Latest news with #TheStephenA.SmithShow
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Tapper reveals Democratic sources felt no remorse about covering up Biden decline in interviews for book
CNN's Jake Tapper said during an interview on Wednesday that the many Democratic sources he and Axios reporter Alex Thompson spoke to for their book about the cover-up of former President Biden's decline didn't really express remorse or acknowledgment that a mistake was made. "We never got somebody that said, 'We should never have done this. I can't believe we did it. In retrospect, it was a mistake. How arrogant we were.' I mean, even, you know, there was a top aide, a top White House aide, who acknowledged to me that this short 10-15 minute interview I did with Joe Biden in October 2022, he would not have been capable of doing in October 2023. That admission was stunning to me," Tapper said on The Stephen A. Smith Show. He added, "But it did not come with, 'And we really made a mistake, we shouldn't have run him. What an error. I can't believe we did it.' It didn't come with that." Tapper and Thompson's book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," has detailed the length at which those closest to Biden went to cover up his limitations while in office. The CNN host recently said the scandal may even be "worse than Watergate." Axios Reporter Pushes Back On Biden's Denial Of Mental Decline, Saying White House Insiders Disagree Tapper said the sources said they thought Biden was the only one who could beat President Donald Trump. Read On The Fox News App "So I think that most were telling the truth, as much as they had come to terms with it themselves, but I do wonder where they will be in a year, because I heard from one of the people, one of the Democrats I interviewed for the book, who gave me one of the most shocking revelations, and I checked in, 'How are you doing,' they're upset. But they're not upset at us, not upset at the book, they're just upset that it happened and now everybody is talking about it," he added. "They're still working through a lot." Thompson also discussed one interview he did that occurred before the election for the book, who he described as saying that all the former president had to do was win and "occasionally show proof of life and the people around him would run the country." "And their justification was when you, first of all, you're not bringing back Trump. And when people vote for president, they're also voting for the people around them, and some people in the Biden world, that is how they justified keeping this going," Thompson added. Tapper added that view was "crazy." Shielding Biden: Journalists Shed Light On The Media's Cover-up Of A Weakened President "That was somebody who worked for the White House before the election, before Biden dropped out, saying like, it's no big deal, he just needs to show proof of life. That was the term, proof of life.' I mean, that's so offensive," Tapper said. The CNN host also accused the former president, and those around him, of being anti-democratic. "And like the idea that Biden thought only he could beat Trump and that he could be president for another four years, both of those are not facts and they both seem odd to me. But the idea that he would deny the Democratic Party an opportunity to have a primary system that would produce, among possible candidates, whether you or Gretchen Whitmer or Josh Shapiro or Gavin Newsom or whoever, that he would deny that to the party, so that this small group of people, including him, and one cabinet secretary said to us that it was, at best, he was a senior member of a board that ran the country. It's anti-democratic, really," he said, speaking to Smith, who has suggested that he was open to a potential bid for the presidency. Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture Tapper has admitted that he didn't cover Biden's decline extensively enough since the book's release and has said he looks back on it with "humility."Original article source: Tapper reveals Democratic sources felt no remorse about covering up Biden decline in interviews for book
Newsweek
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Travis Kelce Hints at Living Situation With Taylor Swift in New Video
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Travis Kelce hinted at his living situation with girlfriend Taylor Swift during a recent episode of his New Heights podcast. Newsweek reached out to Kelce's representative via email for comment. The Context The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 35, and billionaire pop star, 35, first sparked dating rumors in 2023 when Kelce attended her record-breaking Eras Tour in Kansas City, Missouri. Swift was later spotted in the crowd at a handful of his NFL games, and by October 2023, the pair confirmed their relationship at a Saturday Night Live after-party. Since then, Kelce has spoken out about their romance often. (L) Travis Kelce, #87 of the Kansas City Chiefs, walks on the field in pregame warmups prior to a preseason game against the Chicago Bears at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on August 