and
now all of that is being ignored because of allegations.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
That's where I'm at with the tour. We where are you?

Speaker 3 (12:03):
There's the court of public opinion and then there's real court, right,
and again these are allegations and use it having women
you know, essentially, I mean to me, it seems like
it could be coming from a place of jealousy, like ooh,
finally put a target on her back. Now we can
say she wasn't qualified because not only is she beautiful,
but now we can say she wasn't qualified in dinner

(12:24):
or spot And I'm not shocked by it. People are Okay,
There's one thing I do want to talk about, and
it is your looks. Your looks play into this. When
you are beautiful, you are up against a different battle
at times in this industry. I mean, people are always
going to try to say that your looks played into this,

(12:45):
Your looks do help you in this. We cannot ignore that.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Pause pause, One thing. One thing your looks or how
you present yourself? Right question which one I'm asking.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
No, it's about how you present yourself. But the looks
do contribute to whether or not you have an on
camera look or not. If you ask any news director
right now, they are going to say, does she pop
through the screen? Does she make me pay attention? I'm
going to side in thirty seconds, whether or not I
want her on my show? Can she grab an audience?
That's what they're asking. So, yes, your looks are part
of it, but it's about your presentation and you know,

(13:22):
but there's other parts of this that I You know,
these allegations that do matter that I believe should set
precedent and hopefully change because when we come on and
talk about these issues, there's an opportunity for change. I
do believe that, and in this realm, I would say
some of the things that I've seen that are disappointing,
and if they are true, then maybe there's an opportunity
for change. Personally, I would not be going out to

(13:46):
drinks with my bosses. We don't know if that happened.
That is one of the allegations that was made, but
on principle, I'm not going out to drinks with my executives.
I'm not going out to parties with them for a
number of reasons. I do not want to be talked
about in my newsroom like that. Why was she out
to drinks with them? What is she doing? I don't

(14:07):
want them knowing my personal life. I don't want my
bosses knowing my personal life. Number two and then number three,
Now you're opening yourself up to rumors to spread about
you that look like this. So this is why you cannot.
You have to strike the right balance when you're going
to take a professional person into a public environment outside
the professional work setting, because now you're opening yourself up

(14:28):
to these types of allegations. So one, watch how you're moving,
watch how you carry yourself in the work links, because
this is what you're going to open yourself up to potentially,
especially if you're the one in the highest spot, a
hairstylist is going to potentially come for you in this way. Now,
mind you, again, these are allegations. I just want to
continue to point that out because it's essential to this conversation.
So that's one of the main issues I wanted to

(14:49):
bring up, is not taking your bosses out to lunch
and dinner and opening yourself up to this type of conversation,
and three or two sending the wrong signals. You gotta
make sure you're not sending the.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Wrong Dressing provocatively, drinking, speaking in a certain way that
that's unprofessional, that's more informal than formal. All of those
things definitely contribute to it. And I don't disagree.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
You talked about the attire and the room for change,
and if you're okay with this, I would love to
talk about that piece to it, because please take one
of the talk to One of the things that people
have talked about is the sports environment is a more
laxed environment. You can wear a little bit, you can
be more yourself, you can you know, test the waters
a little bit about what you're gonna wear. Personally, I've

(15:36):
been disappointed in some of the stuff I've been seeing
when they're wear in the sports environment, and not just
the sports environment meteorologists, they're also wearing clothes that I'm
not excited about. Because here's the thing. Don't you want
to pay attention to what I'm saying. Don't you want
people to pay attention to what I'm saying? My skill
set don't be a distraction in the workplace, all right,

(15:58):
you want people to care about what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Toy Cooper, Tory Cooper, Tory Cooper.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Fit enough. But this is the stephen A. Smith Show,
so you know where I'm going. I'm gonna ask this question.
I need specifics.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
I mean, I'm not names.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
I'm talking about when you talk about you don't like
the stuff that people wear in the industry.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
I need examples, and the ladies out there need examples.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Perfect example, crop tops showing your midrift on air. I
don't care to see your belly button. We're not at
the beach, but I see it on air in the
sports world. Hey, that's number one. Number two, Cleavelange, your
boobs are out. You're distracting people. The main thing is,
don't be distracting. But it's not just what the lack

(16:46):
of clothing. It's also the choices of clothing too. The
patterns are distracting. I'm seeing people wearing cheet of print,
I'm seeing people wearing pinstripes. I'm seeing people wear all
kinds of stuff that is completely distracting to the viewer.
The point of television that you were so opposed to
learn early on is don't be a distraction to the viewer.
Let them pay attention to what you're saying. But too
many times I'm seeing people warn't, you know, inviting in

(17:09):
to be a distraction. It looks like they want to
be a distraction, honestly, and it looks like they want
the attention at times. And what are we here for.
We're here to be professionals, So let's show up that
way so people can focus on your skill and what
you have to say. Otherwise you're inviting the step of
behavior in In my opinion.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Is there any truth to the notion that people have
speculated about that you have someplaces and I can assure
you it's not Disney, I can promise you that, but
that there's some truth to the notion that you may
have certain networks that encourage that directly or indirectly, for
females to feel the need to dress in a certain

(17:52):
provocative way. Have you or have you heard of any
ladies in the industry expressing the notion that this is
what their bosses wanted.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yes, I've heard that. I heard that that's the environment
that you're in and especially so here's the thing, consultants matter.
This is why you're supposed to have consultants come consult
you on your wardrobe, consult you on your makeup. And
if these consultants are continuing to lean into a cult drobe,
oh yeah, that's the waters. Yeah where that right color?

