February 19, 2025 • 23 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.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let me switch to a subject near and dear to
my heart me because once again I'm in the news
and you would think it would be about something else
other than what I'm in the news for, but one
thing after another has appeared. I had a couple of
(00:22):
articles that I had to pay attention to this week,
and there is no way around this. So I'm going
to tackle it with the further that it deserves and
let you.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Know what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
The Daily Beast last week wrote the headline is top
them a lot to like about Stephen A.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Smith presidential bid?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That is a House Minority speaker, Hakeem Jeffries, who I
hope will be on this show in a very near future.
Another article came out this week and by the New
Yorker headline Stephen A. Smith for President New Yorker dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Check it out.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I must admit I got on like a lavender blazer
with a lavender shirt and a purple tie. I was
looking pretty fly, if I should say so myself. I
just want to throw that out there. I just want
to throw that out there, Okay, and out the latest.
It's courtesy of TMZ now MINDJU USA, Today, Washington Post, USA.
You know various other publications have written about this as well.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Smith, I am not running for US president. This is
when TMZ caught me coming out of a Shannon Sharps
party in New Orleans during Super Bowl week, and I
guess they ran this recently, and I wanted to go
there because I wanted to make sure that I put
this to bed once and for all. I have no
intentions of running for the presidency of the United States
(01:46):
of America. I do not believe I am an officionado.
I do not believe that my pockets are deep enough
for me to ignore the financial strain that could potentially
have on me, because obviously I earn more than the
President of the United States right now, he makes about four.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Hundred thousand dollars a year that position.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
There is Senate and congressional figures make anywhere from one
hundred and seventy two hundred and seventy thousand a year.
Needless to say, I make more money than that, and
so I'm not really interested on that level. But here's
a reason why, while being honest about having zero desire
(02:30):
whatsoever to be a politician, because I consider them beggars donors,
you know, campaign donations, you know sponsors, and you know
political figures, and even when you get into office, you
got to curry favor with politicians to get legislation pushed
through and all of this other stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I mean, it's just no peace in my life.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Plus it's given you a license because I'm asking to
legislate the lives of three hundred and fifty plus American citizens.
That gives you a license to get into my personal
business that I don't want you in.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
That all of that's true. But there's a reason.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
While there's a reason that while saying what I've said
and meaning it, I've often said, even in a half
joking way, of the American people wanted me to be
the president of the United States, and I knew that
I had a really, really good shot to win. I
(03:29):
can't deny that it's something I would consider. Let me
tell you why I say that, because I think.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Our system sucks.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I think the binary system that we're in where we
have to choose between the Democrats or the Republicans is
a joke. I think it dissuades a vast majority of
American citizens from wanting to be a part of the
political process. And I think that something needs to be
done about it in order to bring American back to
where it should have always been. Ladies and gentlemen, I
(04:04):
cover sports full living Griff Cherry Rashan. Everybody, listen up,
because I'm only gonna say this once, so very very important,
because I know, like I told America before, I've got
a bunch of liberals working for me. Some a closet Republicans.
They don't want to admit it, but it's true. We
got a bunch of liberals working for me in a
whole bit. Let me be very very clear about where
(04:26):
I stand. Yes, you need to listen to damn it.
You got a family, Listen to me. Listen when I'm
talking to you, Ladies and gentlemen. I cover sports for
a living. I like competition. I want legitimate competition between
the Republican and the Democratic Party over your ideas of
(04:48):
what the country should be and how we can get
it there. I hate it when the Left because I
firmly believe they politicized a whole bunch of legal stuff
against Donald Trump. I'm not questioning the legitimacy or lack thereof.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
You got the eleven thousand folks he was seeking in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You got the thirty four felony convictions he received in
New York. Some people said it's hush money. Others said,
what's the difference between that and the NDA?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Damn it.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
The man cooked up with a poor star and didn't
want anybody to know before the election.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Oh my god, stop the presses.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
John Edwards got loose as a Democratic nominee or a
Democratic candidate when he was running for the presidency. He
didn't want people to know. I'm quite sure he would
have hit it if he could have gotten away with it.