22, 2024... (L) Travis Kelce, #87 of the Kansas City Chiefs, walks on the field in pregame warmups prior to a preseason game against the Chicago Bears at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on August 22, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. (R) Taylor Swift attends the 65th Grammy Awards on February 5, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. More;for The Recording Academy During an appearance on The Stephen A. Smith Show in January 2025, the Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? host said: "I'm enjoying all aspects of life. Me and Taylor are happy. I couldn't be happier to have that confidence and that comfort off the field and all the support I could ever ask for in the stadium." Kelce and his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, launched New Heights in September 2022. What To Know On Wednesday, Travis Kelce and Swift fan account @TayvisHaze took to X, formerly Twitter, to post a clip from Wednesday's episode of New Heights. The brothers spoke with former NFL stars Andrew Whitworth and Ryan Fitzpatrick about Christmas. "We've got chimneys and we've got furniture," Travis Kelce said, appearing to refer to Swift with his use of "we." "Do you really?" Fitzpatrick asked. "Did you make those decisions?" "It was an executive decision by myself for the betterment of everyone, yes," the Ohio native replied. At the time of publication, the clip racked up more than 181,200 views. Minutes later, X account @imdoeproblem reposted @TayvisHaze's video, which garnered an additional 411,700 views. In 2012, Swift spoke out about her love of interior design during a Q&A with fans on SiriusXM. "If you hadn't struck gold in Nashville, where would you be or what would you be doing?" an audience member asked her at the time. "Oh wow, I definitely would have gone to college. I would have gone to college probably for business, and I might have ended up following my passion for shopping for furniture and been an interior decorator," the "Cruel Summer" singer shared. "I've been known to go into my friends' apartments and fill it with furniture." What People Are Saying In the comments underneath both viral X posts, fans pointed out Travis Kelce's subtle gesture to Swift. @ariedana wrote in a note with 29 likes: "I love how it's so comfortably 'we' now." @SckFave said in a message alongside a slew of smiling face with hearts emoji: "We." @sassybella53 added: "'We've got furniture now.' He said it with a big boy smile that's adulting right!!!" @aloi_asaf shared with a smiley face emoji: "" We "" @Erin84101905 chimed in: "'we got'!!!" @Sadie1694318016 replied: "WE'VE got furniture." @ilovemymanalot remarked: "'We' love it." What Happens Next The Chiefs' 2025 schedule has been released. The team's first game will be against the Los Angeles Chargers on September 5. New episodes of the New Heights podcast are released on Wednesdays on various platforms.
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Stephen A. Smith's Relentless, Preposterous, Probably Inevitable Road to Political Clout
Stephen A. Smith has had something on his mind for a while now. 'Let me switch to a subject near and dear to my heart,' he said on his podcast recently. 'Me.' Mr. Smith, 57, is the terminally expressive face of sports media, ESPN's $100 million opinion-haver. Each day, and on many nights, he is beamed into living rooms, bars and airport lounges to sling hours of sports-debate chum, whether or not there are hours' worth of viable material. And for the industry's most inescapable voice, its high priest of the big fat adjective — ludicrous officiating, preposterous coaching, blasphemous choke-jobs — 'Stephen A. Smith' is perhaps the sole matter on which all parties can agree that Stephen A. Smith is an expert. He is a first-person thinker ('When I think about me. …' he said, twice, on the podcast, 'The Stephen A. Smith Show'), third-person talker ('Stephen A. Smith is in the news') and occasional simultaneous first-and-third-person thinker-talker. 'Calling things like I see them,' he wrote in his memoir, 'is who Stephen A. Smith has been my entire life.' So it has been striking lately, friends allowed, to find Mr. Smith lamenting the chaos of federal tariff policy ('utterly ridiculous!') and floating a flat-tax plan. He has applied the signature cadence once reserved for segments on LeBron James and the Dallas Cowboys — the hushed windup, the all-caps name-dropping, the yada-yada of certain details — to geopolitical discussions for which he prepares diligently. 'You asked me to read about the Yalta Conference — you didn't ask me a damn thing about it,' he complained in March to the former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, whom he had joined at a Long Island concert venue to talk politics with Chris Cuomo before a paying crowd of hundreds. 