(18:26):
Show your you know, yes, they are contributing to it
at the end of the day. That's what I've heard
for sure. But heresay's hearsay.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Right, I guess for me, going back to my original point,
it's not about what you say sometimes, it's about how
you say it.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
So if you've had women all over social.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Media that were pissed off because Joey Taylor finds herself
in this position and that's what they're oozing, I understand it.
If you have women who were of the opinion, no,
this is just an allegation, it's not facts such as yourself,
such as me and what have you, And they said, hey,

(19:07):
you know what benefit of the doubt and a sentatel
proven guilty, etc. And by the way, she's incredibly qualified
because we watched her for years and she knows.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
What she's doing. I understand that.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
What I have a problem with is the joy no
pun intended females over social media appear to be having
in bringing her credibility in the question, not understanding or
not being sensitive to the plight that ladies have fought
for decades to gain and elevate.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Their level of credibility.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
That's number one and number two of the men who
will remain nameless because I really don't know. Oh as
much as they deserve it, I just don't want to
give them that kind of attention because the sorry asses
don't deserve it, but are talking in.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Such a way that they're.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Acting like women don't belong it, said the street. I
can't believe they're getting away with stuff like that. I'm
gonna give you the last word on this tour. Go
ahead and respond to that.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
There's room for change. Don't be a distraction the women
on social media who are coming for Joy Taylor. It
looks like it's coming from a place of jealousy. So
that says something about you and the men who want
to act like we don't belong at the table. Look
at our credibility. How about you do some research on
our background. Don't just look at look at the way
I look. How about you go look into my experience

(20:30):
and then we'll talk about it, but I'll leave a day.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
I got you, Tory Coop, appreciate you, Tom, thank you
so much. Thanks for being on the show with me today.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
I'll catch you with you later, right, all right, A
good day. Now, let's get to the NBA.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Oh before I do that, I gotta pause for a
moment here because I got to take a moment to
acknowledge the wildfires has taken place in southern California, the
impact they're having on the NBA family, to be specific, Warriors.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Coach Steve Kerr.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Lakers coach JJ Reddick said family members evacuated their homes
with the flames that toured through the Pacific Palisades. With
thinking of them and the thousands of families in southern
California impacted by the fire, just wanted to send out
my heartfelt concerns on behalf of the Stephen A. Smith
Show for everybody that's being impacted by this. It is

(21:17):
dangerous out there, So wildfire. I saw a picture of
the sky. It looks like the sky is on fire.
For crying out loud. It's very windy as well, which
is why obviously the fire is spread. It's what it's
called the wildfire for all right, So I just want
to let everybody know that our hearts are with everybody
in Southern California, sincerely hoping and wishing that everybody remained

(21:38):
safe and they get this stuff contained. Now I want
to get to the ongoing war words between JJ Reddick,
head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, and of course
mister Charles Barkley himself from TNT NBA Hall of Famer.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
By the way, let's not forget that.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
It started in late December when a head coach for
the Los Angeles Lakers spoke about the media bashing the
game instead of celebrating the game.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Now, listen, before I even play you this.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Sound, understand, there's a lot of people that's been saying
stuff about the game of basketball. They've been talking about
the NBA ratings have dipped even though they're doing quite well.
They've been talking a lot about the product that they're
watching on the court, and you've had people in media
thinking that the media has contributed to the demise of
the game because the media is complaining about the game

(22:23):
too much instead of celebrating the game.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
That prompted JJ Reddick to speak, which.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Prompted Charles Barkley to come right back at him, which
prompted JJ Reddick to say something else and Charles Barkley
to say something else. All of that is what I'm
about to show you right now. Sit back for the
next couple of minutes and take a listen and a
look to this.

Speaker 6 (22:45):
If I'm a casual fan and you tell me every
time I turn on the television that the product sucks,
well I'm not going to watch the product. And that's
really what has happened over the last ten.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
To fifteen years. I don't know why. It's not funny
to me. Nothing, nothing is entertaining to me. This game
should be celebrated.

Speaker 7 (23:04):
Hey, JJ Riddick said something about me, JJ, you better
calm down so when you come for the King, you've
been not I.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
Don't know did he need you specifically or she's just
talking about on TV.

Speaker 7 (23:16):
He said something about we're the reason people aren't watching
this craftic product. We got JJ, Yeah, like we are,
know jacking up one hundred threes JJ, I know Jason Monroe.
I don't know who that is, but JJ, you come
for the King, you better not missed and I can
get you, brother, because I got Remember, I got your
Lakers games. You can't hid them flalls.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
They got You're just a dead man walking.

Speaker 7 (23:39):
They got rid of Frank Vogel, who did a good job.
They got rid of Darburnham, who did a good job.
If you came out there thinking you were gonna change
things with that same ugly girl you want.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Them to pay with.

Speaker 7 (23:48):
I'm JJ Reddick. I can make this thing work. Please
be professional. You come for me, you better not missed.
We're the reason ratings are down. With a reason like
we play hour Listen's exactly right, and men.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Shot play, the rating would be down. But in fairness,
we'd be like the.

Speaker 7 (24:07):
Third or four best players on that Laker team right now.
But it's Frank vocal and Darbyndam's fall. I don't follow nobody,
but if you hit me, I'm gonna hit you back.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
But make it always all the way through the clip.
I gotta be honest with you.

Speaker 6 (24:22):
My arresting heart great is probably sixty four. I watched
it clip it was sixty four. Literally, don't care. I have,
but there's thoughts, but don't care.

Speaker 7 (24:36):
And the Lakers proved to what I keep saying. The
Lakers think, plain and simple. We have to talk about
him because the media is infasciated with the Lakers. But
the Lakers are not a good team. They got zero
athletic ability. I mean when you watch him Jason Kidd
coach to masterpiece tonight, He's like, we can go one
on one, get any shot.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
We won't.

Speaker 7 (24:57):
They got a good shot every time. The Lakers could
never keep him in front of him. This was a
coaching masterpiece by Jason Kidd because there's no way that
team that the maths put out there, especially one winning
by twenty.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Couple of things. Number one to address JJ Reddick the person.
JJ Reddick doesn't suffer fools, and he's a brilliant, brilliant
basketball mind, very smart, very intellectual. Prides himself on being

(25:30):
an intellectual. And so when JJ Reddick essentially in that
second sound of him saying, I have my thoughts, but
I'll keep it to myself, when he was talking about
his art rate hadn't changed, et cetera, et cetera, I
can tell you what JJ Reddick's thinking about. He's thinking
about film, he's thinking about analytics that he reads up on.