Gary Edwards did the same thing. You don't think Clinton
tried to submerge evidence against him with the whole Monica
Lewisky Skinner. Come on. I think it was politicized to
(05:54):
some degree anyway, And I hated that because what I
was saying is beat him. Go back to the tapes,
griff notch ahead. If I'm lyon, I was saying, beat him,
don't pussy for the round, don't depend on the legal
system to wipe him out so you don't have to
go against him in the polls.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Beat him. What's one of the reasons I think he lost.
I think he won because he was saying, you can't
beat me.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
You're using this to get help, because you can't beat
me on your own. And sure enough, election day rolls
around and the Democrats got their ass kicked. I don't
want to hear this noise about how he didn't get
fifty percent of the vote. Forty nine point eight percent
he got. Kamala got forty eight point three. The man
(06:48):
won fifty counties and went up in every one of them.
He won all six to seven swing states, the black vote,
the Hispanic vote, the.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Young voters voted for him. He won.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
He won because we didn't want to engage in competition
on the left. We were looking for the courts to
help us. Now we fast forward, and what are we
saying here? I'm reading article right here, New York Times.
I'm reading it right here, New York Times headline venting
(07:26):
at Democrats and fearing Trump, liberal donors pulled back cash.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I'm gonna read a couple of excepts from here, from you.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
The small dollar online figure that powered oppositions to the
first Trump administration has slowed to a trickle, as shaking
liberal voters withhold their donations. Charitable foundations that are long
supported causes like voting rights, LGBTQ equality, and immigrants rights
are pulling back the voting time to prepare for expected
investigations from the Republican led Congress and some of the.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Country's biggest legal donors.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Liberal donors, I'm sorry, have paused giving, frustrated with what
they see as democrats lack of vision and worried about
retaliation from eventful president. Some Democrats say a few of
their reliable donors are now openly supporting mister Trump, or
at least looking to curry favor with him. In another paragraph,
it says while mister Trump has not taken action against
(08:19):
any liberal groups or lawmakers, Democrats worry his frequent threats
of retribution during the campaign have led to a chilling
effect on the charitable foundations and nonprofit advocacy groups that
have long been pillars of the.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Country civil society. Jeff Skoll, a.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Silicon Valley billionaire and a longtime friend of Elon Musk,
said there was an awful lot of pressure to side
with Trump this month. Mister Skull, who's donated tens of
millions to Democratic candidates and courses in recent years, but
said he did not vote In twenty twenty four presidential election,
posted a voto on social media of himself standing with
mister Trump backstage at the inauguration. On Friday, he had
(08:53):
breakfast in Palm Beach, Florida with Senator Chuck Schuma, New York,
the minority leader, where they discussed aspect of mister Schumer's
using mister Skull to back channel ideas to the president.
Mister Schumer recalls the conversation differently according to an aid. Okay,
but here's the biggest thing, and I'll stop the reading
(09:13):
after this quote. There are people who are absolutely against Trump,
never trumpets, who fear that they'll be retalitated against it.
They'll have to leave the country, mister Schul said. Folks
who wish to oppose them, it may take some time
before they gather up the.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Courage, but listen to this.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
The result is a political environment that is strikingly different
from twenty seventeen, when money poured into democratic causes for
defying existing organizations and ceding the flowering of new groups
to fight different parts of mister Trump's agenda. Now, some
of those same organizations are struggling to survive, in part
because few new major liberal donors have emerged since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Groups that support LGBTQ.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Rights, promote gender equity, and champion other progressive causes have
cut staffing and announced that longtime leaders are leaving. In
United and Citizens United, a left leaning group that aims
to overhaul campaign finance laws, laid off its six senior
staff members last month as part of her restructuring. Run
for Something, which works to elect liberal down ballot candidates.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Laid off thirty five percent of the staff.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Late last year, and Gelson gos He and a group
dedicated to protect the LGBTQ students, laid off twenty five
people last month. Let me tell y'all something. If you're
the Democrats, that's why Stephen A. Smith is in the
news because y'all don't have anybody.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
You don't have anybody who got who got Kamala.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Harris Bett not run. She better not run.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
She's not gonna win the presidency in twenty twenty eight.