'So, in 1945, if I remember correctly, you got CHUR-chill, you got F.D.R., you got STA-lin. …' Mr. Smith — and it feels preposterous to call him that; he is 'Stephen A.' to millions — is campaigning for something. By 2028, he has teased, it may well be the White House, though some in his life have their doubts. But what he is seeking already, without ambiguity, is what he has long held in higher esteem than any single job anyway: a crossover American media ubiquity and influence that few have known. He does not want to be President A. Smith. He wants to be Joe Rogan — while remaining Stephen A. Smith, the most famous sports-talker sports-talking. And if he happens to alter the course of the nation's politics incidentally, well, is that so ludicrous in the scheme of current events? 'I resonate,' Mr. Smith said in a 50-minute interview, repeatedly citing Mr. Rogan and his Trump-approved mega-podcast as a model, at least in its political clout. 'I've been climbing, scratching and clawing all of these years. But it's been primarily in an effort to say: 'Will you take a look at what I can do? Would you stop looking at me and assuming that I'm this one-dimensional individual?'' For years, Mr. Smith has seemed almost agnostic about how and where he expands his footprint. He has guest-hosted Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show, charmed the women of 'The View,' made recurring cameos on 'General Hospital' as a mob surveillance expert named Brick. Yet Mr. Smith's political thrill-seeking, and its wide embrace across the political industrial complex, says as much about the overlapping worlds of news and entertainment as it says about him. It says more still about a Democratic Party so desperate to reach red-blooded, sports-minded, lecture-averse (and male) voters that attention has turned to a former Philadelphia newspaper columnist and unrepentant Democrat-basher renowned for his bench-the-scrub brevity. The typical dynamic looks something like this: 'There's a dream in this land with its back against the wall,' Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said on Mr. Smith's podcast in April, shortly after his 25-hour Senate speech, invoking Langston Hughes. 'To save the dream for one we must save it for all.' 'Well, let me interject,' Mr. Smith said eventually, 'because I'm talking about winning.' Despite such flourishes — or maybe because of them, given the Democratic capacity for self-flagellation — 'The Stephen A. Smith Show' has become an unlikely hub for the party rebuild. With more than a million subscribers on YouTube (and no affiliation with ESPN), the podcast has hosted boldface Democrats including Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland; Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania; and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader. Mr. Smith, a self-described independent, has also welcomed MAGA luminaries like Steve Bannon and Candace Owens, noting with interest that right-wingers yield bigger audiences. 'People should pay attention to what he's talking about,' Mr. Moore said of Mr. Smith in an interview. 'He has a remarkable ability to put his finger on the pulse of where people are.' Mr. Smith, peerless at the performance of reluctance, has said he has 'no choice' but to consider a 2028 run, claiming that politicos, strangers and his pastor have encouraged him. Nameless billionaires, he said, have approached him about 'exploratory committees and things of that nature.' He has also called himself 'woefully unqualified.' The not-ruling-anything-out routine has invited pushback from inside and outside his orbit. 'Calm down, Stephen A.,' Charles Barkley, a friend and fellow basketball broadcaster, told Sports Illustrated. ('Even when he insults me,' Mr. Smith said, 'he insults me out of love.') 'Cable news people with delusions,' Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, said in a text message. 'I've known many.' But like President Trump before he took office, Mr. Smith understands the power of television as a legitimizing force. Like Mr. Trump throughout his life, he recognizes the value of foils — of accruing attention, even negative attention, on one's own terms. During a viewer question-and-answer session on a recent podcast, Mr. Smith aired a video message from a belligerent follower. 'Why do I just have to see you everywhere, man?' the listener asked. 'You're not a journalist. You're just an influencer. Your political career is laughable.' Mr. Smith smirked. 'I guess my answer to the question would be a question,' he said. 'Why the hell do you know I'm everywhere?' 'How You Build an Audience' Some years ago, a friend of Mr. Smith's who was starting a radio show was curious about growing her modest Twitter following. 'He was teaching me, 'Here's what you need to do,'' the friend, Karen Hunter, recalled. ''You throw something out and you get in fights with people. And you have your people get in fights with the people who are fighting with you. And you just sit back.'' Ms. Hunter resisted. 