(25:51):
He's thinking about the nuances of the game of basketball
that ultimately made him a head coach, and he's saying
he knows that it's something that Charles Barkley doesn't necessarily do,
so he doesn't know more than I know. Please, That's
how he's thinking about it. Charles Barkley is a bottom
line kind of individual. He's a Hall of Famer, He's

(26:13):
one of the greatest players to have ever played, seventy
fifth Anniversary Team, et cetera, et cetera, Olympic gold medalists,
a member of the Original Dream Team, one of the
great great forwards in the history of basketball, whose credential
speak for itself even though he's devoid of a championship.
And Charles Barkley is a results oriented dude that's looking
at the Los Angeles Lakers team that ain't going no

(26:34):
damn place, one that bounced out in five games in
the first round last year against Denver. He's looking at
those kind of things and he's saying, don't come to
me with all of this technical, this analytical stuff and
all of that. You guys suck, period. That's how Charles
Barkley is thinking. Now, let me enter the fray first,

(26:54):
on the complimentary part. I don't think JJ Reddick is
doing a bad job, their twenty and sixteen, their top
six seed in the Western Conference.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Okay, and I think that the things.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
That are happening with the Los Angeles Lakers are not
of his doing.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
I think if he had better talent, he'd do better.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
The issue with that is one could say the same
thing about Frank Vogel. One could say the same thing
certainly about Darvin Ham. Darvin Ham, as he articulated just
a couple of weeks ago, came near his first year.
He got him to the Western Conference Finals. After that,
despite a bevy of injuries and other issues, they won
the end season tournament they got to play in, went

(27:37):
through the play in, got to the playoffs, and the
only reason they got bounced out in five games and
went home was because they were playing against the reigning
NBA champions at the time, the Denver Nuggets, who had
swept them in the Western Conference finals the year before
and took them out in five this go round. So
when you're looking at Darvin Ham in the job that
he did, you could easily ask why is.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
He gone now?

Speaker 1 (27:59):
JJ Reddick was he has to own up to and
I don't fault him at for this at all. This
is all on Lebron James. This part that I'm about
to mention is all on Lebron James. How the hell
you gonna have a podcast about basketball and the nuances
and the expertise and the intricacies of basketball with JJ Reddick,

(28:22):
who you knew was aspiring to be a head coach
and you knew you wanted your coach darphin Ham out.
How you gonna do that and think that ain't gonna
look cool? Yeah, come on now, I mean, Lebron James,
that's the classic case of spitting somebody's face and saying
it's raining. It's the classic case of somebody passing gas

(28:43):
religiously fartening your damn face and calling it perfume. That's
what Lebron James did. Let's stop that. But that's not
JJ Reddick's fault. JJ Reddick was an aspiring coach. Only
experience he had was coaching his son and you know,
little league basketball, and he became the head coach of
the Los Angeles. Like, let me stay for the record,

(29:04):
not to throw any shade on anybody. I'm just telling
you my personal belief, no inside information or anything like that.
But something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.
I'm not gonna call it a mongols. When you offered
Danny Hurley, I thought you wanted Danny Hurley as an
organization until you offered him eleven million a year. He
was a two time national champion, considered universally as arguably

(29:24):
the greatest coach of college basketball at this particular moment
of time since Mike Ruzchewsky has stepped away from the game.
Danny Hurley is that dude that U can And after
all that success, you offer him eleven million. When Eric Sposter,
Greg Popovich, Steve Kerr, now tydlu and others were all
getting paid over fourteen to fifteen million dollars a year.
Come on, now, you wanted Danny Hurley that badly, you

(29:46):
come up with more money than eleven But they didn't
do that. And so because they didn't do that, the
belief was you really didn't want them. You just used
them as cover to get the guy who you really wanted,
which was JJ Reddick. But you wanted to the gloss
over that because you didn't want Lebron James and the
Lakers organization.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Look what so bad for wanting JJ Reddick?

Speaker 1 (30:07):
All along after Lebron James had made it so obvious
that he was looking for a new coach other than
Darwin Ham. That is the belief period. There's nowhere around that.
Having said that, back to JJ Reddick and Charles Barkley
in terms of what JJ Reddick said about the media,
and I was watching Colin Cowhert because I happened to
respect the hell out of Colin Cowhert at Fox Sports.

(30:29):
He's my former colleague, he's my colleague, my contemporary, my
former colleague at ESPN, and he did an outstanding job
as a radio host for years for ESPN Radio. I've
always considered us at ESPN suffering a loss by losing
Colin Cowhert. And I forgot the name of the guy
that's with him, Jason's something I remember correctly. And he

(30:50):
was talking about how TNT you know they messed up
the game of.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Basketball because they're so ultra critical.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
I call bs on that. When guys deserve to be celebrated,
they celebrate you. When guys deserve to be criticized, they
criticize you. Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neill
are exceptional. The Emmy Award winners. They're the A listers,
they're class beside the five. They don't get personal. They

(31:19):
just talk about your game and what you put on display,
and if that's what you put on display as a product.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
They didn't blame the league.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
I'd say you could blame the league because of the
rule changes that were incorporated and the fact that you
took defense. You compromised defense to to a strong degree
by the way you compromise opposing defenses because you wanted
to be more viewer friendly, you wanted more offense. You
wanted to, you know, basically bring more Europeans into the game,

(31:50):
and by doing so, you also incorporated more three point shooting.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
And when people are.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Doing all of that and you see points, folks jacking
up thirty forty three's a game that's not the most
attractive thing to see.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Period. It's not a crime to point that out.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Maybe they go a bit obsessive with it because they're
having a good time and they're having fun.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
But the reality, JJ, is that sometimes I'm not.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Talking about the Lakers, I'm talking about overall. Sometimes we
watch the game and it sucks. And here's where JJ
hurts himself. JJ knows that's true. JJ can bring up
the modern day game compared to old school, and I
get all of that. It was far more physical in
the eighties and the nineties. The athletes weren't as great

(32:38):
as they are today. They didn't run like Zell's the
way they didn't do today. They didn't do a lot
of things. I get all of that, but it doesn't
take away from the fact that the game at times
is less attractive than it once was. And it certainly
doesn't take away from the fact that sometimes you look
at dudes and you are questioning their effort, whereas before
you didn't because you couldn't, because.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Players would have to go out there and earn their money.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Because the rules in terms of you getting your money
didn't work in their favor. If they didn't put in
that work, you certainly didn't get the endorsement dollars and
the endorsement deals that you ultimately are able to get
now if you didn't have success attached to it.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
So people like JJ.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Who's been around long enough to see it, and along
with the cat and the crew at TNT, they all
know it. It's not that they're right every time, but
their points are not to be summarily dismissed and so
to blame the media. And this is another thing too,
And this has nothing to do with JJ Reddick and
has nothing to do with TNT. This is about social media.

