Stephen A. Smith says he has ‘no choice’ but to consider a run for president

Stephen A. Smith, Host of ESPN’s “First Take,” hammered the Democratic Party and suggested he has “no choice” but to consider a run for president.

“I have no choice, because I’ve had elected officials, and I’m not going to give their names, elected officials coming up to me. I’ve had folks who are pundits come up to me. I’ve had folks that got a lot of money, billionaires and others that have talked to me about exploratory committees and things of that nature. I’m not a politician. I’ve never had a desire to be a politician,” Smith told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

Smith reiterated that because of the number of people asking him to consider a run, he has to leave the door open.

“Here’s the reality: People, literally people, have walked up to me, including my own pastor, for crying out loud, who has said to me, ‘You don’t know what God has planned for you. At least show the respect to the people who believe in you, who respect you, who believe that you can make a difference in this country, to leave the door open for any possibilities some to three years down the line.’ And that’s what I’ve decided to do.”

Smith made headlines earlier this week when he said he was leaving the door open to a run for president in 2028. The sports commentator and host of his own show — “The Stephen A. Smith Show” — has become a vocal critic of the Democratic Party in the wake of its sweeping losses in last November’s elections, which resulted in the party being locked out of power in Washington during Trump’s second term.

Here are more highlights from Smith’s interview:

Smith on what he’s seen from Trump so far

Smith: I don’t like what I’m seeing, but I’m not surprised. I mean, this whole tariff war situation is utterly ridiculous. I mean, my attitude was, is that he should have immediately targeted China and not every nation on the planet, for crying out loud, just throwing tariffs at everybody. Ultimately, he dialed that back, as we saw over the last few days, and folks on the right are up in arms. Basically, I should say — I mean positively, essentially saying that that was the plan all along. There doesn’t appear to be a plan. Let’s be, let’s be very, very clear about that. It seems to be a bit very haphazard, and you know it’s just thrown against the wall to see what will stick. But in the end, you know, what you have to applaud them for is for trying something.

On how his being considered for president is an indictment of Democrats

Smith: They talk and they talk and they talk. But what can they do? They position themselves to do absolutely nothing. I didn’t hear anything about tariffs from the Democrats before the election, Trump had been preaching about this for the longest time. The way people decry his strategy, he’s been bloviating about that. They said nothing about it. Instead, they talked about everything from woke culture, the cancel culture, to abortion rights and all of this other stuff. So that wasn’t going to win the election, and that’s what we have to look at. What is it? What is it going to take to get the job done? That’s why somebody who’s a sports analyst, for crying out loud, is in the daggone on polls. Yeah, it’s not, it’s not somebody big upping in me. It’s an indictment against a Democratic Party that doesn’t have leadership. It doesn’t have a vision.

Smith on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appearance in the Oval Office

Smith: She’s the governor of Michigan. She has no choice but to do that. And anybody that thinks otherwise is just being foolish and immature and childish. The fact is, is that she’s the governor of a state in the United States of America. You need to do business with the federal government. He’s the president of the United States. You don’t get to circumvent him. So as a result, you have to be an adult in the room and be prepared to do business. And anybody that would encourage her to do otherwise is just being utterly ridiculous.