I have no desire to be a politician. My life is pretty well, but I've decided I'm no longer gonna
close that door. I'm gonna keep my options open. I'm gonna entertain the possibility and if it comes in twenty twenty late, twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven, where I look at this country and I think it's an absolute mess and there's legitimate reason to believe, whether it's via exploratory committees or anything else, that I indeed would have a legitimate shot to win the presidency in the United States.
I am not gonna rule it out, and I'm not.
Playing I'm gonna be very very calm today because I don't want the excuses coming my way about I'm enraged, I'm angry, and all of this other stuff.
I'm a human being.
I get discussed by certain things that I see sometimes and sometimes I don't. But I think today is an important day because I think today that I'm going to be Dare I say a bit more revealing than I ever have been about I stand on a few things in life. It's clearly necessary in light of the headlines that have been scurrying all over the place over the last twenty four hours. That's where we're going to get started.
Headlines made by yours truly. Specifically, yesterday, at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, I was sitting down for a conversation fireside chat with Mike McVeigh, president of McVeigh Media, somebody who's been a mentor and a friend to me for years, helped me resurrect my career in this business after I was going in two thousand and nine. He asked me about my future as
a potential presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. For those of you who didn't see it, here's more of my response, piggybacking off of that cold open you just saw to those very questions. Listen up right here. I just think that it's a mess right now. I'm not scared. There's a lot that I have to learn. I am no officiate and I don't make no mistake.
About it, But damn it. Let me hunker down for two or three months.
I'll know the issues, and once that happens, then imagining me on a debate stage with these.
People, these politicians.
This is what I do for a living, and if for no other reason then the standard of the debate stage with tens of millions of people watching, where I get to sit back and talk about what you've been doing as politicians to literally dissipate and disintegrate the quality of America before our very eyes because of your own selfishness me having an opportunity to do that. That is what I mean when I say I will eat them alive. I am not a politician. I don't have a political
record for them to lean on. They all do, which means I get to look at your record and what you've done and challenge whether you can legitimately say, not just with the cameras rolling, but in front of my face, that you actually operated on behalf of what was in the best interest of all of America. Who's gonna pull that off in front of my face?
Good luck with that. I wish they would, ladies and gentlemen.
I'd love to sit up here and tell you that I didn't mean what I said. But I do, and I think the time has arrived to let you all know this is not something that I plan. Contrary to people bloviating out there on their podcasts and stuff like that, I'm no political efficient model there's so much that I have to learn about the intricacies of politics and all that it entails, particularly as it pertains to dealing with
people on Capitol Hill. My god, I wouldn't even know how to put a staff together as of yet.
We understand that part.
But what I've tried to say to many people on many many occasions is that I'm an American citizen, I'm a voter, and what has transpired throughout the years, as far as I'm concerned, has been reprehensible. I'm a believer that the American people have been played as suckers for decades, that we've allowed politicians to become career politicians, to sit up there and pad their own wallets and look out for their own self interest, and it's been at the
expense of the American people. My proof is the fact that we have a thirty seven trillion dollar deficit.
How is that possible? How could you possibly.
Be doing your job and be thirty seven trillion dollars in debt? How could you do that? It's really certain. Things are just very very simplistic to me. Of course, that's not the only problem that we have, but something needs to be said, and when I said what I said. People can dismiss it all they want to, because I have no desire to be a politician.
I'm sincere with that.
I just signed a multi year contract extension with ESPN that will pay me exponentially more than being a politician would ever pay me. I don't need politics, but the fact that is that our country is in a very very bad spot. And when I'm perceived as somebody that is excoriating the left and favoring the right, those people don't know what they're talking about. But I understand where
their animist towards me comes from. It comes from a place of me constantly pointing the finger at the Democratic Party, because the Republican Party, the GOP, as far as I was concerned, until the latest election, they had given up on the black community years ago. Let me reiterate, or remind you rather, what has transpired since nineteen sixty four
when civil rights legislation came into effect. There was a president by the name of Lyndon B. Johnson who had succeeded President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated in nineteen sixty three. And even though you have both Republicans and Democrats in both Houses of Congress.
Pushing for civil rights legislation. There were adversaries to that, and Lyndon B.
Johnson said, if we push this through, we will have the negroes voting for us for the next two hundred years. I'm paraphrasing, but I'm pretty sure it's pretty close to that quote. Well, lower, behold what has happened since then? The Democratic Party has spent the last fifty five plus years.
Receiving the black vote. So what did we do?
We were transparent in our support for one party, giving them a license to take us for granted, and we alienated the other party, who naturally assumed they'd have no shot at getting our votes. And as a result, as a community, for the most part, we were disenfranchised, which speaks to some of the problems that we have had. I only bring that up to say it is legitimate when I look at the Democratic Party and I have an attitude because I'm looking at you and I'm saying, how the.