(33:45):
Everybody's a hater. You think we fools. You're just doing
that because you're creating clickbait.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Oh, he's a hater. Somebody disagreed it. Y'all had a discussion,
and it's the word destroyed this person, destroyed this person.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
When all you're doing it is to create a headline
drawer clicks. But then it goes a step further because
you got former players that come out and they go like, yo,
you know what, they're always hating on the brothers. Well,
if you're playing against a brother and I'm pointing out
a brother, bust your ass. How the hell am I
sitting up there hating on a brother. How am I
not supporting the brother that whipped your ass?

Speaker 2 (34:17):
It don't make sense.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
But this is what people do, and so we have
to pay attention to that and see that for what
it is. That's the reality of the situation. We've had
a height level of sensitivity. People come up with all
of this kind of shit to bitch and moan and
complain about instead of dealing with the real issue. Are
players playing as hard? Are they as committed? Do they

(34:41):
take care of their bodies and their conditioning in the
off season?

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Do you earn your money? Are you committed to earning
your money?

Speaker 1 (34:48):
Do you come back with the next season with the
same game you had last season, the same level of
conditioning you had last season, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Do you do anything to improve? That's why we.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Shouldn't marvel at Lebron James. It's not because of his
dunks's game whatever. It's because of age forty. Still from
age seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty all the way to forty,
Lebron James always is ready conditioning wise, he doesn't cheat
the game, but JJ.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
There's quite a few people who do.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
So JJ's not totally wrong because we should heighten our
level of sensitivity in terms of excoriating the game. But
that don't mean we got to put blinders on and
ignore what the hell is seeing. And I think that's
important to say.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Stephen A.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
Smith Show right here over the digital airways of YouTube,
no doubt coming at you, as I love to do
at the very least three days a week.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Of course, I wanted to touch on that. Anyway, It's
time to move on. Coming up.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
President Biden's made a few headlines when he sat down
with USA Today for a wide ranging interview. I'll get
into that just ahead, don't worry about that, but not
before I get in to what I'm about to talk
about and who I'm about to introduce. So I'm not
the only person that's not afraid to point out the
mistakes the Democratic Party made in the November election.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
There's somebody else.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
He's far more popular than me that when it comes
to subject matters of this nature. His name is the
one and only Bill Maher. He had a few things
to say as well, and he's got a comedy special
coming out this Friday. Don't miss it, The Stephen A.
Smith Show right here over the digital airways of YouTube
and iHeartRadio. Up next with the one and only Bill

(36:31):
Maher from Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. He'll
be back with yours truly in a minute.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
All right, y'all, listen up and listen good.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
You do know that the NFL playoffs are here right
and we're in the middle of the college football playoffs too,
So with all that action going on, the Steven Aate
Smith Show wants to make sure you take advantage of
it all. That's why we've partnered with Prize Picks, the
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(37:06):
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Speaker 2 (37:16):
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Speaker 1 (37:17):
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Speaker 2 (37:33):
Now, let's look at my winning picks today.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
I'll be picking for this week's college football playoff games.
First up, Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard facing Penn State
University on Thursday, more or less than one hundred and
sixty and a half passing yards. I like the way
not the Dame's been looking. He's primarily a run as
opposed to a passer. But I just have a feeling
in this game against Penn State, more is the way
to go. I think this is gonna have more points

(37:58):
than people realizing this game. Next up, Penn State signal
caller Drew Eller facing Notre Dame's defense more or less
than one hundred and eighty nine and a half passing yards.
I said the same thing, the same thing applies. I
think both teams are gonna get it going offensively. We're
gonna go with more on this one as well. Next up,
we got University of Texas quarterback Quinn Yours playing the

(38:18):
Ohio State on Friday. More or less than two hundred
and thirty nine and a half passing yards. I'm going
with more on this. But here's the reason why that's
the only shot Texas has a winning this game. Because
you're not stopping Ohio State from putting up some damn points.
It's Saint Michigan in the season finale. What we've seen
against Tennessee and what we've seen against Oregon, I think
we're gonna see more the same in terms of their

(38:39):
offensive production in this game. They're gonna put up some
points in order for Texas to have a chance. They're
gonna have to answer the call. I know everybody's saying
that defense is underrated. You know what, don't get caught
up and what you saw against Arizona State, Damnit, I am,
And I understand that kid Schedible is no joke. He's
a man amongst boys. And maybe that was the reason why,
but I didn't like what I saw. And no matter what,

(39:00):
Arizona has one offensive weapon, look at all the damned
weapons of the Ohio State has. If you have problems
keeping them scoring some points, what you're gonna do.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
With the Ohio State? That's how I look at it.
I see points. I'm going more.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Finally, we've got Ohio State's quarterback Will Howard more or
less than two hundred and fifty two and a half
passing yards. Have you seen Jared mine Smith? Have you
seen this kid at BOOKA? Have you seen these brothers
with Will Howard?

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Thought, that's who Will Howard. That's a little ball.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
To damn right, It's gonna be more. Hell year is
gonna be more, more and more and more. Boy, Yes,
that's what we're gonna do. And it ain't just because
of prize picks.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
That's a good reason why. Welcome back to the Stephen A.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Smith Show right here over the digital areas of YouTube
and of course iHeartRadio. My next guest is a stand
up comedian, podcaster, and host of the long running HBO political.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Talk show Real Time with Bill Maher.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
He is also an individual that's got a new stand
up comedy special coming out?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Is anyone else seeing this?

