Bomani Jones would be surprised if Stephen A. Smith doesn’t run for office

Stephen A. Smith has floated the idea of running for office in the future. That sounds farfetched to some, but not Bomani Jones.

Jones joined the latest episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast. During the interview, The Right Time host was asked about Stephen A. Smith’s decision to go outside ESPN to Audacy and Cadence13 to launch Know Mercy, a podcast where he doesn’t just stick to sports.

Could @stephenasmith run for political office? @bomani_jones wouldn’t be surprised. pic.twitter.com/Nmx5oeddFQ

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 28, 2023

“We’ve known this for a long time about Stephen A. His ambitions have always been bigger and grander than sports,” Jones admitted. “And it’s kind of a new world order at the company with them allowing people to do things that are outside the company or allowing him to do a podcast like that.”

Smith is a veteran cable news guest, having appeared on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC hundreds of times over the years. But the podcast, which is not affiliated with ESPN, is his own outlet to discuss political and social issues on a deeper level.

“He has talked about having people approach him about going into politics,” Jones continued. “I would not be surprised at all to see him actually do it. And I may be more surprised than not if he were to not go into politics at this point. He is really, really famous. I don’t think that’s something that can really easily be explained to people, just what the magnitude of Stephen A. Smith is at this point in time. And if he decides to run, I would not be terribly surprised…it wouldn’t shock me at all if he decided he wanted to run for office.”

Last year, Smith floated the idea of running for president multiple times and acknowledged he was previously approached by former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell about running for Senate. Smith declined, and went on to become the face of ESPN and the architect of the latest iteration of First Take. But Smith’s recently rekindled interest in addressing political issues appears to be hinting that sports is not his end game.

“He moves like a politician,” Jones said of Smith. “And I don’t mean that in a bad way. He moves like a man that knows that everybody’s looking at him and that when he talks, everybody sits up and listens.”

[Awful Announcing Podcast]