Carmelo Anthony, the NBA. That is something to celebrate today. The politics in our nation's capital that is an entirely different matter altogether. As I will definitely express when Senator Corey book A rose up in the house.
Stephen A.
Smith Show coming at you right now.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to the latest edition of The stephen A. Smith Show, Coming at you. As I love to do at the very least three times a week over the digital airwaves of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio. As always, I like to take a moment to pause and thank my subscribers, my followers, etc. Over the airwaves
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Remember Senator Cory Booker who gave that twenty five hour, four minute speech in the nation's capital and capital Hell the other day. He and I are gonna holler about a few things today with the Democrats and the Republicans. We're gonna be fair, but were gonna get into it because he needs to get into it after a speech that damn long, make no mistake about it. But before I get into that, I got to start off with some basketball because I got some stuff on my mina, right.
I want to get props to the one and know only Carmelo Anthony, who was in full just yesterday. He'll be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of twenty twenty five. The ten time NBA All Star was selected third overall in the two thousand and three draft out of Denver Nuggets, just two picks behind Lebron James and two picks ahead of Dwayne Wade Melos, a six time All NBA selection who quickly became one of the league's premier scorers, averaging twenty one points per game
as a rookie. Before all of that, Cammeller burst onto the national spotlight, if you remember, as a freshman phenom at Syracuse University, leading the Orangement to their only national championship, which was back in two thousand and three. This brother right here is one of the elite scorers the game has ever seen. In the New York Nick uniform, he averaged about twenty four point seven points okay average about seven rebounds. The brother was a scoring machine. He was
missed the buckets. This is what he did. His drops up, I mean, his jabs have everything. His jump shooting ability, his ability to post play with his back to the basket, play facing the basket. He is one of the elite scorers the game has ever seen. And I got to tell you something right now, I've known him for years. It's like family to me. That's how much love I got for that brother. Because He's a special dude. He got a perfect name, Mellow, because he don't bother anybody.
He was never one of those dudes. He was an individual that just got along with everybody. Most folks, if not all of them, had mad love and respect for him. They still respect him to this very day. His business ventures off the side. He ain't poor. He ain't getting poor anytime soon. He's a wealthy individual, make no mistake about it. But he could ball. And when I think about him, I think about two things, two things, And
I'm gonna stand here for this one right here. When I see when I look at him in a Nugget uniform, two things come to my mind. He was drafted by the number three overall. That should not have been the case. He should have been drafted number two, directly right behind
Lebron James. And it's a hard subject for me to bring up because one of the great executives in NBA history was Joe Dumar of the Detroit Pistons, who had guided the franchise as its President of Basketball Operations the six consecutive Conference finals appearances, back to back trips to the NBA Finals, and won a championship beating Kobe and Shaq and those boys in Detroit two thousand and four
for the NBA Championship. What happened in two thousand and three though the Detroit Pistons had the number two pick and decided they wanted to go with Darko Milicic. And why did they do that? Because they had tay Shan Prince. They also had Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups as your back court. You had Ben Wallace and he ultimately had Rashid Wallace. And I get all of that, but in the end, because you had tay Shan Prince and you had a championship squad, you drafted based on need instead
of grabbing the best available talent. And if Carmelo Anthony had been at the Detroit Pistons uniform, he'd have had a title because they wouldn't have lost it with him, whether he was starting or coming off the bench, they would not have lost the title with that crew. If Carmelo Anthony was a part of that squad. That's one time that there was an opportunity missed, albeit that was
not his fault. And again it's a subject it's difficult for me to bring up because I loved me some Joe Dumars, who I thought was absolutely positively exceptional at his job. But the biggest, most glaring mistake of his executive career, not his playing career, because he was playing alongside Isaiah Thomas in the backcourt and play with Billy Amber, John Sally Horne and all of these brothers, Adrian Dantley, Let's not forget him, Marc Guyed. Ultimately, remember Joe Dumars
was a champion as a player. He became a champion as an executive. But by passing up on Carmelo Anthony, I believe it interrupted a lengthy period of time they would have been dominant, and it certainly coursed that brother a championship in Detroit. He should have been a Detroit Pistons. But I'm a walk over here to think about my next subject, because Carmelo Anthony ended up being a New York knickerbocker, and I understand that. Here's what happened, ladies
and gentlemen. He was in Denver as a nugget. The year was two thousand and seven, Lebron, James d Wade, Mello, everybody was operating under their initial deal into the NBA back in two thousand and three, contract negotiations kicked in, and what Lebron and d Wade and ultimately Chris Bosh did was carve out and opt out in their clauses for the year two thousand and ten when they were do to become a free agent, rather than grabbed the whole five year deal for the bag, they said, no,
we're gonna exercise a player option after year three. Melo didn't do that. He had a contract. He had a contract with Denver that it was for five years with no out because being a Baltimore native growing up, pulled that brother wasn't putting himself in a position where he
wasn't gonna be able to get that money. He wanted every dollar guaranteed, and so he signed on for the five years as opposed to taking the three and opting out because he didn't want to find himself getting injured or anything like that, and then after three years he'd be able to compromise his money. That was a risk he wasn't willing to take. Where's Lebron, d Wade and ultimately Bosh did. Why do I bring that up? Because whether d Wade, Lebron and the crew want to admit
this or not. This brother right here, Carmelo Anthony would have been with Miami. It wasn't supposed to be Bosh. It was supposed to be Mello. And here's what I'm saying to all of you right here in America, right now as we speak. I want to make sure that for the record, I am very very clear what I am about to say. I love me some Chris Bosh. What he did on the defensive side of the ball can't be minimized in any way. He's a Hall of Famer.