Speaker 1 (40:03):
January tenth is the date the one and only Bill
Maul my buddy?

Speaker 2 (40:07):
What's going on? Big time? How are you so? How's everything?

Speaker 4 (40:11):
I feel like the title of that show was made
for you to announce it. Is anyone else say what?
You say that better than I do? Well?

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Please please, but you do it better. You deserve all
the credit in the world. But I want to know
how you're feeling right now? Bill is comedy specialist coming out?
Are you in a comedic mood? Are you interested in
laughing and having a good time? In light of the
things that have transpired over the last few months, In
the last few weeks and what you've had to deal
with personally in terms of speaking your piece, particularly to

(40:43):
the left, how do you feel about that absolutely.

Speaker 4 (40:46):
In fact, the very first thing I say in this
special is we're here to laugh. You know, this show business. Okay,
if you're still brooting about the election, you're in the
wrong building. I'm here just to make you laugh. And
I'm not going to pre hate anything that hasn't happened yet.

(41:10):
And also, look around, are you really suffering that much? Now? Trump?
Could he blow up the world on the second day. Yeah,
he could, But until he does, I'm not going to
chase every crazy thing he does. And I'm not going
to get upset about things that happened happened yet. And
when I look around America is you know, it's a

(41:32):
place with a lot of problems, but also compared to
the rest of the world, it's doing better than most places.
And you know, a lot of people are just living
their best lives.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Are you this way period or did it take you
a little while to get to this point after the election?

Speaker 4 (41:49):
No, I mean I was ready for Trump to win.
I thought that she would win. I thought that America
always basically moves forward and not backward. But I was wrong.
I was certainly not surprised because I did not think
she was a great candidate, but look this kind of

(42:13):
It's not like this country does not need some sort
of clean sweeping. Now I don't know what that's going
to be. I've said this before, this country needs a klonic. Uh.
I would not have chosen Donald Trump to be the
doctor to administer that colonic. But I'm curious to see,
for example, what Elon Musk is going to do. I'm

(42:35):
going to I'm curious to see how influential he's going
to be. Uh. He is tasked with reinventing the government. Basically,
he said some things which I think are great, and
I'm on the page with the first thing he said
was we're going to ask everybody in the government who
has been staying home and that's been a lot of

(42:55):
people since the pandemic to come back to work and
we and we expect about twenty percent of the workforce
to then just quit. And we welcome that. And I thought, yeah,
that's probably okay, because if twenty percent of the government
workforce quit, would we notice the difference. I'm guessing we
probably wouldn't. He also said he was going to go

(43:17):
after the F thirty five. Okay, perfect, that's exactly the
kind of thing we should do. This is a fighter
jet that they've been funding to the tune of like
a trillion dollars, And he said, first of all, it's obsolete.
We don't use fighter jets anymore. We won't in the
very near future. They're just going to get pilots killed.
And we have drones now, So why why are we

(43:38):
spending a trillion dollars on something we don't need? So
if that's what's going to go on in the government,
I'm all for it.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
What are your thoughts about somebody that would sit back
and say, okay, Elon musk, I believe South African obviously
owns Tesla, owns x formally known as Twitter. One man
having entirely too much power, and he has just the
ear of the president, if not more. Once Donald Trump
is inaugurated on January twenty first, is this guy really

(44:09):
going to look out for America's best interest or is
he going to look out for his own best interests?
How does Bill Maher answer that question in light of
all that you've seen, because you've been one of the
ADVID individuals speaking out on behalf of us, because you've
always been incredibly impressed by his brilliance, his genius, He's
been on your show at least once that I can recall,

(44:31):
and obviously you felt the way that you felt about him.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
What are your thoughts about him?

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Well, I thought, first of all, it's kind of ironic.
You know that the world's richest man and a former
ex president who is a billionaire won the election and
really stuck into the elitist suh, that's right. But you know, look,
I've criticized Elin where I think he was wrong or

(44:57):
he wasn't being honest. I mean Twitter. Look, when he
took over Twitter, it was way too left. I mean
that's why I stopped going on it, because you know,
as I used to say anything I want to say
on Twitter, I can't say on Twitter because you'd be

(45:17):
immediately excoriated because it was politically incorrect. And it used
to be when it started, a fun place where you
could just say funny things, and then it got to
be a place where the woke took over and everything
was just a minefield. And why put it out there
just to get yourself into trouble? So I stopped going there,
and Elon said, well, when I take over, I'm going

(45:39):
to make it an even playing field. I'm going to
make it a place where the left and the right
can both be. But he didn't. He just completely reversed
it and now it's just a place for the right.
So he didn't follow up on that, and I keep
saying that and he you know, and he also like
applauds people on Twitter who should not be applauded, I
mean really crazy, kind of far right people, so he

(46:03):
you know, he also says things that are just not
true very often. He doesn't seem to care about researching
things very often. But I mean, good God, Tesla, Starlink, Neurolink, SpaceX.
I mean, one man has created like three or four

(46:25):
of the most important developments in technology in the last
twenty years. I mean, you got to give the guy
a little credit for that. And also I will say
this about him, I don't think he cares about money now.
He has way too much of it. There has to
be a certain point, and I am certainly no socialist,
but there has to be a certain point where we

(46:48):
just decide, as we did, by the way one hundred
years ago when it was John D. Rockefeller. John D.
Rockefeller had I think at one point two was worth
two percent of the gross national product of the country,
and they did something about it. They made laws about
monopolies and so forth. They broke up Standard Oil. I

(47:08):
think Elon is approaching that money. There's certain there's certain
number that I think we just have to say to somebody, Okay,
you won, you won the money game, But like, how
much is too much? Can it? Can one person have
a trillion dollars? It just seems like that's taking it
a little too far. Again, I don't think he's I

(47:33):
don't think he cares about money. That's not what motivates him.
And I would be curious to see what he's going
to do, because again America, it's not like it's not
completely bloated. It is and it's gotten out of hand,
and somebody needs to go in there and do what