Keep in mind respect for her. I'm not gonna disrespect
the former Vice president of the United States.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I will never do that. But we gotta be real
about something here.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
When she ran for election on her own, she couldn't
make it to Iowan twenty twenty. She ultimately positions herself
gets the vice presidency the election In twenty twenty, Joe
Biden is feeling himself after.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
The Liberals won the mid terms and.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Instead of being a transitional president like he promised, the
man backstabbed the Liberal Party and turned around and said,
I'm staying. They wanted him out. So what did everybody rate?
We all notice now booboo, the fool can see what happened.
Now you knew he had lost the step. We don't
know what the hell was wrong with him, but clearly
his fastball was gone.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So you have no primary. You fix it so he
doesn't have to face a.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Primary, and then you put him on stage last June
twenty seventh for a debate. He embarrasses himself and three
weeks later he has to bow out. So Kamala Harrison
had come in as a Democratic nominee for the presidency
of the United States of America at a time when
they didn't have any time to put somebody else in
to compete with her. You don't overcome that after losing
(11:50):
the election, America ain't gonna go for it.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
On the left.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
They gonna go for it. Who else you got Hakim
Jeffries support west Water, governor of Maryland. But I don't
know how much of a national figure he is. I
already interviewed Josh Shapiro. And oh, by the way, that
the Republicans listening out there, you're welcome to come on
to stephen A.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Smith show.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I'm not one sided. See, this is why my name
is in the election. You hear me Griff, you hear
me west You hear me Sherry, you hear me with Sea,
you hear.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Me the Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Smith team I'm talking to. That's why I'm in the news.
I'm not in the news because I'm here. I'm in
the news because the Democratic.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Party is here. Damn it.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Lower than that down at the bottom. They suck right now,
horrible because they don't have a voice. Where the hell
of the voice? Everybody want to sit up there talking
about I mean, I need avice, we not need.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
It, but we don't need a voice. We don't need
a voice.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Well, guess what, somebody got to send a message. How
the hell can somebody receive a message If there's no messenger,
you gotta do it. And they don't have anybody that's
why Stephen A. Smith as a candidate. Who the hell
told y'all? I'd want to be a Democrat. I have
(13:05):
conservative ideas. I believe in free market capitalism. I believe
in patrol on our borders. I believe in strong national security.
But you all right, I'd probably be a Democrat, a moderate,
a centrist leaning left. I'm about that Bill Clinton Newt
Gingridge agreement. I'm about that surplus when Clinton walked out
(13:28):
of office. I'm about Obama deporting more than Trump did,
but the American public didn't notice. I'm about a strong economy.
I want Grift to get paid. I want Chevy to
get paid. I want Gala to get paid. I want
Rashan to get paid. I just want to get paid
to you really really think that Stephen A. Smith would
(13:55):
tolerate crime in the streets to the point where you
got to lit three people in the store at a time.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Do you know anything about me?
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Do you know what I would do as commanded in
chief if I saw a crime raiding through our streets
and it was affecting jobs and safety and ultimately the economy.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Do you know who the hell you're talking to or
listening to? Hell?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Trump might not have anything on me with that. I
ain't having it. I ain't having it. So I'm just
saying to y'all, that's why I'm a candidate. It ain't
because I want to. It ain't because I'm some expert.
It ain't because I'm some official or not. Who's saying
that I know more? You know how much I would
have to learn. Hell, I don't even know how to
(14:38):
pronounce most foreign dignitaries names. The sad part is that
i'd still be any Democrat out there right now, because
who the hell is resonating with the American people.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Hell?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Even Jos Shapiro came on the show, who I like
a lot, by the way, and even talking about I'm
just coachre treating.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
The what what we need?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
More than that, I have no interest in getting involved
more so than pundency and commentary. But you better hope
I stay feeling that way, because let me tell you
something right now.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I said I'll bring the rain.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I lied, I bring hell Hell, because I ain't playing
I'm near to win.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I two party system sucks.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
You think I like what I see Elon Musk doing,
I don't know whether I like it or not.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I don't know if he could be trusted.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I don't like the fact that he's getting billions from
our federal government while he's doing business on behalf of
the president. And the president is talking about all police
and myself, I'll watch him.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Why I'm I supposed to trust that?