Props to him. But I believe that if Carmelo Anthony was on the Miami Heat, Miami Heat doesn't have two titles out of four in the Lebron d Wade era. I believe they have at least three because that loss against Dallas, when Lebron struggled in those fourth quarters. The d Wade that was deferential because he knew that Lebron was the best, and even though he did his thing, he was being deferential. That wasn't Carmelo. Carmelo would have said, man, yo, y'all,
give me the ball. I'm tired of this. Give me the ball and you handle business. That was the kind of our offensive juggernaut. That he was that level of aggression, that's who he was. He wasn't being deferential to anybody when the ball was in his hands, balls gonna be in his hands. That Carmelo Anthony I believe would have saved the Miami Heat final series against Dallas and Lebron
James first she in South Beage. So that's not one but two opportunities, two bites at the apple, in my opinion, one not no fault of his own and the other is a ford of Carmelo Anthony because he didn't have that opt out in his contract. That ultimately cost him a championship. And that's the only thing that's sad about his career. Is a three time Olympic champion, but he's only won three playoff series in his career. He lost thirteen. He's one of the greatest offensive players we have ever
seen in our lifetime. He's a Hall of Famer, a Hall of Fame without question now because he's won three Olympic gold medals. He's a ten time All Star scoring champion twenty thirteen average twenty eight points seven points a game, mister buckets. But no matter what he is as a basketball player, he's even better as a person. Be happier for him and what he's been able to achieve. I just wish that Carmelo Anthony had captured an NBA championship. He never played in the NBA finals, never won a
championship in the NBA. It's the only place he's never won. That part saddens me because I think that messes up and otherwise flawless, impeccable basketball resume. Jim Bayheim coached at Syracuse forty years. There's only one man that delivered him a championship. He's had Derek Coleman, He's had Sherman Douglas, He's had the greatest show in the history of college basketball, and Dwayne Pearl Washington, but only one man delivered him
a championship. It was Carmelo Anthony. Three time Olympic gold medalists, national champion, and now.
A Hall of Fame.
I'm really, really, really happy for him. I just wish that I could have seen him in an NBA finals because it would have been something to behold. That's all I wanted to say.
That's all I wanted to say.
Coming up, he stood on the Senate floor for twenty five hours speaking out against the Trump administration, breaking the record for the longest speech in history. But was it worth it? I'm about to find out when I ask him. I'm talking about New Jersey Senator, the one and knowly Corey Booker.
He's here next, right here on a Stephen Smith Show. Don't go away a light.
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With the senator. Yield for a question, Chuck she Wert is the only time in my life I can tell you.
No, I just want to tell you a question. Do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you?
The power of the people is greater than the people in power. It is time to heed the words of the man. I began this whole thing with John Lewis. He said, for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble to redeem the soul of our nation. I want you to redeem the dream. Let's be bold in America, not to bean into great Americans, not divide us against each other. Let's be bolder in America with a vision that inspires, with hope that starts with the
people of the United States of America. That's how this country started.
We the people.
Let's get back to the ideals that others are threatening let's get back to our founding documents.
That those are perfect geniuses. Had some very special words at the end.
Of the Declaration of Independence was one of the greatest in all of humanity, declarations of interdependence, when our founder said we might mutually pledged pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. We need that now from all Americans. This is a moral moment. It's not left or right, it's right or wrong. It's getting good trouble, my friend, Madam President, I.
Yield the floor. Welcome back to the Stephen A. Smith Show. That was my next guest who made history this week on the Senate floor. He currently serves as the US Senator from the great state of New Jersey. Please welcome back to the Stephen A. Smith Show, the one and only Senator Corey book a Senator. First off, how are you Have you gotten any rest?
I've gotten a bit. Body's still weary, but the soul is soaring right now. So I'm doing all right.
I know your limited on time. Thank you so much for your time. Let's get right to it. On Monday, you stood on the Senate floor and begin a marathon twenty five hour plus speech, and you know, criticizing the Trump administration. You set the record for the longest speech in the chambers of passing the previous mark except in nineteen fifty seven by segregation, the Senator strom thurmon Thurmann spent more than twenty four hours philibustering the Civil Rights Act.
You aren't doing a filibuster. I want to know what the reason for this was for you, and what do you think you accomplished.
I'm grateful for the question. You know, we started by being very plain what this was all about. A lot of folks are hurting in this country right now, and we wanted to center their stories. My office has gotten tens of thousands of folks reaching out farmers who are losing their farms because of the policies of this administration, Veterans who are being laid off or having their benefits undercut.