(47:53):
he proposes to do. But we'll see in in execution,
everything is in the details.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
I recently sat down with a guy by the name
of Dave Rubin.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
I'm sure you are aware of who he is. He
brags about.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
That's where he bragged about going to the Lakers game
with you. I told him you and I went to
the Lakers game together as well recently, and we just
he and I just finished talking and one of the
things that I called him, I said, listen, he's not
a lieutenant or general or whatever, but let's say he is.
Meaning Bill Maher considered me a soldier because I stand
directly behind him in support of all the things that

(48:32):
he has said, particularly over the last several years about
the left and how the left pretty.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Much lost its way.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Getting personal with you for a second, how difficult, if
difficult at all, has it been for you to deal
with some of the things that have been thrown in
your direction just because you were on your show telling
the truth about what the left did wrong and how
it got in its own way and what it needed
to do to fix the party.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Your thoughts, you know, you know, stephen A. You can't
have everything. That's what you come to if you live
long enough. Would I like to have everybody on my side?
Would I like to have everybody be my fan? Of course?
Was it not great when some super woke people left
because I wasn't on their page? Yeah? I wish everybody

(49:23):
was still my fan, But you can't have that. Do
I think I deserve a bunch of Emmys that I
would never get because this town is woker than I am. Yeah,
I do. I don't think we have the same criteria
about what constitutes excellence. It's okay, you can't have everything.
I would take a million times if you offered it

(49:44):
to me Against those things, the joy of being able
to speak my mind as I see it, and the
love that that gets me from people from all stripes
who appreciate that. The things that people say to me
I've been at with every type of celebrity, they don't
say the things they say to me to other celebrities.

(50:07):
That means more to me than anything with things that
people say to me, and how much it means to
them that they feel like there's somebody out there who
is never pulling a punch and who will just call
out anybody wherever they are in the political spectrum if
he thinks they're saying something goofy. That really means the
world to me. So I have that, and that's plenty.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Absolutely you deserve it, make no mistake about it. I
wanted to know in light of what you just articulated
your thoughts about Mark Zuckerberg coming out.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Recently, I think it was yesterday or so.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
And he was talking about what role Meta is going
to play and now they're no longer going to fact check,
and they're not going to be as stridently in favor
of the left or whatever the case may be. I
think that he's just trying to curry favor with Donald
Trump or whatever.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
I wanted to.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Know what you made of that, and what do you
think I think is going to be the fallout from that,
knowing what you know about the political stratosphere and specifically
about Donald Trump.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
I'm a free speech guy, you know, I believe not
an absolute free speech. That's not even in the Constitution.
And of course we have the example of you know,
yelling fire in a crowded theater and so forth. There
are things that you can't do. But I think he's
basically right. We've gone way too far toward fact whose facts?

(51:31):
I mean. COVID was a perfect example of this, and
I think that's something that really opened a lot of
people's eyes to what's going on with censorship in this country.
We were not allowed to really discuss this, and it
was a new phenomenon, this new pathogen we had. It
should have been discussed. We're finding out now as each

(51:56):
week rolls by, more and more it's pretty obvious that
COVID the origin of it was the lab. I think
in fifty years when people look back, they'll say, wait
a second, there was a lab in Wuhan where the
disease started that was studying this disease and using gain

(52:17):
of function research on it, and they were debating whether
this was the cause of it. Now it could have
been the wet markets. Absolutely, we don't know for sure.
But the fact that we weren't even allowed to discuss
that it was coming from a lab, which again it
probably was. Now we know that. You tell you all

(52:38):
you need to know the fact that Justin Trudeau just
stepped down in Canada. I mean, this guy had a
very high approval rating five years ago and he left
really very unpopular because Canada became that kind of place
where you really did not have the kind of free
speech we do and many other countries in Europe. Now
this is part of what Mark Zuckerberd was talking about.

(53:00):
We don't want to become like these countries in Europe
where they have rules about what you can say that's
going to be censored simply because it's hurting somebody's feelings.
You know, you can't say something about Islam because it's Islamophobia.
But what if it's true. You know, we just had
a terrible incident in New Orleans that was a jihadist attack.

(53:24):
We want to be able to speak about that plainly
and honestly without worrying somebody's going to say, don't say
that because it's not all Muslims. Well, no one's saying
it's all Muslims. We're saying we need to discuss about
this honestly and openly and patently. And you can't do
that if somebody's looking over your shoulder and saying, well,

(53:45):
this is going to hurt somebody's feelings. Okay, feelings are
not as important as the First Amendment, fair.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Enough, and it's one of the things that people allude
to and complain about, as you have about the left
because of woke culture. With that being said, one would
ask Bill Maher in this day and age, why would
you still call yourself a liberal or a Democrat as
opposed to an independent, considering how you're thinking and how
polar opposite that appears to be to what's transpired with

(54:14):
the Democratic Party. Because I'm reading this article from the
Wall Street Journal, and essentially the paraphrase not exact, not
your exact words, but you were talking about, you know what,
you still consider yourself. But that party is not the
party that I've been looking at in recent memory.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
Yeah. Well, I've always been an independent. I mean I
never threw in with a Democrat because I always knew
they'd disappoint me at some point.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
But I've Georgia Party. I've Georgia Party.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
Yeah. But old school liberal, yes, I mean that's I
think what I always was and always will be. As
they say in the special, the people who were saying, oh,
you're a Republican. Now, No, I'm not a Republican and
I never will be a Republican for all the reasons
I haven't been. They're too religious, they're fiscal hypocrites who

(55:00):
think it's awful when America spends money it doesn't have
except when they're in office, and then it's always perfectly okay.
They're in denial about racism, they're in denial about the environment.
They're always blaming the underprivilege when they should be blaming
the overprivileged. And then they added to that shitty mixtape

(55:21):
they don't believe in democracy anymore. And they threw their
lot in with the sociopath named Donald Trump, who thinks
that elections only count when they win, so they have
a sizable lead in being the more threatening party I
think to this country. But that doesn't mean I'm going
to hold my tongue about what I think is wrong
about the left, and I don't. And there's a lot