'But that's how you build an audience,' Mr. Smith said. It is largely, though not entirely, how he built his. For a time, Mr. Smith hoped to be the kind of athlete other people would be paid to talk about. Raised in Hollis, Queens, Mr. Smith revered the broadcasters on his television — Howard Cosell, Bryant Gumbel, Ed Bradley — but found the basketball court outside to be his refuge from an often difficult youth: The son of Caribbean immigrants and the youngest of six siblings, he struggled in school with undiagnosed dyslexia and learned around age 10 that his father had a second family nearby. With 'completely unfounded' professional basketball aspirations, in his telling, Mr. Smith played for the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan before transferring to Winston-Salem State University, a historically Black college in North Carolina. When an injury sidelined him, Mr. Smith found his way to writing, once authoring a school newspaper column — while still on the basketball roster — urging his coach to retire for health reasons. Eager but swaggering, Mr. Smith was a young reporter in a hurry, peers said, whirring through newsrooms in his suit and tie amid legions of white men in khakis. 'He still had that face, that dead-serious face,' said Dave Kaplan, a former editor at the New York Daily News, remembering a meeting in which Mr. Smith, a couple of months into the job, wondered when he could finally ditch the high school sports beat. 'It was something to the point of, 'How do I elevate myself? How do I get to the next level?'' The answer, in part, was 'The Answer,' as the man was known: Allen Iverson, the brilliant and volatile basketball star. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mr. Smith covered Mr. Iverson's Sixers for The Philadelphia Inquirer, gaining trust and access and becoming a local celebrity in parallel. 'No other writer would approach players on the court when they were out there warming up,' said Billy King, the team's general manager at the time. 'I would say, 'Why are you doing that?' He said, 'Why not? There's no rule.' And he was right.' Mr. Smith became a general sports columnist and television commentator, the sort of journalist whose face was plastered across city bus stops. Colleagues recalled him as the first writer they knew who filed articles by BlackBerry — and it showed, some said, in the hasty prose. But on the page, equivocation was weakness, anyway. Mr. Smith would let others hedge and strain. 'With Stevie, it's 'He can't dribble,'' said Garry D. Howard, a mentor who helped bring him to The Inquirer. 'He hits you right where it's going to hurt the most. It's an art form.' That skill set is precisely what ESPN was looking for in its nascent debate-show era: big personalities, little subtlety. In one internal meeting in 2003, an executive, Mark Shapiro, polled the room on hiring Mr. Smith. No one wanted him, Mr. Shapiro said. 'Which is when I knew, exactly, we had to bring him on,' he said, 'and that he would cut through.' (Mr. Shapiro, now the president and managing partner of WME Group, later became Mr. Smith's agent.) As a consciously polarizing figure — 'Screamin' A.' to hate-watchers — Mr. Smith often trafficked in conspicuous binaries. A player was an all-world talent or a 'bona fide scrub.' ('No disrespect!') An opinion could be delivered loudly or very loudly. Mr. Smith did demonstrate some range, at least in subject matter. When ESPN gave him a talk show, 'Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith,' in 2005, guests included Senator John McCain and Mr. Trump, who walked out to the theme from 'The Apprentice.' ('Quite Frankly' was canceled in 2007. ESPN let Mr. Smith go in 2009 and rehired him in 2011.) Mr. Smith positioned himself as a jack of all opinions, appearing on 'Hardball' on MSNBC during the 2008 presidential primaries to reflect on 'the war on terrorism and things of that nature' and to call Rudy Giuliani 'a dictator.' Ed Rendell, then the governor of Pennsylvania, often encountered Mr. Smith at a Philadelphia television studio where both filmed remote interviews. 'The studio got paid by the hit,' Mr. Rendell said, claiming that, as the space's top earner, he had a plaque above the men's room in his honor, prompting Mr. Smith's jealousy. 'When my plaque went up, he complained and wanted his own plaque.' But Mr. Smith's on-camera magnetism left an impression. One day, Mr. Rendell said, he asked if Mr. Smith would ever consider a Senate run. Mr. Smith answered with a question: 'Why would I want to be one of 100?' 'Stephen A. Swift' On March 6, Mr. Smith was seated courtside at a Lakers game, beside Larry David and the Hollywood executive Ari Emanuel, celebrating a new ESPN contract reportedly paying him roughly $20 million annually. But during a timeout, an aggrieved ESPN-watcher in a (very authentic) Lakers uniform stalked over to unburden himself. LeBron James wanted a word. The weeks that followed became a study in both Mr. Smith's reach and the modern sports-media-entertainment lines he has helped blur. It was Real Housewives for Hoops Heads and decisive evidence for his organizing theory of clout-building. Mr. Smith had previously been on Mr. James's case about his son Bronny, a Lakers rookie, pleading with the superstar 'as a father' to recognize that the youngster was overmatched. (Mr. Smith, who splits time among the Miami, Los Angeles and New York areas, has two daughters and has never been married.) After Mr. James confronted Mr. Smith at the game, the exchange was immediately everywhere. As such, Mr. Smith said solemnly afterward, he had no choice but to address it publicly, which left Mr. James no choice, apparently, but to readdress it — and to mock Mr. Smith's implausible reticence. 