Speaker 1 (15:52):
No, but President Trump has a right to do it
because he won, because y'all are and beat them. Because
while he was talking about the economy, and he was
talking about the price of goods, and he was talking
about inflation, and he was talking about our borders, and
he was talking about crime in the streets, the Democrats
(16:14):
was talking about LGBTQ and transgender rights in one percent
of the population at the expense and see, and this
is the part that I want to make sure I'm
clear about.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
This was the crime.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
It's not that they were talking about transgender rights. It's
that they forgot thirteen percent of the population in the
black community, and they forgot nearly twenty percent of the
population in the Hispanic community who supported them at the
(16:50):
expense of the one percent. How stupid can you be.
I don't believe that's Kamala Harris's fault. I believe that's
zealots on the left on aggressive side, who somehow, some
way managed to pull these people to this side. Nobody
sent your left, simply looked at them in the face,
(17:11):
whether it's AOC or anybody else from the squad, and
ask a simple question, where the hell are you going?
If you don't vote for us, what you gonna do?
Go vote, vote, vot, vote for Trump. You're gonna vote right,
and you're on the progressive left. If you all the
way left, okay, if you all the way left, what
you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
All the way right?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
You might not like where somebody is center left, but
at least they're closer to the left on the other side.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
And the center left was capitulating to that.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Why because you had no strong leadership, You had nobody
to tell them to sit their ass down, shut up,
and follow my lead. I'm the Democratic nominee for the
presidency of the United States, not you.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
We gonna do this my way.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
They don't have that on the left.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And now you got a whole bunch of people running scared,
talking about leaving the country because they scared of Trump. Well,
maybe if you didn't try to lose use warfare to
get him, and you just sat up there and competed
with him fair and square about your policies being better
than his, and articulated that message to the masters.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Maybe it wouldn't be this way, but you didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That's why Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Smith is being polled as a presidential nominee. It ain't
because I'm qualified. It damn sure ain't because I'm the
smartest dude in the room. It's because I got hard,
I got guts, and if we gonna have a fight,
(18:43):
let's get down.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Let's get it on.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
America knows I would do that much, and I'd have
a clue as to what I'm talking about, and I'd
have a clue as to what not to talk about,
like something that's less than one percent of the Bible.
Think about this last point I'm gonna make.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
President. Barack Obama.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Deported more people than Trump ever did, and you barely.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Heard about it.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
He just did it.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Knowing that Joe Biden opened borders.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
They could talk about how you can open it, but
you couldn't necessarily close it after you opened it, because
of COVID.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And all this.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I't want to hear that the streets of America were
ravaged with illegal immigrants in our nation, and Joe Biden
and his administration did nothing about it after Obama had
(19:51):
done everything about it other than past comprehensive immigration reform
which takes both sides of the aisle. President Obama did
his job, Joe Biden did not. And the Democrats, who
are progressives that means looking forward, stood up during his
(20:15):
State of the Union, knowing that he was approaching eighty
two years of age and chanted for more years. You
have no authenticity, you have no legitimacy. Your heart might
be in the right place with some of the policies
that you're trying to implement, some of the things that
you're trying to move forward, while it appears Trump maybe
(20:39):
trying to turn the clock back. But it's the price
you pay when you're incompetent, selfish tone, death, devoid of impact.
(21:00):
What the Democratic Party. That's where the Democratic Party is
at right now. And it's exactly why some sports analyst
on National TV is a candidate for the presidency of
the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I have no desire whatsoever to compromise my.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Quality of life for this, but I'll say this much
about myself. I don't blame millions of Americans if they
want me to, because what the hell is the alternative?
Look at y'all, Look at y'all. I'm talking to the
(21:47):
dem specifically, what a travesty everybody's jumping ship from y'all.
Party has to change, It has to be urged. And
those who got in Kamala Harris's ear and told her
that that was the strategy they needed to exercise in
(22:08):
those one hundred and seven days before the election, all
of them should be gone, every living ass, every one
of them. What an egregious plan to put forth. She
didn't lose this election. Y'all lost it, and with it
(22:31):
you took her presidential aspirations with her and threw it away.
That's why I'm a candidate, And even though I have
no desire to be one, I don't mind the noise.