(55:45):
and old school liberal I could give you so many examples.
It's a very big part of the show where I'm
talking about the fact that people somehow think that wokeness
is an extension of liberalism, when very often it's the
opposite of liberalism. I mean, just like the Israel situation,

(56:06):
the liberal position has always been a two state solution.
I still think that's the solution. Well that's not the
position of the woke. They want from the river to
the sea. So you can have that position, but don't
tell me that's the liberal position. The river to the
sea does not mean a two state solution. It means

(56:29):
you want all of it for the Palestinians. That's fine,
that's your position, it's not the liberal position. I haven't
changed you have.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Is anyone else seeing this? Your stand up comedy special
scheduled for January Day Debuta January tenth on HBO. As
you were putting this together, formulating your thoughts, Bill Maher,
if you see, I'm assuming you had to worry about
because I don't think you worried about anybody. But if
you had to worry about anybody in today world where

(57:00):
you gotta worry about anything that you say or whatever,
who are you more worried about the right or the
left when it came to making sure that you said
what you needed to say. You are and authentic, as
honest as you possibly could be, but you didn't cross
the line. Who would you find something more worried about
As a comedian in his day and age, Well.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
First of all, my job is to cross the line.
That's what a stand up comedian's job. Not all stand up,
not no comedy. Some comedy's just silly, but not mine.
So you know, how do you know where the line
is until people like me cross it to a degree.

(57:40):
I'm never upset when people in the audience recoil. You know,
I don't want to make the whole show recoiling. You
want to be popular. But there's a couple of times
in the show where people just are like, oh, you know,
I mean, we were just talking about the Israel situation,
there's a line in there where I say, you know,

(58:00):
really marching for hamas you're marching four terrorist groups, it's
like rooting for the planes on nine to eleven. Well,
that's a line that gives people pause. They're like, whoa,
did you really go there? And that happens a number
of times in the show. It should That's what a
comedian should do, at least a comedian like me. That's

(58:21):
what my job is. So do I worry about the
people who get so upset about that that they're not
going to watch. They're not watching anyway. They left the
building a while ago with me. They know I'm not safe.
And if you want safe, or you want someone who's
just going to tell you what you already believe and
just be the echo chamber for you, I'm not your

(58:43):
guy and never have been. So do I worry about
those people?

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Not?

Speaker 4 (58:48):
Really. The other people I could worry about would be
Donald Trump. I mean, he does flirt with authoritarianism, there
is no doubt about it. Do I think he's going
to start arresting comedians? I really don't. But you know,
he's talking about invading Greenland and annexing Canada. You know,

(59:09):
he says a lot of He says a lot of
stuff Steven Day. He really does. I don't think it's
going to happen. But let me put it this way,
under George Bush or anybody else, it never even entered
my mind with trying. Anything's possible, Anything is possible.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
My very last question to you would be this, Outside
of making people laugh, which I know you want to do,
this is a comedy special, after all, is anyone is
anyone else seeing this? Is there something else you're hoping
to accomplish with this comedy special?

Speaker 2 (59:44):
And if so, what is that? Exactly?

Speaker 4 (59:47):
Yeah? I mean I think there's a theme to it,
and that is that we have to talk to each other,
that we can't just cut each other off. It's one
thing I really don't like about the left these days,
very exclusionary. If you're not exactly on the page with them,
if you don't believe in the one true opinion that

(01:00:08):
they have, then they don't even want to talk to you.
We saw this after the election where a number of
people were advising family members to cut off people in
your own family over the holidays. We're talking about Thanksgiving
and Christmas because they voted for the wrong guy in
the election, you're not going to talk to people in
your family? Yeah, no, no, no, that's not good. I'm

(01:00:35):
not down with that. So I think if there's any
message I want people to have its you're going to
have to talk to people. Because half the country is
not self deporting. They're still going to be here, and
just because they voted for Donald Trump, which I would
never do, doesn't mean they're bad people. I don't want
to hate half the country, and I don't hate half

(01:00:56):
the country the more.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
I love the relationship that we've called that. I love
my appearances on Club Random. I've had an absolute blast.
It's the only time of my life I've had a
contact high in front of the camera. It's all because
of you. Snoop Dogg is very, very proud of me
for that. I wish you nothing but the best. Can't
wait to see this comedy special coming out January tenth.
Is anyone else seeing this?

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
I will be in front of my tube watching. I
can't wait to see it. Happy for you, proud of you,
and looking forward to talking to you down the line.
My brother, you take it easy, okay.

Speaker 4 (01:01:27):
Thank you? Man? I love you, and I hope I
get to see you soon.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
You will all the best to you. Take care.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Thanks again to the one and only Bill Maher always
always great talking to him. I love taping that interview
with him just a few hours ago. Obviously, coming up,
President Joe Biden believes he would have beat Donald Trump
had he stayed in the president your race. Plus Biden
gave a surprise answer when asked if he had the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
Stamina for another four years. I'll get into all of
that and then some right here on the Steven A.
Smith Show. Don't go away.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Everyone right now needs to stop what they're doing and
listen up and listen good. With all the big time
sports action that's happening each and every day, NFL games,
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Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Prospects run your game. Welcome back to the stephen A.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
Smith Show right here with the digital airways with YouTube
and of course iHeart Radio's time to get into some
politics because I got a few.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Things to talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Actually I don't, it's just one really particular thing. With
less than two weeks remaining in his presidency, mister Joe Biden.
President Joe Biden sat down for a wide ranging interview
with the publication USA Today. Biden made several headlines during
the conversation, but I want to focus on a few
things that stood out.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
The president says he still believes he could have defeated
President of ELEC. Donald Trump in the twenty twenty four
election based on the poll numbers he saw at the time. However,
Biden expressed no such confidence when asked whether he had
had the stamina to serve another four years in office.
It's presumptuous, he said, to say that I would have
beaten Trump. But I think yes. When Trump was running
again for reelection, I really thought I had the best

(01:04:11):
chance of beating him. But I also wasn't looking to
be president when I was eighty five years old, eighty
six years old, and so I did talk about passing
the baton. But I don't know if I could have
served another four years. Who the hell knows end quote.
First of all, that quote is verification on several levels.