We wanted to center their voices. We were having people who were receiving Social Security who couldn't get responses from the Social Security off office because of the tens of thousands of people that are being cut there as well, to tell stories, and we didn't want to make it partisan, so we brought in Republican voices, from Republican governors to
Republicans afraid of losing their medicaid. We brought in Republican thank tanks like the Manhattan Institute and the Cato Institute, just to really lay it plain that this wasn't about left or right, it's about right or wrong. It's about America.
It's taking care of each other. So when he asked what we accomplished, the first and foremost is most people don't pay attention to that institution, and probably for good reason, but we wanted to have people pay attention to the people who are hurting in America, whose voices often don't get told. Because I stood for twenty five hours, but
you and I both know this. There are people like those folks working shifts at the ihop in Newark right now on Berghenm Street, who are working two shifts, no rest and hoping they can maybe get a third around the clock so that they can make enough ends meet to afford rent. Well, the rent's going up, price of groceries are going up, price of every day living, and so we've got to start talking about the real issues of our country, not in a way that talks down
to each other but lifts folks up. And that's what I was trying to Senator.
There were some people that were looking at you and in terms of what you had to say about fears of Medicaid being destroyed, and essentially they use that as an example to highlight that primarily some of the things that you were complaining about haven't even happened yet. So why is he doing this now? What do you say to those to such assertions like that that you were talking about things that haven't happened yet.
Well, God, I mean, it's been seventy two days and a lot of things have happened that are real. Health insurance is up. He cut funding to the ACA portals, making it difficult for people to get health care, and rolled back things that the Biden administration did that brought down the price of prescription drugs. People are feeling that pain we know when it comes to healthcare. Those things
have happened. What's happening to the VA? No president in my lifetime or yours has laid off more VA members, including many of them that are doing things to prevent veteran suicide, which is a shame of our nation. But when you talk about specifically Medicaid hasn't been cut. When do you want people to speak up? It's just like
the ACA. You know, we started fight to protect the ACA months before it happened, but God, we had to garner and galvanize people to join us in the fight, and that public pressure made John McCain and Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins change their vote. So you and I know you don't prep for game day on day day. You've got two A days during the summer, sometimes three A days. You start prepping long before the actual vote comes. And that's what we're doing.
I don't know if folks see this the way that I do, but when I was watching you, and I did not watch the whole twenty four twenty five plus hours, so I did not do that, but I certainly tried to watch some of it. Make no mistake about that. When I watched you talk about these things, I found
myself growing a bit concern. And here is the reason why I give you credit, Because I thought that you greatly utilized fears pertaining to Elon musk indulge as opposed to going at Trump directly because I think that he's become the master at playing the victim, and every time the Democratic Party has come at him in such a way directly, it's worked to it's his benefit as opposed
to his detriment. Nevertheless, I do find I did find myself asking where was this Cory Booker and where were the Democrats leading up to the election, because as outspoken as you were, there were an abundance of people clamoring, maybe not directly for you, but for the Democratic Party to speak on issues that were far more substantive than the stuff that we was hearing during the campaign. What do you say to that?
Well, first of all, what I said it on the floor, and maybe this wasn't the part you were listening to, is before you even get a Democratic Republicans. I just stood before the American people and said I could be doing better that I'm out here, because my we're saying exactly what you're saying is you're not doing enough. Do something different, Take a risk, show us how much you're how far you're willing to go to fight for the
people who are getting hurt. I again, I keep bringing back to sports because I know that's a common plane we stand on. Yes, the team that loses if you don't learn from that loss. You're going to be a loser over and over again, and whatever you want to say. The Democratic Party has to own up to it. Now. It's not about pointing Blaine. It's about taking responsibility, right, And so I said that quite plain to the American people.
Absolutely I accept responsibility. The Democratic Party has made mistakes. I said in the one hundred body, we've all made mistakes around it. Let's stop talking about each other and let's start talking about the possibilities of this nation. I asked folks that I said, it's a new generation of leadership coming in America. Baby boomers are leaving and they've done incredible things. My parents were baby boomers, the civil rights generation. With baby boomers, you know, we have this.
This is the last baby doing President Donald Trump. It's time for us though in our generation, like the young John Lewis did, like a young Fred shuttles Work did, like a young Ella Baker did, It's time for us to redeem the dream and start talking about American a way that inspires people. Because this is what King did that was powerful to me. He didn't stand up on the march on Washington and talk about how racist Bull
Connor was or how evil George Wallace was. He started to talk about us and who we could be together. He called us to our moral imagination. He redeemed the dream by saying I have one and put out a dream that nobody denied, is at which we should be going.
But Senator Booker, respectfully, a lot of people will look at a certain thing and hear what you're saying, and it's very difficult to refute anything that you're saying at this particular moment in time. But in the same breath, there's a difference to being listened to and being heard. And when we think about the Democratic Party and you say, and you are absolutely accurate when you say that, you said on the floor, you've made mistakes, The party has
made mistakes. What were those mistakes? What were those mistakes that need to be corrected by the Democratic Party. Because even though you're saying that you don't want to talk about party affiliations, you're talking about human beings. You're talking about American citizens and American lives. The fact of the matter is you're a senator for the Democratic Party. So people are looking at you and they're saying, there's one side or the other. If you're talking to folks they
still see you as a Democrat. What did the Democratic Party do wrong that you felt compelled to take responsibility for it to some degree?
