Stephen A. Smith weighs in with political take

The bombastic ESPN commentator didn’t mince words when talking about the upcoming presidential election

By Darryl Maxie
Jan 23, 2024
9:53 pm

Days after lighting into columnist Jason Whitlock, calling him the “worst person in the world,” Stephen A. Smith had some pointed words for the Democratic Party.

“It is an absolute disgrace on the part of the Democratic Party — Democrats, liberals … progressives — and you’re begging an 82-year-old man to run for reelection,” Smith said Tuesday on “The Howard Stern Show.”

Neither President Biden nor former President Trump is a young man, but Smith, an independent, said he “would vote for Biden any day of the week ahead of Trump.”

For Smith, Biden is the less bad of two old choices. Trump turns 78 in June. Biden turns 82 in November.

“I’m not saying that Biden is awful,” Smith said. “What I’m saying is, you’re asking me to look at an 82-year-old man who seems to have lost a little bit of his step at the very least, and say, ‘Invest four more years in him.’”

Smith didn’t acknowledge that political parties — whether Democratec or Republican — seldom run a candidate against their incumbent. The ESPN commentator has increasingly mixed politics into his sports discussion over the last two years. Whether you like the bombastic brother or not, his words carry influence. He once even said that he himself would consider running for the White House. And Smith’s only 56.

“When I see some of the things that [have] transpired, I can honestly tell you that … if enough people came to me and said to me, ‘Stephen A., you have a legitimate shot to win the presidency of the United States of America,’ I would strongly, strongly consider running,” Smith said.

He didn’t quantify what “enough” people would be. In any case, that day doesn’t appear to be anytime in the near future. So, for now, a Biden-Trump rematch seems likely, even though Smith blames the Democrats for “drop[ping] the ball on a litany of issues.”

“How the h— are we sitting here in the year 2024 and that’s what you need in order to beat [Trump]?” Smith asked Stern. “Not Nikki Haley. Not Chris Christie. Not even Ron DeSantis. No, you need an 82-year-old man to run for reelection because you could not come up — over the span of the last six, seven years — you couldn’t come up with a candidate that’s more capable of beating Donald Trump.”