Hopefully it'll make y'all uncomfortable to get y'all back up,
so you can get your act together and do what
(22:51):
the hell you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
If not, that hollered me in three years, age my
mind by that til next time. Peace in love, everybody. Stephen,
that son
Let me switch to a subject near and dear to
my heart me because once again I'm in the news
and you would think it would be about something else
other than what I'm in the news for, but one
thing after another has appeared. I had a couple of
(00:22):
articles that I had to pay attention to this week,
and there is no way around this. So I'm going
to tackle it with the further that it deserves and
let you.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Know what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
The Daily Beast last week wrote the headline is top
them a lot to like about Stephen A.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Smith presidential bid?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That is a House Minority speaker, Hakeem Jeffries, who I
hope will be on this show in a very near future.
Another article came out this week and by the New
Yorker headline Stephen A. Smith for President New Yorker dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Check it out.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I must admit I got on like a lavender blazer
with a lavender shirt and a purple tie. I was
looking pretty fly, if I should say so myself. I
just want to throw that out there. I just want
to throw that out there, Okay, and out the latest.
It's courtesy of TMZ now MINDJU USA, Today, Washington Post, USA.
You know various other publications have written about this as well.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Smith, I am not running for US president. This is
when TMZ caught me coming out of a Shannon Sharps
party in New Orleans during Super Bowl week, and I
guess they ran this recently, and I wanted to go
there because I wanted to make sure that I put
this to bed once and for all. I have no
intentions of running for the presidency of the United States
(01:46):
of America. I do not believe I am an officionado.
I do not believe that my pockets are deep enough
for me to ignore the financial strain that could potentially
have on me, because obviously I earn more than the
President of the United States right now, he makes about four.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Hundred thousand dollars a year that position.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
There is Senate and congressional figures make anywhere from one
hundred and seventy two hundred and seventy thousand a year.
Needless to say, I make more money than that, and
so I'm not really interested on that level. But here's
a reason why, while being honest about having zero desire
(02:30):
whatsoever to be a politician, because I consider them beggars donors,
you know, campaign donations, you know sponsors, and you know
political figures, and even when you get into office, you
got to curry favor with politicians to get legislation pushed
through and all of this other stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I mean, it's just no peace in my life.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Plus it's given you a license because I'm asking to
legislate the lives of three hundred and fifty plus American citizens.
That gives you a license to get into my personal
business that I don't want you in.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
That all of that's true. But there's a reason.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
While there's a reason that while saying what I've said
and meaning it, I've often said, even in a half
joking way, of the American people wanted me to be
the president of the United States, and I knew that
I had a really, really good shot to win. I
(03:29):
can't deny that it's something I would consider. Let me
tell you why I say that, because I think.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Our system sucks.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I think the binary system that we're in where we
have to choose between the Democrats or the Republicans is
a joke. I think it dissuades a vast majority of
American citizens from wanting to be a part of the
political process. And I think that something needs to be
done about it in order to bring American back to
where it should have always been. Ladies and gentlemen, I
(04:04):
cover sports full living Griff Cherry Rashan. Everybody, listen up,
because I'm only gonna say this once, so very very important,
because I know, like I told America before, I've got
a bunch of liberals working for me. Some a closet Republicans.
They don't want to admit it, but it's true. We
got a bunch of liberals working for me in a
whole bit. Let me be very very clear about where
(04:26):
I stand. Yes, you need to listen to damn it.
You got a family, Listen to me. Listen when I'm
talking to you, Ladies and gentlemen. I cover sports for
a living. I like competition. I want legitimate competition between
the Republican and the Democratic Party over your ideas of
(04:48):
what the country should be and how we can get
it there. I hate it when the Left because I
firmly believe they politicized a whole bunch of legal stuff
against Donald Trump. I'm not questioning the legitimacy or lack thereof.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
You got the eleven thousand folks he was seeking in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You got the thirty four felony convictions he received in
New York. Some people said it's hush money. Others said,
what's the difference between that and the NDA?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Damn it.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
The man cooked up with a poor star and didn't
want anybody to know before the election.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Oh my god, stop the presses.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
John Edwards got loose as a Democratic nominee or a
Democratic candidate when he was running for the presidency. He
didn't want people to know. I'm quite sure he would
have hit it if he could have gotten away with it.