Anyway, Well, forgive me for the inadequacies in my communicating right now, and I'll try to say it more plainly. The mistake that I spoke to on that floor was we didn't do what I did that night. We didn't do a good enough job of centering other people's pain, other people's hurt, other people's struggle. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
I started my career in Newark, New Jersey. I still live in that same neighborhood that I moved to be a tenant organizer because the worst slum lads were taking advantage of people. And I remember, as a bright young lawyer from Yale University and one of the old grizzly tenant leaders, a guy named Frank Hutchins. When I was sitting in the meeting, all all I needed to give
me the information I need to file my complaint. But that meeting went on for three hours and more on, probably longer than that, And when we got out, I made some quip that a young lawyer probably would make like, God, we had everything we need in the first three minutes. God, that was a long meeting. I made some obnoxious young quip and he stopped in his tracks. This old tenant leader the record for the longest rent strike in Newark's history.
He stopped and he looked at me, and he goes, we can't even begin to heal the buildings until we heal each other. You need to see people, Corey, you need to hear them. You need to love him. I think that the reason why neither party, either Donald Trump or the Democratic nominee, got the majority of votes. That means nobody more people voted against each candidate and voted
for them both of them. Nobody got over fifty percent, is because Americans have stopped believing in their leaders and believing, frankly, in what we are capable of together. This dream of America, as lang Say Hughes said, there's a dream in this land with its back against the wall. Save the dream for one. We must save it for all. This idea that we're all into it, to get all into it together, this idea that we lean on each other, that we
need each other. We're losing that we're so tribal now that we hate each other before we even listen to each other.
Well, let me interject, because I'm talking about winning. I didn't vote for Donald Trump. I didn't want him to win. But he won the election. He won every swing state, he won the popular vote, he won the electoral college vote. He's got the House and the Senate. My god, I mean, the man won. And what I'm thinking about listening to you, I hear exactly what you're saying. My retort to that would be you were on the floor the word demogogue
was mentioned. You've got people complaining about those You got folks out there attacking Tesla and what have you. You see a lot of the things that the Republicans are using on the right to point to the victimization they're suffering from and the fact that the Democratic Party hasn't spoken up about what's great about their party. They've spoken more about what's bad about Trump and the GOP. To that, you say, what, how do you explain that and how you feel about that people saying those things?
Brother, I'll tell you this, Steven. I'm one guy, and every day I stand up and my mom tells me this don't define yourself by who you're against, but by what you're for. I remember Donald Trump the first time he mean tweeted me. I think Chris Como was interviewing me in a morning shows a Democratic convention, and he said, this is what Donald Trump said about you. What do you have to say back to him? And I looked at the kids, Chris Gold and I think I surprised him.
I said, what do I have to say to Donald Trump? Because he said that about me? I have to say, I love you, man, I don't want you to be my president. I'm going to do everything I can to stop you, but you're never going to pull me so low as to hate you. I sat on a plane not too long ago, and you know how this and you get this. People look at you. I know you from somewhere. So a lot of people say things to me in airports, and mostly kind things, but sometimes I think,
you know, it's May is almost here. I think you should send me a Mother's Day card because I hear it a lot.
You mother, yep.
But this time I'm sitting down and the couple next to me, it's a mom and a daughter sixty and eighty, and they look at me and they go, who are you? Are you a professional athlete? Now I'm a big black guy and stand for yeah. And you know my ego, you don't want to be insulted black guy. You're making an assumption. My ego is like, well, I could be yea, but I look at her and I said, no, ma'am, I'm not. And then she goes, well, who are you? Why are so many people saying take a notice of you?
And I said, ma'am, I'm a United States Senator. And the very first thing she wants to know, which most Americans won't want to know when they meet some congressmen or congresswoman out about in the wild, is are you on their team or my team? And she looks at me and she goes, are you a Democrat Republican? And
I go, ma'am, I'm a Democrat. And then she crosses her arms, looks sour at me, and swivels herself away from me, as she says, at the last moment, I should have brought my Trump hat, and then put turns away. And so here I am hearing the same old tune that is so hurting our country, it's now invading our own Thanksgiving tables. Okay, but hold on, okay, go ahead, go ahead, because I'm not blaming her. I am not blaming her. I look at the woman and I say, ma'am, ma'am,
excuse me. Donald Trump, he signed two of the biggest bills I've ever written as a United States Senator. One called the First Step Act. Liberated thousands of people from prison. Too. I did with a man named Tim Scott, Republican from South Carolina, that brought hundreds of millions, one hundred and six c d pens of billions of dollars of new investment into the poorest rule in urban areas. And she looked at me. She turned back around, looked at me, confused.
Here I was talking about the work that Donald Trump and I did together. By the end of that flight, we were laughing and talking and connecting and finding out that the lines that divided us are nowhere nearest the ties that buying.