Hell did you forget about us?
The Black community makes up nearly fourteen percent of the population. The Hispanic community makes up nearly twenty percent of the population. The Consensus Bureau report shows that by the year twenty thirty, the Hispanic populace in this country would exceed over thirty.
Percent of the population.
But we were talking about Wok culture and Cancel culture. We were talking of out problems that really really didn't address what really existed in our communities.
We had a president of Barack Obama.
Who quietly, adroitly, skillfully went about the business of patrolling our borders and making sure that immigration issues were addressed. Absent comprehensive immigration reform, What does Joe Biden do? He goes into office and he says, open the damn borders, and over twelve million undocumented immigrants across the borders, all contributing to our problems.
Why should not have an attitude?
Why should not look at that and say it's a problem you forgot about us. Why shouldn't I look at you and I heard you talk about Think about the sound bites we saw And I'm gonna get to the Republicans in the second, because we all know Trump and his tariffs is a problem right now.
But I'll get to that in a second. What do we see.
We saw a body in an office. We saw him clearly debilitated. Every eighty plus year old is not as debilitated as he appeared, but he.
Did appear that way.
Yet we saw a Democratic politicians standing on Capitol Hill chanting four more years.
We now learned.
How we was religiously lied to about his state of mind and his capabilities. We saw Chuck schumelotta US. We saw a plethora of politicians on the left trying to defend and support him, only to throw him by the wayside after the debate on June twenty seventh, And of every person in Kamala Harris, who I respect as our former vice president, became the Democratic nominee all of a sudden, the same one that couldn't make it to the Iowa
CAUCUSUS in twenty twenty was a rock star. And if we didn't all buy in, we were misogynists, We were anti women, we were racist, we were all anything you could come up with. You heard it over and over and over again. That is where my disgust comes from when it comes to the left, when I say they forgot about us, They forgot about it's the economy, stupid.
They forgot about if people have money in their pockets and they're living fruitful lives, that they have something to lose and as a result society.
From a societyal perspective, people will act better.
Because if you have something to lose, guess what, you ain't trying to lose it. You're not trying to lose it. Why do I bring up laws? Why is it appropriate that this particular moment in time, because we've got these tariffs, these tariff wars going on, and there are some people, particularly on the side of Trump, they are all in supportive tariffs. Let me be the first to say this about Donald Trump.
I support terror. I have no problem with it.
I do believe that the United States has been paying too much money. We've been giving up, given too much money out you go to foreign countries, you see people. They talk about how you don't see American vehicles, you don't see American products nearly as much as you see other products from other nations. This is what they say. If that is true, then Trump is right. We are getting hosed and something needs to be done about it. I am not averse to Donald Trump with tariffs. What
I'm averse to is how he's handling it. I'm averse
to the fact that you're gonna go after everybody. I'm averse to the fact that you didn't anticipate that China would come back with thirty four percent teriffs of their own, and in the process of doing so, would set up meetings with allies of the United States that are now threatening not to be allies because they had Trump's they had tariffs imposed on them by Trump, and now because of that, they're turning against the United States and to China.
Now. Only time will tell whether Trump's right.
Only time will tell whether or not we're gonna find ourselves in a disastrous situation, whether recession is in place right now, whether inflation is gonna boom. Only time will tell. But it's a short time. I don't want to hear a year. I don't want to hear two years. We can't afford that. Why do I bring all of this up, Because all of this is the kind of stuff that made me say what I said yesterday at the National Association for Broadcasters convention, Because enough to us, I don't
want to do this. My hope is that politicians who are centrists, who think about the economy, who think about being humane, who think about small businesses, who think about education, who think about our borders, who think about our national security can call that's with one another, engage in common sense thinking and come to conclusions, so somebody like me isn't necessary you want to talk about Donald Trump and a potential third term when you want to circumvent the
twenty second Amendment of the US Constitution and Donald Trump and ends up running for a third term, Stephen A. Smith will happily invite Barack Obama back into the mix.
I think he'll beat Donald Trump. Yes, I said it, because I think.
At his core, regardless of what people want to say about how he governed, I think he's a centrist individual. It's just that both sides will polar opposites against one another. I am not oblivious to the fact that since Obama was in office, there was a white backlash that took place. I am not oblivious to the fact that that made folks hunker down and be even more divided than ever before.
I get it.
I understand it that black man in office spewing liberal policies, telling folks they got to get to the back because they lost the election, that this is our time fall back, we running the show now.
And the boldness and how embolden he felt.
Because he was the president of the United States. How much that turned folks off and made them more resolute and going against him, and as a result, we were even more divided as a nation than ever before.