Gary Edwards did the same thing. You don't think Clinton
tried to submerge evidence against him with the whole Monica
Lewisky Skinner. Come on. I think it was politicized to
(05:54):
some degree anyway, And I hated that because what I
was saying is beat him. Go back to the tapes,
griff notch ahead. If I'm lyon, I was saying, beat him,
don't pussy for the round, don't depend on the legal
system to wipe him out so you don't have to
go against him in the polls.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Beat him. What's one of the reasons I think he lost.
I think he won because he was saying, you can't
beat me.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
You're using this to get help, because you can't beat
me on your own. And sure enough, election day rolls
around and the Democrats got their ass kicked. I don't
want to hear this noise about how he didn't get
fifty percent of the vote. Forty nine point eight percent
he got. Kamala got forty eight point three. The man
(06:48):
won fifty counties and went up in every one of them.
He won all six to seven swing states, the black vote,
the Hispanic vote, the.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Young voters voted for him. He won.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
He won because we didn't want to engage in competition
on the left. We were looking for the courts to
help us. Now we fast forward, and what are we
saying here? I'm reading article right here, New York Times.
I'm reading it right here, New York Times headline venting
(07:26):
at Democrats and fearing Trump, liberal donors pulled back cash.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I'm gonna read a couple of excepts from here, from you.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
The small dollar online figure that powered oppositions to the
first Trump administration has slowed to a trickle, as shaking
liberal voters withhold their donations. Charitable foundations that are long
supported causes like voting rights, LGBTQ equality, and immigrants rights
are pulling back the voting time to prepare for expected
investigations from the Republican led Congress and some of the.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Country's biggest legal donors.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Liberal donors, I'm sorry, have paused giving, frustrated with what
they see as democrats lack of vision and worried about
retaliation from eventful president. Some Democrats say a few of
their reliable donors are now openly supporting mister Trump, or
at least looking to curry favor with him. In another paragraph,
it says while mister Trump has not taken action against
(08:19):
any liberal groups or lawmakers, Democrats worry his frequent threats
of retribution during the campaign have led to a chilling
effect on the charitable foundations and nonprofit advocacy groups that
have long been pillars of the.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Country civil society. Jeff Skoll, a.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Silicon Valley billionaire and a longtime friend of Elon Musk,
said there was an awful lot of pressure to side
with Trump this month. Mister Skull, who's donated tens of
millions to Democratic candidates and courses in recent years, but
said he did not vote In twenty twenty four presidential election,
posted a voto on social media of himself standing with
mister Trump backstage at the inauguration. On Friday, he had
(08:53):
breakfast in Palm Beach, Florida with Senator Chuck Schuma, New York,
the minority leader, where they discussed aspect of mister Schumer's
using mister Skull to back channel ideas to the president.
Mister Schumer recalls the conversation differently according to an aid. Okay,
but here's the biggest thing, and I'll stop the reading
(09:13):
after this quote. There are people who are absolutely against Trump,
never trumpets, who fear that they'll be retalitated against it.
They'll have to leave the country, mister Schul said. Folks
who wish to oppose them, it may take some time
before they gather up the.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Courage, but listen to this.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
The result is a political environment that is strikingly different
from twenty seventeen, when money poured into democratic causes for
defying existing organizations and ceding the flowering of new groups
to fight different parts of mister Trump's agenda. Now, some
of those same organizations are struggling to survive, in part
because few new major liberal donors have emerged since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Groups that support LGBTQ.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Rights, promote gender equity, and champion other progressive causes have
cut staffing and announced that longtime leaders are leaving. In
United and Citizens United, a left leaning group that aims
to overhaul campaign finance laws, laid off its six senior
staff members last month as part of her restructuring. Run
for Something, which works to elect liberal down ballot candidates.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Laid off thirty five percent of the staff.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Late last year, and Gelson gos He and a group
dedicated to protect the LGBTQ students, laid off twenty five
people last month. Let me tell y'all something. If you're
the Democrats, that's why Stephen A. Smith is in the
news because y'all don't have anybody.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
You don't have anybody who got who got Kamala.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Harris Bett not run. She better not run.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
She's not gonna win the presidency in twenty twenty eight.
