As everyone awaits the possible indictment of former U.S. president Donald Trump, Stephen A. Smith has weighed in to claim this benefits Trump by allowing him to dominate headlines.
In recent days, Trump has summoned his supporters by promoting the fact that might be the first former president in United States history to be criminally indicted. Trump stated he expects to be arrested this week on charges related to campaign finance violations. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating whether Trump falsified business records to cover a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
On the latest episode of his Know Mercy podcast, Stephen A. Smith put his desire to be recognized for being able to hold political conversations on display by breaking down Trump’s looming indictment in detail.
“This benefits Trump,” Smith declared. “You’re not getting the former President of the United States to end up being incarcerated because they paid harsh money to a former lover that happened to be a porn star. It’s not gonna happen! And I for one am getting sick and tired of all of this stuff, there’s one investigation after another about him. When are you going to get him on something?! I mean really get him?!”
Instead of quietly bracing to be criminally indicted, Trump has used the legal matter to rile his supporters as he fires up his 2024 presidential campaign. The U.S. Constitution does not consider a criminal record as means to disqualify a presidential candidate. Trump will use his potential criminal record to further conspiracy theories by running on the platform that the “deep state” has conspired against him to protect corrupt globalism.
“At the end of the day, it’s playing right into his hands,” Smith continued on his podcast. “You’re Donald Trump, what did you just do? You stole the headlines. You galvanized your base and you’ve got the speaker of the House and other Republican officials scared to go against you. And those who are brave enough to do so are going to be forced and compelled to come out front and center and acknowledge their opposition to you. Which in your eyes, if you’re Donald Trump, means that you will then get to jeopardize their positions within the House or the Senate of the United States of America, you weed them out, or they’re forced and compelled to be complicit with you so they can keep their seats.”
Smith agrees that no one is above the law but recognizes no one is below it either. He says portraying Trump as a criminal might be playing right into the narratives the former president uses to feed his supporters.
“It might be disgusting, it might be heinous and intolerable, certainly difficult to stomach,” Smith acknowledged. “But it is politics, and the reality of the situation is that Donald Trump has shown he’s pretty astute at it, in terms of drawing attention to himself, coming up with labels and derogatory names about his opponents that ultimately resonate and catch fire.”