I get that.
I remember the joke that Kat Williams once told that.
Effing up the country is what it done.
Goddamn titaments go watch Cat Williams talking about how folks were feeling about Obama doing there as a president doing his presidency who weren't black.
The flip side to it, however, is that it's not about black or white anymore. It's about America. Just like a rising tide lifts all votes.
As a nation, we're only as strongest as our weakest link.
And if you have the weaken, the desolate.
Amongst us, and you're doing nothing for them, and you're leaving them out to pasture, where does that leave us?
See?
When I think about the Republicans, I think the Republicans are asking us, particularly Trump, trust me. And by the way, he's in a position to do it because he won the popular vote, he won the electoral College vote, he won every swing state, he won both houses of Congress, He's got a majority sixty three in the Supreme Court.
I mean, damn.
Americans didn't just give it to him. He took it because he recognized what the left wasn't doing. They were preoccupied with nonsense. You want to ask why Steven Asmith felt the need to speak up at the NAB conference.
Let me ask you all this question. We're supposed to leave it to.
Bernie Sanders and AOC Alexandria Cassio Cotest. We're supposed to leave it with individuals that will tell you that it's perfec okay to tax seventy percent of your money.
Not that they gave out that number.
I'm just speculating because of how socialistic they are in their thinking.
We're supposed to say that that's okay, y'all.
Okay, you okay, We're going to work and making one hundred dollars and walking home.
With thirty You sure about that? Are you cool with it?
Just tell me, because these are the kind of questions that we have to ask ourselves. That is why I spoke up. I am an independent, That's who I am. I'm not on either side. I'm not on both sides, ladies and gentlemen. I'm creating my own lane. I have no desire to be on either side. Donald Trump has his alcoholtes, he has his surrogance, He has people in the bullpen. It could be a Mark or Rubio. It could be a Jdvans. It could be somebody that we
don't even know coming from a Republican party. I sincerely doubt, as Marjorie tail agree, and I can tell you that much. But it got people on the right. That's why everybody talks about me on the left. It's not just because I voted Democrat and I voted for Kamala Harris. It's because that's the side I see myself on. But you're kinda wrong about that too, because I don't. When I think about me and I think about me running for president of the United States, let me re emphasize that
I am woefully unqualified. But a lot of people say so is he, and you put him in a lot of people look at his cabinet members and the positions he has them in.
They're there. Let me tell you something about Stephen A. Smith. Let me get this.
Out of the way again. I would create a new lane. I'd be a centrist, not quite like Clinton having to be dragged by new to work with the right, so you can ultimately leave office with a surplus. I would have done so voluntarily. I want to work with both sides of the aisle. I'd have Democrats and Republicans in my cabinet. They would be the ones button heads and fighting, but their mandate would be to come to me with an idea that works for America. No one can have everything.
In other words, I'm building a coalition. That's what I would want to do, not just the stance. That wouldn't be me. One of my friends wrote notes for me and stuff like that because he was iron and out.
Man.
If you were running for president, man, this is what you should be. Some things he said that were right, some things he said that were wrong. Because it's amazing, no matter how much I'm on television, no matter how much I'm in a public eye, people still don't know who the hell I am. So let me give you an idea of who that person is. It's about problem solving. It's about fixing the issues that really really matter. It's about caring about all of America, not just a segment of our population.
It's about all of those things.
You know who I am, just like you know who Donald Trump is that's the problem with the Democratic Party. You don't know who the hell a are and you don't know who their leader, who can lead them. You don't have any clue. I think a guy like West Wore out of Maryland can do it. I think a guy like Joshapier out of Pennsylvania can do it. But we all know they'll have their critics. From a national perspective. You talk about West Moore as a governor of Maryland,
Joshapai is governor of Pennsylvania. Okay, those are localized individuals. Andrew Cormo is trying to come back as mayor of New York. He was about to be a fourth a fourth term governor in New York before his troubles invaded the proceedings that he was booted out of all. He had to resign from office, and now he's trying to make a comeback. Of course, there are individuals as professional politics who are far more qualified than me. But haven't
y'all been paying attention? The American people don't clear clearly don't want politicians. They don't mind having a populace in the White House. They don't mind having somebody that they can lean towards. It, and they can say, at least we know him, at least we trust that he's gonna be who he is. You might not like Donald Trump with the tariffs, he told you he was gonna do it.