'He's on, like, a Taylor Swift tour run right now,' Mr. James told another ESPN personality, Pat McAfee. LeBron-iacs of the internet debuted a taunting nickname: 'Stephen A. Swift.' Mr. James imagined Mr. Smith cuddled with ice cream 'in his tighty-whities on the couch,' gleeful that the spat was continuing. But the conflict had by then migrated to Mr. Smith's home court: the small screen. He cleared up some details ('I don't wear tighty-whities — let you figure out why that is'), flubbed others (he wrongly accused Mr. James of skipping Kobe Bryant's memorial in 2020) and speculated that the hubbub probably stemmed partly from Mr. Smith's longstanding insistence that Mr. James was no Michael Jordan. He led a Zapruder-style film breakdown of the original encounter. He said he would have 'swung on' Mr. James (and been roundly beaten) if the Laker had laid hands on him. (Mr. James later posted a less-than-menacing old clip of Mr. Smith boxing, appending 14 laughter emojis.) A student of audience metrics, Mr. Smith has long been candid about the incentives of his business. 'We capitalize,' he wrote in his book, 'on the kind of polarization people supposedly abhor.' That week on 'First Take,' the ESPN morning debate show he headlines, Mr. Smith seemed to remind viewers of the bargain. 'There's an audience out there that wants the drama,' he said. Bomani Jones, a former ESPN colleague, was in Vietnam when the Smith-James beef escalated. Only two stories penetrated his travel bubble, he said: the Trump administration's Signal chat scandal and whatever this was. 'He is more famous than 98 percent of the people that he covers,' Mr. Jones said. 'When you work at ESPN, men in this country know who you are.' The 'First Take' cameras remain trained on Mr. Smith's highly gif-able face even in silence — like a cable news feed of a rally stage awaiting its speaker, crossed with a series of Greek theater masks: Stephen A. aghast, Stephen A. delighted, Stephen A. ruminating. Time has softened his public persona some. 'The 20-years-ago version of Stephen A. Smith was a lot bolder, a lot brasher, and I think even he would acknowledge a bit more insufferable,' Mr. Jones said, recalling a bygone Mr. Smith wearing sunglasses indoors. 'The game beat him down.' Mr. Smith said he was simply better understood these days. 'For the longest time, I was perceived as this angry Black man,' Mr. Smith said. 'I'm like, 'Angry about what? Are you looking at my life?'' And what is the chief currency in his latest pursuit? 'American politics is a television contest,' Mr. Jones said. 'Nobody's got more reps at this.' Not Not Running for President Both political parties have convinced themselves, rightly or not, that Mr. Smith's new platform matters — an ascendant venue where the president's border czar and his chief antagonists may each feel compelled to spend their time. Less certain is precisely what kind of audience Mr. Smith is talking to. There is a campaign maxim that the greatest divide is not between left and right; it is between those who follow politics closely and everyone else. Mr. Smith can feel like a member of the first group who speaks to the second. His high regard for Mr. Rogan — whose hold on younger, male and often apolitical listeners was central to the Trump 2024 strategy — flows from a two-word judgment: 'He resonates.' 'I have a strong, strong aspiration to be in Joe Rogan's — not literally his seat, but a similar seat,' Mr. Smith said, adding that the two had met only in passing. 'His impact is undeniable.' Like Mr. Rogan, Mr. Smith can sound most comfortable hammering Democrats, whose failings are a bipartisan fixation. But his personal politics are a kind of bespoke centrism: Mr. Smith says he has generally voted for Democrats but praises elements of the Trump immigration agenda. He sees a 'white backlash' to the Obama presidency but jokes that fellow Black Americans cannot abide his friendship with Sean Hannity of Fox News. Some Democratic lawmakers have discussed inviting Mr. Smith to address the party's Capitol ranks as a blunt-force communications czar. 'I'm not going to be kind!' he pledged. His firmest conviction may be that the party needs someone with 'sizzle' in 2028, someone who sounds quite a bit like him. 'I don't think he wants to be POTUS,' Mark Cuban, a friend of Mr. Smith's, said in an email, 'but I know he is loving the discussion.' Mr. Smith has said he would like to see Mr. Moore, Maryland's Democratic governor, as president; Representative Byron Donalds, a Trump acolyte, as governor of Florida; and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo or Mayor Eric Adams leading New York City. All have recorded his podcast. As with sports, Mr. Smith is happy to dissect even hostile stories about himself. 'James Carville Rips Stephen A. for Talking Politics,' read one recent chyron, quoting Mr. Carville, the Democratic strategist, appraising Mr. Smith: 'He don't know his ass from a hole in the ground.' When the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro likewise called Mr. Smith 'a jackass,' Mr. Smith invited him on. 