(01:04:35):
Its validation on several levels. Why President Biden should have
bowed his ass out of the race.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
You see, you can't let him off the hook here.
So let me get this straight.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
You knew that you probably couldn't go another four years,
but you ran for election.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
You didn't bow out.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
You didn't do what you had promised to do, was
to be a transitional president and passed up a dawn
to a younger generation.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
You didn't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Then you sat up there and you avoided primaries, and
then you went and showed up on June twenty seventh
and looked lost. As Anthony Scaramucci on News Nation, political
analyst former Trump guy said this about Joe Biden. At
the time, he looked like a patient in a nursing

(01:05:30):
home waiting for his apple sauce. But you're saying that
before that you knew that you probably couldn't give us
four more years, but you ran anyway. That is pathetic,

(01:05:50):
That is inexcusable. But by the way, let me take
it a step further, it's also delusional that you were
to beat Trump. Let's state that for the obvious, because
clearly the American people were spoken, and if they spoke
against Kamala Harris, the likelihood is that they would have
spoken against you because of the things you yourself just mentioned.

(01:06:10):
This is the kind of stuff that's going to hurt
the Democratic Party for years to come, because you see,
if he felt that way and he had those reservations
even though he believed he could beat Trump in a
runoff of the election. The bottom line is the Democratic
Party knew and they tried to hide them. You don't

(01:06:33):
have credibility any longer. Now that's not to say the
Republicans are rife with credibility themselves. I mean I'm listening
to the pomping circumstance that Trump is throwing out there Greenland.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
I want that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
I want that not a bad thing and not a
bad thing to bloviate about because you're competing with China
and Russia. And I said, we talked about commerce there,
we're talking about national.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
Security issues there. I get that part.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Okay, we want to go call it the Gulf of
America instead of goulf of Mexico.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
Really, really, what we're doing, that's what we're doing. Bluster.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
How much is that going to amount to? What does
that really really mean? So we're gonna see more of it,
and Trump's gonna be Trump. But when I saw that
quote from Biden, I said, thank god he's leaving. Thank God,
I've had enough. Now I'm not gonna pardon Hunter, and
I don't mind you. If it was my son, I
had to pardon them. I'm not gonna pardon. We made

(01:07:26):
the decisions, not gonna happen. Then you went against you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
It happened. It happened.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
You're about the rule of lawd We're about the rule
of law. Yeah, really really, but then you're not. I'm
so sick of all of this. I don't even wanna
talk about it no more. Let's go to the tweets.
Let just go to the tweets. I'm done with this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
I'm done. Thank god he's leaving. Thank god he's leaving.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
That Callos Boozer and Ryan Hollins since my producers aren't
wise enough to blow some stuff up because they don't
see that. I don't wear glasses like they do. Okay,
I actually cannot see that, but it is what it is.
Ryan Hollins really popped out with the Carlos.

Speaker 6 (01:08:07):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
I don't want my producers in my heir talking about
you gonna said to me, No, you should have had
it blown up. I want to see it now and
keep this in the show. So because I want the
audience do I'm getting on my producers. You go and
try to make fools of me because they know I
can't see the damn thing. Okay, I can't see that either,
But nevertheless, it's clearly something about the hairline. It's Ryan Hollins,
it's Carlos Boozer. All I gotta say is this, Devin,

(01:08:27):
I'm jealous. I wish my hairline was like that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
I really do. That would be nice.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
I wish I wish my hairline was like that, even
like even Ryan's, which is a little kind of crooked there,
I still wish it was that way.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Carlos.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
I don't want, I don't ever want my hair shining
like that. You know what I'm saying. It looked like
you threw some damn blue paint on your head at
the time. That's call those Boozer when he was younger.
That's not him right now. But nevertheless, you know Ryan's
attaining too.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
But I get it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
But I gotta admit I'm jealous of the hairline. I
wish my hairline was about to three inches forward. That
would be nice. I ain't gonna from That's one tweet.
Give me the next one, please at GTA six plus, right,
Steven Nate Smith when you play GTA six when it releases.

Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
Hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
I didn't think about it, but I might. Why not?
I need to do that. I mean, even they'll have
to teach me because I never did it before.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
I don't know whether my nephew, his son, or one
of my producers who pay attention to this kind of stuff,
I don't know, but I tried.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
I'm all about it. I'm all about it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Next week, what we got, which Batman would win in
a fight, Ben Affleck or Michael Keaton. Well, I think
in a fight it would be Ben Affleck. That's a
big boy. Ben Affleck ain't no small dude. Plus he's
from Boston. But I ain't gonna sleep on Michael Keton.
I think Michael Keaton was more suave. Ben Affleck is
a big boy. I'm definitely gonna do that. I like

(01:09:46):
Ben Affleck. I just didn't like him in the Batman movies.
I loved him in The Accountant, loved him into it.
In The Accountant he was great.

Speaker 4 (01:09:52):
He was great.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
Okay, I didn't like the Batman movies. I didn't like
GG with him and j Love. But I like most
of the the stuff that Ben afflete I liked him
in the town. I thought he was great in the town. Okay,
I like Ben Affleck in a lot of things, just
not Batman and.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
GG or or whatever. It was. All right, that's it
for this addition to the Steven A. Smiths Show. I
got to get on out of here.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
Thanks again to Tory Cooper for joining me for the
show at the top of the show today.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
Thank you so much, and thank the great Bill Maher.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
He is phenomenal and when it comes to politics, it's
must see TV Real Time with Bill Maher, especially New Rules.
New Rules is my favorite segment in all of television.
My favorite segment in all of television. This is the
only thing I ever looked at on television and literally said,
I'd like to copy you know im, because I'm not
a plageriss but I love New Rules on Real Time

(01:10:40):
with Bill Maher on HBO.

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
Love it. I think it's great.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
I think he's great, and I think his comedy special
is gonna be great as well. So make sure y'all
don't miss it until next time. This is Stephen a
signing off, Peace of love everybody, God bless
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Stephen A. Smith

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