Okay, and I get that. So that tells me that you, as a politician, can work across the aisle and communicate and deal with somebody from the opposite party that happens to be in the White House. You ran for president in twenty twenty clearly you have aspirations to be a leader in this country. You already considered a leader in
this country. So what do you say when you look at how you've conducted yourself, which appears to be the right thing to do because you're getting stuff done across the isle, like you just articulate, But clearly the party doesn't feel that way and it's working against them. I'm looking at the Democratic Party right now, and I'm telling you send a man and man straight up. When you talk about individuals like yourself, like Governor Wesmore, like others
that I have met, no problem. When I look at the party on the left right now, I've never been more disgusted with what I'm seeing because of the ineffecture, the ineffectiveness of the party in terms of competing against the other side. I'm not talking about you individually. I'm talking about the party that doesn't seem to vibe with the kind of communication skills and the kind of message that you just finished preaching about a couple of minutes ago.
Well, there's no singular party leader right now. There's all of us. And I'm gonna tell you this. I am a competitor. I want to win I'm gonna fight so my team wins. But what I'm gonna tell you right now might surprise you. My team is not the Democrats. My team is Team America. Okay, And the reason why I am one voice, but there's a lot of voices right now trying to talk about where our party is going.
I believe that when we start talking about more about where America can go, will go, must go, than that person, regardless of party, is a person that's going to be followed. We need more up and coming leaders to let folks know they are more concerned and connected to community than they are doing a party's bidding. If you can't lead the people, if you don't love the people. And I'm looking for a leader I know we share a friend, Frank Lenz. He came into my office, Shock, now, what's
this Republican poster doing up in here? And he said, we are at such a pivotal point in American history. He told me he's just looking for people that might be able to help heal this nation and lead us to the next generation. And he said, I got a few people on both sides of the aisle that I'm betting on, and so I'm telling you right now. I am a Democrat, as my grandfather was, who moved to Detroit, Michigan and got a job on an assembly line like many blacks did. He was one of the early black
union organizers. And he used to tell me that Democratic Party ain't right all the time, but when you throw up the issues, they're the party of civil rights, They're the party of workers' rights, they're the parties of women's rights. They're the party of labor. They're the party of Medicaid and Medicare. He's like, when I just didn't, I'm going
to be a Democrat. But he looked at me, but he looked at me, wanted to me to vote Democrat, right, But he said, your loyalty must always lie with your ancestors, calling your ancestors were Republicans and Democrats, because when my granddad started, most blacks were Republicans. It was the only thing turned Lincoln's picture to the wall. We're going with FDRs.
Has the Democratic Party taken the Black community amongst others, for granted, think about what you just said. Think about all the things that the Democratic Party stood for according to what you just articulated, and think about the fact that we didn't hear much of that US is doing the election, because that's where my discussed lives, Sir, my discussed lives, was that we were involved in culture wars. We were involved in talking, you know, about ideology and
identity politics. We weren't talking about the issues that you just finished articulating at all.
I don't know if I don't know if I agree with that. Man, I'm the only hold on. I am the only United States Senator, the only one that lives in a black community that's edtterable of the poverty. I live in that same neighborhood I lived when I moved in after law school and started getting it.
But I'm not talking about you.
I got my VIE from Stanford, my PhD on the streets of Newark, right, and I still live there. I am connected to my community.
I'm not talking about you.
I know you're not talking about me. But what I'm saying to you is I would get the same folk challenge of me in the barbershop. And yes, I know you're thinking, you go to the barbershop, I get the same folks challenge. I get the brother's challenge me in the barbershop. What have the Democratic Party done for us, and so here was the breakdown. I would say, open the door, let me point to stuff. Because we in Newark, from Flint, Michigan to NewYork had lead in our water.
I worked to get the stuff in the bill that help us get every lead pipe out of the ground in the United States of America. Because lead poisoning may not be some sexy issue, but it was plague in our community. Let me give you another one. The maternal mortality rate in America is shameful. We're the wealthiest country in the world, but we have women dying in childbirth higher than any other countries. But for black women, it's
three times the rate. We got Joe Biden working with him to expand Medicaid address this issue in a very significant way. They're rolling it back down in this administration. I turned around. I said, the ASMIR rates in our city are four times in suburban towns. I talked about literally the biggest tree planting and for urban areas in all of humanity. I would go through my list and seek and people would say, exactly what you're about to say. But I didn't know that. But I didn't know that.
So now we're talking about a different issue comes from what they're doing for black people. Because I could go, I could go to SBA loans and coming in and making sure I could go to criminal justice. I could go through all the issues that I know my community cares about and often feels like no one else does.
And I can, and I can, and I can point the finger right back to you about your your contemporaries on the left and say it would have been nice to hear about those things. And while they were campaigning for the presidency, how.