Keep in mind respect for her. I'm not gonna disrespect
the former Vice president of the United States.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I will never do that. But we gotta be real
about something here.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
When she ran for election on her own, she couldn't
make it to Iowan twenty twenty. She ultimately positions herself
gets the vice presidency the election In twenty twenty, Joe
Biden is feeling himself after.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
The Liberals won the mid terms and.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Instead of being a transitional president like he promised, the
man backstabbed the Liberal Party and turned around and said,
I'm staying. They wanted him out. So what did everybody rate?
We all notice now booboo, the fool can see what happened.
Now you knew he had lost the step. We don't
know what the hell was wrong with him, but clearly
his fastball was gone.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So you have no primary. You fix it so he
doesn't have to face a.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Primary, and then you put him on stage last June
twenty seventh for a debate. He embarrasses himself and three
weeks later he has to bow out. So Kamala Harrison
had come in as a Democratic nominee for the presidency
of the United States of America at a time when
they didn't have any time to put somebody else in
to compete with her. You don't overcome that after losing
(11:50):
the election, America ain't gonna go for it.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
On the left.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
They gonna go for it. Who else you got Hakim
Jeffries support west Water, governor of Maryland. But I don't
know how much of a national figure he is. I
already interviewed Josh Shapiro. And oh, by the way, that
the Republicans listening out there, you're welcome to come on
to stephen A.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Smith show.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I'm not one sided. See, this is why my name
is in the election. You hear me Griff, you hear
me west You hear me Sherry, you hear me with Sea,
you hear.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Me the Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Smith team I'm talking to. That's why I'm in the news.
I'm not in the news because I'm here. I'm in
the news because the Democratic.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Party is here. Damn it.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Lower than that down at the bottom. They suck right now,
horrible because they don't have a voice. Where the hell
of the voice? Everybody want to sit up there talking
about I mean, I need avice, we not need.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
It, but we don't need a voice. We don't need
a voice.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Well, guess what, somebody got to send a message. How
the hell can somebody receive a message If there's no messenger,
you gotta do it. And they don't have anybody that's
why Stephen A. Smith as a candidate. Who the hell
told y'all? I'd want to be a Democrat. I have
(13:05):
conservative ideas. I believe in free market capitalism. I believe
in patrol on our borders. I believe in strong national security.
But you all right, I'd probably be a Democrat, a moderate,
a centrist leaning left. I'm about that Bill Clinton Newt
Gingridge agreement. I'm about that surplus when Clinton walked out
(13:28):
of office. I'm about Obama deporting more than Trump did,
but the American public didn't notice. I'm about a strong economy.
I want Grift to get paid. I want Chevy to
get paid. I want Gala to get paid. I want
Rashan to get paid. I just want to get paid
to you really really think that Stephen A. Smith would
(13:55):
tolerate crime in the streets to the point where you
got to lit three people in the store at a time.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Do you know anything about me?
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Do you know what I would do as commanded in
chief if I saw a crime raiding through our streets
and it was affecting jobs and safety and ultimately the economy.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Do you know who the hell you're talking to or
listening to? Hell?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Trump might not have anything on me with that. I
ain't having it. I ain't having it. So I'm just
saying to y'all, that's why I'm a candidate. It ain't
because I want to. It ain't because I'm some expert.
It ain't because I'm some official or not. Who's saying
that I know more? You know how much I would
have to learn. Hell, I don't even know how to
(14:38):
pronounce most foreign dignitaries names. The sad part is that
i'd still be any Democrat out there right now, because
who the hell is resonating with the American people.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Hell?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Even Jos Shapiro came on the show, who I like
a lot, by the way, and even talking about I'm
just coachre treating.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
The what what we need?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
More than that, I have no interest in getting involved
more so than pundency and commentary. But you better hope
I stay feeling that way, because let me tell you
something right now.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I said I'll bring the rain.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I lied, I bring hell Hell, because I ain't playing
I'm near to win.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I two party system sucks.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
You think I like what I see Elon Musk doing,
I don't know whether I like it or not.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I don't know if he could be trusted.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I don't like the fact that he's getting billions from
our federal government while he's doing business on behalf of
the president. And the president is talking about all police
and myself, I'll watch him.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Why I'm I supposed to trust that?
