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