About you let me tell you a job I took on. Okay, I was. I was a big group of people, about two three hundred people, and I said, everybody here was born It was March. I said, everybody here was born in March. Yell as loud as you can yell truth, truth, truth, And they sorted yelling. I could stop. I said, the rest of the audience, everybody here that was not born in March, yell lie loud as you can. They channel lie. So I go, now we're gonna do the experiment. Everybody
do it at once, yell it. Everybody did, And I said, okay, stop, now let's find out about this experiment. How many people heard the word truth. Nobody sugarre head and I pointed to somebody was born in March. Did you hear the word truth even though you were chanting it? They said, I couldn't hear it. Did you know the Democratic Party? I went to my Chuck Schumer and I said, most voters now get their news here, especially low information voters, which I don't blame. You got so many other things
to do in life. You don't have time to watch the news twenty four to seven, And I said, most voters get their news here on digital platforms, podcasts like this one and others. How many more times were Republicans on these platforms and Democrats about twelve to one? Donald Trump had about fourteen times that that podcast downloads and commas?
And why was that?
Why was that you weren't showing up. We're the voters, thank you. Back in the day, Mixon made the mistake Nixon versus Kennedy. You remember those debates. I think we had too young, but one person knew where the future was television. I could not believe. I went to Chuck before the last election and said, are caucus compared to their caucus on just the social media engagement? They're crushing us by orders of magnitude. So since I've been to work,
it's only been eight weeks. Now with my own caucus, we've quadriz both the amount of impressions that we're getting on these things. I've been literally doing classes, bringing people in to talk to them about show you up on these platforms, show your authentic self. Don't have somebody polish it and do all that. Just talk to people, look them in the eye, direct the cameras you know this, and say what you do because I see your videos yes, And be mad, be angry, be yourself. One of my
friends here, Mark Kelly, this amazing guy. He's a bad brother from New Jersey, but he's a senator from Arizona. He's in the New Jersey Hall of Fame because he was an astronaut out of this world. He started his TikTok count within two days had millions of views. So I'm just telling you a lot of people didn't hear this because we weren't in confect Communicating effectively. Communications is three things. Real quick communication is the message, the medium,
and the messenger. You've got to do well in all three, and sir, the reason why you probably make a lot more money than I do. Because you've got the message. People want to hear what you have to say. You're on the right mediums. People are listening to you where you are, and you're a damn good mess. And the Democratic Party leaders in general, this is why, this is why Fred Shuttle's Worth and Martin Luther King and the man that was at the center of my speech, John Lewis,
were so good. They had the right message. They created a way to capture the moral imagination of the country because they found ways to make the media pay attention.
So I know, I got you for less. It's cool. I like it, But you the one living I got time. You the one that got to leave it a few minutes. That's why. So I got I got your point. Let me get let me get to some points quick before I let you get on out of here. You brought up you brought up Joe Biden, and you talked about
what legislation he obviously he obviously signed off on. I asked this question, what about people that look at the Democratic Party right now and said, you know, this man was debilitating, and you have the Republicans leaning on the fact that you hid that from the American people, and they think that that plays a role and things that are being held against you right now as a party to that.
You say what, I don't even know why that's an issue, right I talk her. By the way, Joe Biden called me today, he sounded very copis man just got very argumentative, not argumentated with me, but very fired up when he was talking to me. I don't know, man, and don't I never saw it. And he would call this man would literally call me up to discuss Potts. I've met no president like him.
The reason why, the reason why I bring stuff like that up is for this reason, Like, for example, I love talking to you, you know one, but there's one person that I don't ever want to interview. I've never said this about any other human beings. And I respect her. She's a senator. I'm sure she works very diligently, she has passion in her heart. But Elizabeth Warren. I can't talk to her. You know why, because every time I see her, it comes, of course as if you don't
agree with her, you're going to hell. You're going to hell, your destined for hell, just because you don't agree with her. And it's like, wait, a minute. Everything has to be an emotional tug of war. Sometimes it's got to be about beer bones and facts. When you when you were complaining about Elon Musk, what was your primary complaint as it pertained to him specifically? Is this? I know there is a multitude of things that you could provide, but a lot of Americans were looking at him and say,
wait a minute, waste fraud. I saw Nancy Pelosi on video back in twenty ten talking about how Medicaid needed to be cut. I saw Chuck Schumer saying the same thing. But suddenly you know, he's saying stuff like that, and I wasn't a support to him being in that position either. Please don't get me wrong, but I'm like, do we not know that folks are gonna see those videos and they're gonna point to what appears to be a level of hypocrisy on the part of the left with that stuff.
Well, I want to make two points. I'll make it make a goal with Chuck. The first point is I was there's a guy influencer I love. He's a doctor and challenges the science of our now H H and S Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, And so he kept challenging him, bringing up the scientific research, taking him down, taking him down. And then one day he did a video. It blew me away. He did a video where he said, I'm reading my comments and people are attacking Robert F. Kennedy
because of his voice. They're attacking his very perk. And he went off on his own people. He said, we should attack him on his science and where he's wrong, do not demean and degrade him as his character. And so I will tell you I've met Elon Musk. I met the man. I'm sure he did not have the kind of success he had. I don't want to to mean his character at all, but I'm telling you this what he's doing. He's even said it. They've had to pull down things off of this thing. He is ready
fire aim. As a guy who played football, we prepared, we thought out our game plan, we did the strategy with the research, then we made our execution on the football field. He is not doing that. He's firing people from the FAA that we desperately need for our security and then trying to call and get them back.