Speaker 1 (15:52):
No, but President Trump has a right to do it
because he won, because y'all are and beat them. Because
while he was talking about the economy, and he was
talking about the price of goods, and he was talking
about inflation, and he was talking about our borders, and
he was talking about crime in the streets, the Democrats
(16:14):
was talking about LGBTQ and transgender rights in one percent
of the population at the expense and see, and this
is the part that I want to make sure I'm
clear about.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
This was the crime.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
It's not that they were talking about transgender rights. It's
that they forgot thirteen percent of the population in the
black community, and they forgot nearly twenty percent of the
population in the Hispanic community who supported them at the
(16:50):
expense of the one percent. How stupid can you be.
I don't believe that's Kamala Harris's fault. I believe that's
zealots on the left on aggressive side, who somehow, some
way managed to pull these people to this side. Nobody
sent your left, simply looked at them in the face,
(17:11):
whether it's AOC or anybody else from the squad, and
ask a simple question, where the hell are you going?
If you don't vote for us, what you gonna do?
Go vote, vote, vot, vote for Trump. You're gonna vote right,
and you're on the progressive left. If you all the
way left, okay, if you all the way left, what
you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
All the way right?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
You might not like where somebody is center left, but
at least they're closer to the left on the other side.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
And the center left was capitulating to that.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Why because you had no strong leadership, You had nobody
to tell them to sit their ass down, shut up,
and follow my lead. I'm the Democratic nominee for the
presidency of the United States, not you.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
We gonna do this my way.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
They don't have that on the left.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And now you got a whole bunch of people running scared,
talking about leaving the country because they scared of Trump. Well,
maybe if you didn't try to lose use warfare to
get him, and you just sat up there and competed
with him fair and square about your policies being better
than his, and articulated that message to the masters.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Maybe it wouldn't be this way, but you didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That's why Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Smith is being polled as a presidential nominee. It ain't
because I'm qualified. It damn sure ain't because I'm the
smartest dude in the room. It's because I got hard,
I got guts, and if we gonna have a fight,
(18:43):
let's get down.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Let's get it on.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
America knows I would do that much, and I'd have
a clue as to what I'm talking about, and I'd
have a clue as to what not to talk about,
like something that's less than one percent of the Bible.
Think about this last point I'm gonna make.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
President. Barack Obama.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Deported more people than Trump ever did, and you barely.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Heard about it.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
He just did it.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Knowing that Joe Biden opened borders.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
They could talk about how you can open it, but
you couldn't necessarily close it after you opened it, because
of COVID.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And all this.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I't want to hear that the streets of America were
ravaged with illegal immigrants in our nation, and Joe Biden
and his administration did nothing about it after Obama had
(19:51):
done everything about it other than past comprehensive immigration reform
which takes both sides of the aisle. President Obama did
his job, Joe Biden did not. And the Democrats, who
are progressives that means looking forward, stood up during his
(20:15):
State of the Union, knowing that he was approaching eighty
two years of age and chanted for more years. You
have no authenticity, you have no legitimacy. Your heart might
be in the right place with some of the policies
that you're trying to implement, some of the things that
you're trying to move forward, while it appears Trump maybe
(20:39):
trying to turn the clock back. But it's the price
you pay when you're incompetent, selfish tone, death, devoid of impact.
(21:00):
What the Democratic Party. That's where the Democratic Party is
at right now. And it's exactly why some sports analyst
on National TV is a candidate for the presidency of
the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I have no desire whatsoever to compromise my.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Quality of life for this, but I'll say this much
about myself. I don't blame millions of Americans if they
want me to, because what the hell is the alternative?
Look at y'all, Look at y'all. I'm talking to the
(21:47):
dem specifically, what a travesty everybody's jumping ship from y'all.
Party has to change, It has to be urged. And
those who got in Kamala Harris's ear and told her
that that was the strategy they needed to exercise in
(22:08):
those one hundred and seven days before the election, all
of them should be gone, every living ass, every one
of them. What an egregious plan to put forth. She
didn't lose this election. Y'all lost it, and with it
(22:31):
you took her presidential aspirations with her and threw it away.
That's why I'm a candidate, And even though I have
no desire to be one, I don't mind the noise.
Hopefully it'll make y'all uncomfortable to get y'all back up,
so you can get your act together and do what
(22:51):
the hell you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
If not, that hollered me in three years, age my
mind by that til next time. Peace in love, everybody. Stephen,
that son
Host
Stephen A. Smith
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