Since Stephen A. Smith has been given carte blanche to talk about whatever he pleases, he’s entered the foray of politics on non-Disney-owned platforms. That continued Tuesday with the First Take host’s appearance on CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip.
Smith offered his political punditry when asked about former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s comments during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Clinton had a blunt message for undecided voters, imploring them “to get over yourself,” and that whether you like it or not, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are the two choices for the 2024 Presidential Election.
Here are more of those comments:
“It’s kind of like, one is old and effective and compassionate, has a heart and really cares about people,” said Clinton. “And one is old and has been charged with 91 felonies…People who blow that off are not paying attention. It’s not like Trump, his enablers, his empowerers, his allies, are not telling us what they want to do. I mean, they’re pretty clear about what kind of country they want.”
While that message seemed to resonate with Smith, he didn’t agree with its delivery. He immediately took aim at Clinton for potentially alienating voters, pointing out that she did something similar in 2016.
“I don’t think that was a very wise statement on her part,” said Smith. “How did that work out for her in 2016? I think that’s something that we have to recognize. Yeah, she won the popular vote, but at the end of the day, she wasn’t the President of the United States; it was him.
“You can look at her not campaigning in Wisconsin in the last days and not campaigning in Pennsylvania in the last days. You can look at some of the stuff they were saying about her that sort of distracted things from where it should’ve been, in terms of (Former FBI director James) Comey and his report…you can bring up a whole bunch of things. But at the end of the day, the last thing you need to do is to do anything that could potentially agitate a potential voter in this particular election.”
"I don't think that was a very wise statement on her part. How did that work out for her in 2016?" —Stephen A. Smith on Hillary Clinton telling undecided voters to get over their decision between Joe Biden and Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential election. pic.twitter.com/w8lg6fsz9M
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 3, 2024
Phillip pressed Smith, asking the ESPN personality about Clinton’s overall message that there’s a substantive difference between the candidates while they’re two old people running for president.
“Well, listen, no one’s brought that up more than me,” said Smith, channeling his inner Mike Francesa. “Four indictments, 91 counts, and impeached twice. I’m not voting for him. I’ve said that to a lot of people; I’ve said that to you. But at the end of the day, what I’m saying is, at some point in time, you got to take into account what the voter’s thinking about.
“The voters, a lot of them out there — tens of millions of them out there, by the way — don’t care what he’s going to do right now. They don’t care about his guilt or innocence, his perceived guilt or innocence. They don’t care about the 91 counts. They’re thinking about their lives.
“And a lot of times, we see politicians taking the positions that they’re taking. And while we can respect their candor and their honesty, they do see a bit detached at times, from what the voters are actually feeling, and what the voters are actually thinking. No one wants to hear that from Hillary Rodham Clinton at this particular moment in time because, especially if you’re Joe Biden, what are you really worried about right now?
“You’re worried about folks coming to the polls. You’re worried about them showing up to the polls to vote for you. Yoi’re not worried even about them voting for Trump, you’re worried about them not showing up to vote for you. That doesn’t exactly encourage them to get up out of their seats and go to the polls.”
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