Slast and Burneth where to go? What's that blast and Burneth? The way to go? Completely But.
This is really important is you need to have transparency. This man was being investigated by multiple government agencies that then he gets in there and he tears down the very people that were investigating his companies. And he's not coming before Congress to be transparent about it.
Okay, that's fair, But to get on him about the cuts when even even though Clinton was an elected official, there was an abundance of cuts that he put forth towards the federal.
He did, battles budgets. Obama reduced the deficit. He did the biggest person who has blown holes in our buggets. The biggest deficits have been accrued under Donald Trump's first term. And he's now putting a budget before this Congress that we're gonna voting on soon that's going to bust another three trillion dollars annually or more in our budgets. There's
no physical responsibility in this man. So you know, his whole plan is to cut and gut medicaid in order to give more tax cuts to people in the highest income brack as disproportionately, and bull hole in the deficit. That's a pretty incredible to be able to do all three of the same.
Well, somebody on the right wod ask what's wrong with, for example, let's touch on an issue of terrorists, real, real quickly, what's wrong with being reciprocal in that regard in terms of other countries are putting tariffs on you, why can't you put it on them? What do you say to that?
Because this is not the playground. It's not the playground, my friend. This is a sophisticated, complicated economy. We're the biggest economy on the planet Earth, and we don't need somebody that if you mess with me or talk about me, I'm coming after you. We need somebody that says, what is the best using a surgical like precision and strategy, what is the best way to go about utilizing tariffs to ensure that we do what everybody wants to do,
make America more affordable and create more jobs. Look at the stock market right now. The average family, because of the way he's going about tariffs, is going to pay three to four thousand dollars more. This is not a precision tuning of our economy for the outcomes that we all want. This is a guy that has just taken a sledge hammer to our economy and the global economy, and people all over the planet, especially the folks I care about in New Jersey, are going to be hurting
because of these incredible trade wars. He's starting out.
He started Chuck Schuma obviously went against you guys with the spending bill and what have you, because obviously you know, they didn't want the federal government to shut down. And then you had a whole bunch of Democrats speaking out against him, folks wanting him going. What's your position about him still maintaining a leadership role within the Democratic Party?
Number one? And number two, how are you feeling about the Democratic Party right now moving forward in light of some of the things that we've been seeing not from the right, but from your own party in terms of how they choose to conduct themselves. I asked a Minority leader, Hakim Jeffreys, the same thing, and I'm asking it to you because looking at that full screen right there, voter's views of the Democratic Party only a twenty seven percent positive.
It's pretty bad for the Democratic Party right now.
Your thoughts, Sir, Mike Park is like, if you get up every day thinking about what can I do to help the Democrat Party? You're thinking about the wrong thing. You need to get up every day and thinking about what you're doing for the American people. I'm sorry. New Jersey did not send me here to try to repair the Democratic Party. They sent me to me to walk to the DC to fight for them. When I go home to New York this weekend, people are not gonna
say what are you doing for the Democratic Party. They're saying, hey, what are you doing to fight for my healthcare? To fight for my veterans benefits, to fight for my social security. I'm sorry, I'm just not getting up every day and going to bed every night worrying about the Democratic Party. I'm worrying about the Americans that are suffering and hurting. But say, by the way, that's probably the best thing we could do Democrats. It's to be focused on people and concerned with people.
Fair enough for Senator book And you just told me you're a competitor. I know you play football at Stanford. I know you know your sports. I know you like competition, which means you like to win. So what I'm asking So what I'm asking you is based on what you've seen. You see what he's doing. I saw the man get convicted of thirty four felon accounts and his campaign dollars rolls. That's what I saw. I saw the man in Peach
twice and the popularity he didn't dissipate. I am asking you, sir, do you believe that what's transpiring right now in terms of how y'all are going after him because of tariffs, because of DOGE, because of whatever. Do you believe it as a winning formula, particularly and specifically for the midterm elections.
I believe Donald Trump got elected because a whole bunch of swing voters heard him say, I'm going to lower your grocery bills. I'm going to lower your costs. That the number one thing people were talking to me about was ends aren't meeting, and this man was going on and on about that. That's the reason why, not because he was a Republican, but because people trusted and believed in him that he would do better for his family. Now, the most Americans are not better off than they were
seventy two days ago. They're worse off. And again, that's how he won. And if I want to win, if our party wants to win, stop talking about parties and start talking about people, about purpose, about possibilities, back in the streets and help some folk before you ask for their vote. And that's why I stood up on the Senate floor to center folks in the conversation and to try to inspire some people to understand that we can do better than we're doing.
Now, Senator, hold on for one second. Hold on for one second because I got to take a commercial break. But I definitely want to come back and ask you about a particular bill that you've introduced. It's very, very important for everybody to know. Please don't go away back with more of yours truly, Senator Book of the close out the chef in a minute, Welcome back back here with Senator Cory Book. I had one last question to get to before I let you get on out of
here for the day. I write, Senator, i'd be remissing neglecting to ask you about a bill you know you introduce your establish and due process protections for college athletes during the NCUBA, you know, with these the nc DOUBLEA investigations, I just want to read from this article here yourself, along with Marshall Blackburn, introduced the nc DOUBLEA Accountability Act, which would establish due process protections for college athletes coaches
and universities that are under investigation by the nc double A. Talk about that before I let you go, Please saut.
