Stephen A. Smith regrets backing VP Harris, ‘open’ to voting GOP: ‘Not interested’ in the ‘fear mongering’
In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith addressed whether he regretted backing Democrats.
“I voted Democrat, and I got to tell you something right now, I don’t like the fact that I did. I don’t like what I’m seeing,” Smith said on “Life, LIberty & Levin,” Saturday.
Since President-elect Donald Trump’s historic win in November, the Democratic Party has played the blame game with accusations swirling over who is to blame for Vice President Harris’ loss.
While some have pointed to Harris, others have called out President Biden for his failed re-election campaign and poor approval rating.
Criticism of the president has continued in the final weeks of his term, specifically over his decision to pardon his son, Hunter.
“I don’t want to hear about, ‘Oh we’re about the law. Nobody’s above the law. Nobody’s above the law.’ But then you go out, and you pardon your son, and you try to blame everybody else for it,” Smith told host Mark Levin.
Biden issued a sweeping pardon for Hunter on Dec. 1 after he stated on record multiple times that he would not pardon him should a jury convict his son.
Smith’s qualms with the Democratic Party, however, extend beyond Biden’s controversial pardon. The ESPN personality echoed sentiments from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders calling out the party’s platform and policy focuses.
“I don’t want to hear about defund the police. I don’t want to hear about, you know what? There should be open borders. I don’t want to hear this stuff. And I don’t think most of the American people want to hear that,” Smith said.
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Following the election, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pinned blame for Harris’ loss on the Democratic Party for “abandoning” the working class, sparking a rebuke from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” Sanders posted to X in November, accompanied by a press release on the election results. “And they’re right.”
Smith told Levin he is “no longer interested in…listening to a bunch of fear mongering to tell us who we shouldn’t vote for.”
“Why don’t you come up with a plan that tells us why we should vote for you?” he posited.
“We’re not about America only, but being about America and prioritizing what’s going on in this nation with the desolate and the disenfranchized and everybody else in between, and looking out for the best interests of what it is for America… that is not a crime for an American politician or commander in chief or senator or congressional figure to have that mentality,” he continued.
“If Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Byron Donalds, Marco Rubio, or a host of other Republican candidates coming down the pike, that’s the kind of message that they’re going to put forth, I’m down for it. I’m open-minded enough to make sure that they entertain that from a policy perspective. That’s what I want for the American people. That’s what I want for this nation.”
Smith conceded he could “quite possibly” see himself voting for Trump if the president-elect could run again, but he said Trump would still have to “prove a lot.”
“What concerned me about Donald Trump, and the reason I voted against him and voted for Kamala Harris, was because I felt that he would be divisive. That he would create chaos because he demands such a level of loyalty and fealty to him. And that would take priority over governing our nation. That was my concern,” he explained.
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“It can’t be just about fealty to him and loyalty to him. It has to be about getting the job done on behalf of what’s in the best interests of the American people as opposed to yourself, and not engaging in the kind of juvenile tendencies, tweeting all the time and going after people who are really…irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. You do things like that, and you show that you’re the adult in the room, I don’t think anybody could dismiss Donald Trump at this particular moment in time.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