'Am I still a jackass?' Mr. Smith asked. 'Now you're the best,' Mr. Shapiro said, as both laughed. 'That's how this works.' Mr. Smith's most potent exercise of political power to date might have come in 2023, when his friend, former Gov. Chris Christie, was working to qualify for a Republican presidential debate. A social media plea from Mr. Smith helped jump-start Mr. Christie's efforts to amass the small donations required to make the stage, according to Maria Comella, a top campaign adviser. More often, Mr. Smith has framed his political expeditions as insurance against audience restlessness. 'There are days when people are just not interested in sports because something is going on with Trump or whatever,' he said. Mr. Smith needed to be ready for those days. He has said that he prioritized his non-ESPN independence in his new contract, mindful that the network has often hoped to keep its talent away from politics. (Mr. Smith's production company, Straight Shooter Media, has a first-look deal with Disney, ESPN's corporate parent, to produce original series, he added.) Asked about appearing recently on the Disney brand's Sunday political flagship, 'This Week' on ABC, Mr. Smith said his employer was simply following the buzz. 'I was in the news everywhere else,' he said. 'I'm quite sure that in their perfect world they would love for me to just do sports.' Some friends would prefer that, too. Ms. Hunter, the radio host and a former Daily News colleague, said she could not bring herself to watch his political interviews or bless the 'game show' of Mr. Smith entertaining a campaign, though she said she understood the logic. 'With the president we have now,' Ms. Hunter said, 'why wouldn't he think he could be president?' And the president we have now sees a path for Mr. Smith. During a live phone interview with NewsNation in April, conducted by a panel that included Mr. Smith, Mr. Trump seemed amused to hear a familiar voice: 'I remember you from a long time ago, Stephen,' he said. When Bill O'Reilly, another interviewer, asked if Mr. Trump had any advice for the would-be candidate, Mr. Smith buried his face in his right palm with a half smile. 'He's got great entertainment skills, which is very important,' Mr. Trump said, encouraging a run. 'People watch him.' A few minutes later, once Mr. Trump was gone, another figure from Mr. Smith's cinematic universe joined the program: Mr. Carville, on hand to talk politics beside the man he had deemed politically clueless. In an interview afterward, Mr. Carville had not exactly changed his mind. But he conceded that Mr. Smith grasped 'the one rule for a public figure in America,' applicable in his old discipline and his newer one. 'People don't care if you're wrong,' Mr. Carville said. 'They care if you're boring.'
Fox News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Stephen A Smith agrees AOC would 'turn off' centrists if she ran for president, poses question to Dems
Stephen A. Smith had a question for "Democrats everywhere" on Tuesday during the latest episode of his podcast as he touched on the possibility of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., (AOC) running for president. "What is your strategy?" Smith asked. The ESPN personality turned his attention to AOC and a Wall Street Journal report that said she was nOt ruling anything out, including possible Senate and presidential runs. The paper added that some Democrats worried Ocasio-Cortez would "turn off the centrist voters they need to win competitive races." Smith agreed she would turn off centrists, saying her platform does nOt resonate with most American voters. "I think if you are a Democrat, if you are a leftist who rails against the system, who believes free-market capitalism spearheaded by billionaires is not the way to go, if you believe that not enough attention is being paid to the desolate and disenfranchised, if you believe that higher taxes is the way to go, that a focus shouldn't be on securing the borders, if you believe those kind of things, and that's where you stand ideologically, AOC is your candidate," he said on "The Stephen A. Smith Show." "No doubt about that." Smith said he had no doubts about her ability to fight for what she believes and fight for the district in New York that she represents. However, he wondered whether the strategy is something that could win elections. "Most people in the country are centrists, they're moderates. Whether they're Republican moderates or Democratic moderates or just flat-out centrists who are independents – that's most of the American population," he said. "They are not MAGA right and they are not progressive left. She clearly is (progressive left). And not be literal and not to be taken literally, but she gives the impression, when you talk about universal healthcare and you talk about other things, if you equate it to taxing Americans 70% of their income she wouldn't be against it. That ain't going to win you elections. That's not going to win you