That I wish we started the conversation here because.
I got a lot of say please take it away.
The NCAA for decades has been allowing athletes to be exploited. It wasn't remember when shabaznap here they win the Final four and then put a microphone in front of him and says, I go to bed Hungary because God forbid you accept some groceries from somebody or sell your jersey and they would kick you out of the sport. When the scholarships and the moneies that they were making available at NCAA was below what they would need to survive on campus. And then they leave campus and then their
jersey with their name on is still being sold. They're putting people in seats making millions and millions of dollars, and yet I know guys who blew out their knees, have spinal injuries, and they're going in their own pockets right now to pay for their health care for injuries they got back when they played ball. So I've been on this issue for a long time to make sure that we have college sports that make sense, but where the athletes who are through their struggle, their sweat, their grit,
sometimes their blood. There the wealth that is being generated, but they have not been taken care of. The concussion protocol, sexual assault, medical issues, academic issues, lots of promises made but not promises kept. And so there is a lot going on in college sports right now, and I'm working very very hard in a bipartisan way to try to create some fair rules, some real fair rules about what's
going on. And it's not just with partnering across the aisle with the good senator you were talking about in the Republican Party, but I'm working with Moran and some others Bloomhaal on my side to try to make some progress where athletes get a fair shake and a more fair system. Because I know a lot of people are focused on the athletes. They're through all this nil and the portals who are making lots of money and all that. I'm telling you, there are thousands of athletes. There should
be a basic bill of rights. We put out an athlete's Bill of Rights that athletes should be guaranteed to guaranteed if they're entering this and helping universities and TV stations and all these people make a lot of money and long careers, but they wind up five years after they've played with medical bills, with the education that hasn't been completed, and a lot of bruises, a lot of beatings, but not enough to show for it, for the wealth that they created.
Well, Listen, I'm a moderate, obviously, and so when you talk about crossing the isle and working in partnership with anybody, particularly for an issue like this, it's near and dear to my heart. I cracked my kneecap when my first gear in college. I know exactly the kind of stuff that you're talking about. I am here to help in any way that I can send it a book. I really appreciate your time. I really really do. Thank you so much.
No, I'm a fan of yours and appreciate your because you do talk about sports. But I like how you stand up and when you say you're a moderate. That's really what I want to see more people say, not that they're moderate. I don't care what your politics are, but the key point is of people in this country that remind us that there is one American destiny, that we belong to each other and that those words that
are over the Senate eplervispunum, they need something. And so I appreciate you, and especially in the context of sports, which is a great part of American culture where we do all come together. I was in the locker room next to Republicans and Democrats everybody else, and we found out that when we bled together, when we swept together, we still get together and love on each other because we know that the bond is deeper than the political parties we have. We disagree, but we still know we
belong to each other with brothers. And so I appreciate you, man. I've looked up for you for a long time. I hope we can get back on it in the future and we can get into some of these issues because.
I like sparring with you to that's right, we definitely will without question and disseminating that kind of message to the masses. I think that's what could potentially win for the democra.
Well, let me just say this last thing, team, because I say it my colleagues in Caucus when we're driving down the field. I know I used to know when we were going to score a touchdown when the other teams start arguing in their huddle, started yelling at the meaning and degrading. I used to tell my guys in my huddle, we're gonna score. We're gonna score because that
team is divided against itself. So I'm hoping that voices like yours are going to remind us we got to We may disagree with the play, you may have messed up on that play, but when we get back in that huddle, we got to regroup, come together because it's a crazy world out there, a lot more competitive than
people know. And our adversaries who have a different idea about freedom and liberty and justice, or adversaries who want to see democracies die, they're coming after us, and our team needs to come together and be prepared to leave the world order and preserve the values that we fought in Normandy On, we fought in the Pacific. We fought to say that freedom and democracy should be the best form of government, and that's something we have to get together and continue to affirm to each other.
Senator the Corey Booker right here on the Steven As Smith Show, really appreciate you, buddy, Thank you so much. We'll talk soon.
Appreciate you. Thank you.
Interesting conversation. Obviously, we're gonna have a lot more of it. I had a lot of stuff to get into it with them. But you know, whether it's hard to interrupt politicians sometimes, you know what I'm saying. But I tried, I tried, and I'm gonna try again. I'm gonna try with a lot of them. Okay. So that's it for this edition of The stephen Ate Smith Show. Thanks again to Senator Cory Booker for being on the show. Needless to say, I think you can tell he'll be back
along with various others. We're gonna continue to have these conversations over the next several years because every week, every month, every year, stuff is happening and it's impossible to avoid those issues. We're not going to do that on this show, not by a long shot. So stick around, keep watching sports, pop, coach, entertainment, politics, it don't matter. It's The stephen A. Smith Show, where anything goes. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, I'm signing off peace of love,