Some people might not like what Donald Trump is doing with the borders, but from a ninety five percent toile success rate, they say he's doing his job with the borders. Inflation is still an issue, a recession is in play, if not on its way. So certainly there are things that he hasn't done, but he's asking you to give him time because he's got to fight with these people. The war in Ukraine with Russia. We don't like the
fact that it seems like he's sided with Russia. But what his people are saying is, wait a minute, do you want World War three? Bottom line? Were trying to stop all of this stuff. I look at Russia, I think they're trying to take control of Europe. I look at China. They're making footprints, They're gaining footprints in Africa and other places in the world. Why because they look they're looking for minerals, they want to make sure they take care of there own people, amongst other things that
they want to do. These people are not pro America. They're anti America. We understand that the enemy, but what are we gonna do about it? At some point in time, you got to ask yourself these questions. I don't want to come across as somebody who's trying to engage.
In some kind.
Of war over identity politics. Maybe I have to monitor my tone, and that's fair. But when I think about me and what I want to do, I want you to know that I'm somebody who rejects party extremes. I'm not interested in that. I am a lord or to do. Make no mistake about that. You can make a crime of your ass gonna be in jail if I was in or if I was if I was in control, I will throw your ass in jail in the heartbeat. I don't like criminals. I don't like people who scare
the public from living their normal lives. National secure is a big deal with me. Trade as opposed to trade wars are a big deal to me. Immigration, I tell you this right now. See it crazy as it sounds outside of the criminals, because we don't need lawless First of all, lawless Americans should be in jail, and lawless people who ain't Americans should be out of the country outside of them. Guess what I'm doing, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not. I'm not throwing anybody out of the country.
I'm not deporting anybody. You know what I'm doing outside of those criminals, I'm leaving others alone.
But the border is shut down.
Nobody comes in, nobody until we get our house in order for at least the first year.
Shutting it down. Got a year. Gotta get our house in order. That's how I look at it. I'm saying all of.
This to say, while I'm no aficionado, I'm not completely lost and oblivious to the problems that are pervasive in our country.
It matters to me.
I want to make sure that it matters to you, and I want to make sure that you understand that in the process of us doing these things.
We gotta do better. We just have to.
I'm thinking about some stuff that I wrote down. Four tenth flat tax with the top one percent make it two hundred thousand dollars or so. I'm looking at it from the standpoint that why do I support a flat tax? I'm tired of you coming to me. In one day is thirty three. Another whey, there's thirty five. Another way, it's thirty nine percent of my money that you could take as the federal government. Now, why can't you take
twenty seven percent? Let's just throw that out. Workers fifty five years and younger can diversified percentage of their income from Social Security.
One of my boys gave me that idea. Like that? Good? Like that?
How about Congress only being allowed to spend thirty percent of tax revenue? How about them being forced to sit in the nation's capital and actually work for the American.
People instead of themselves.
I'm still baffled as to how you can be a congressional figure or a Senate figure and you may have entered the nation's capital with debt, but now when you look at your financial portfolio it might be worth millions. What's going on there? I don't understand that. And then I look at a thirty seven trillion dollar debt. Am I supposed to believe that we're just spending willy nilly on all of these things and no money is coming into.
Your pockets as politicians.
What's the number one reason I tell you, outside of being private and not wanting stress in my life as to why I'm not interested in politics just because I'm.
Getting paid and what I'm getting paid, politics ain't gonna pay me. That's my position.
And then I look at some of these reports of what politicians are worth. I'm not gonna mention any names, but we got politicians that were in debt, that were paying student loans. We got politicians that didn't have but so much money. The net worth was in the thousands
and now it's millions. How I'm just saying, by the way, one of my boys gave me this idea Congress and Senate only in DC two weeks per quarter of to vote reduced to course, what the hell you living in DC for for what you ain't doing?
No work? Just a suggestion. All I'm saying is that as you look at these things and you look at me.
I am very sincere when I tell you I have no desire to be a politician. I have no interest. But I have been asked by folks in the business world, folks in corporate America, folks on Capitol Hill, plus folks who are friends of mine, to strongly reconsider and to at least leave the door open to the possibilities, because you never know what state our country could be in in the next three years or so. Stephen A, just don't shut the door. Just don't shut the door. Please,
just don't shut the door. That's all I was saying yesterday. But what I want y'all to understand is that I had every right to say it. It was necessary because of everything going on, not just in our nation's capital with this tariff's war, but also how helpless the Democratic side is to do anything about it. All they can do is complain for the moment, nothing else. They don't
have the seats. And we want to rave about Corey Booker, who we respect, speaking on the floor in the US House for twenty five hours plus, But what are we really power? What are we really empowered to do? The party isn't empowered. So it comes down to the people, and one of the people spoke up.
That's all.
Just want to let y'all know where I'm at. Not interested in running. Hope it doesn't come to that. But I was told I owe it to all of us to at least leave the door open.
That's what I did.
By the way, this week, this Sunday, I'm scheduled to be on this week with George Stephanopolis on ABC and practically every other new work is called. They're apparently taking it very seriously, so I have no choice but to do so.