elections. "If you're living in this day and age, and you're talking about fighting for certain rights as it pertains to transgender individuals, athletes transitioning and men competing in women's sports and stuff like that, which she is not about to speak against. If you think that's going to win you an election, you've got your head in the sand." He said he wanted to hear some kind of plan from the Democrats. He pointed to Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who has seemed to be just against anything related to President Donald Trump. Smith suggested he did not think that was doing enough to legislate. "The real issue I'm having right now with the Democratic Party is I'm waiting to hear what your plan is," he said. "It can't be, 'We're just against all things Trump.' "What's your plan? What's your plan for the economy? What's your plan as it pertains to comprehensive immigration reform? What is your plan when it comes to foreign affairs? What is your plan as it pertains to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or should I say Israel with Hamas? What is your plan with Russia and Ukraine? Is it just giving Ukraine more money like Biden was willing to do? What are your plans? … What is the plan as it pertains to the vast majority of Americans in this country?" Ocasio-Cortez's constituents made clear to Fox News Digital earlier this month that no one should "underestimate her," pointing to her 2018 upset of Joe Crowley to win the House seat. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Fox News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
ESPN's Stephen A Smith fires back at Charles Barkley after warning about being overexposed
ESPN star Stephen A. Smith fired back at Charles Barkley over the warning the Basketball Hall of Famer gave to the sports personality about being overexposed in the media. Smith prefaced his remarks on his podcast by saying he had a respect and appreciation for Barkley, suggesting the two were very close. "That's my guy, but that doesn't mean I always agree with him. And it doesn't mean that I'm devoid of the right to call him a flaming hypocrite when it's called upon," Smith said on "The Stephen A. Smith Show." "Do y'all know how many commercials Charles Barkley does a year? He'll tell us two. Have you seen Charles Barkley in two commercials? Are you kidding me? Oh, by the way, the cat that you work with at least twice a week during the NBA season is Shaquille O'Neal. "Can we count the amount of endorsements he has? How often he's seen everywhere? What new product he's pitching? Did you say that about him? No, you didn't. But when it comes to me, I need to be 'careful.'" Smith wanted to get to the "heart of the matter." "And this isn't directed at Charles Barkley. This is directed at all the folks out there – I'm making people out there – I'm making people very uncomfortable, and I don't give s---," Smith said. "You can talk about people not taking me seriously all you want to, we'll see, because I'm a serious brotha. That doesn't mean I don't know how to laugh and smile and have fun, you know who the hell I am." Barkley made his remarks during an appearance on OutKick's "Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich." The former Philadelphia 76ers star said he would not vote for Smith for president before warning Smith that people could get "sick" of him. "I was in the studio last night and I saw he was going to be on 'Law & Order' tonight. I mean he is already on 'General Hospital,' he's already on 'General Hospital,' now he is going to be on 'Law & Order' tonight, and I was just laughing. I was like, 'Yo man, you are starting to be too much right now,'" Barkley said. "Like, you are going to be on CNN, you are going to be on 'Fox & Friends,' now you on 'General Hospital,' now you on 'Law & Order,' I'm like, 'Yo man, knock it off. Stop being on every TV show' because at some point people are going to get sick of you, and you are going to be like, 'Yeah I probably did too much.' But once you do too much, it's too late and people don't take you serious, and I think he's got to be careful in that aspect." Barkley said he wants to be on TV less and less, because "less is more." "My friends close to me give me a lot of credit, and I'm not blowing my own horn, I want to be on TV as less as possible, to be honest with you Dan. That's why I only do a couple commercials a year. I don't go on a bunch of shows, less is more, because the more you do, the less people take you serious. And I don't feel the need to grab every dime, I don't feel the need to grab every dime at my disposal," Barkley said. "I've been arguing with my agent, he said we could do five-seven commercials a year, I said we are going to do two commercials a year, that's it. I don't want to be on TV all the time. I get sick of seeing myself do March Madness, but I don't want to be on TV all the time and I don't do a bunch of TV stuff because I don't want to – people get sick of you, that's my number one thing. People will get sick of you, so I don't want to be on TV more, I want to be on TV less." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
