Stephen A. Smith ripped into President Donald Trump and his administration on Wednesday, just days after he sat down for dinner at the White House with the president, Bill Maher and Kid Rock.
Speaking on his “Straight Shooter” show, Smith fired back at critics who have questioned his decision to visit the White House last week.
“It was not my meeting. The president had reached out to Bill Maher,” Smith said.
According to Smith, Maher told him that he had informed the president he would bring along a “crazy leftist friend” to his second White House dinner.
Smith said Trump accused him of being “nasty” and “mean” toward him during the meeting.
“When he finally saw me, he accused me of being nasty and mean to him because obviously contrary to what some of you may want to recognize, I have been critical of this president. There’s a lot of things I don’t like,” he said.
The sports broadcaster then laid out a list of grievances with the administration, ranging from affordability to the war with Iran.
Smith took issue with the unemployment picture, saying that while the overall rate stands at 4.2%, the rate for White Americans is about 3.7%, while Black Americans face unemployment above 7%.
“I don’t like affordability issues and how that’s been pervasive in our society as well. Some of his policies, I think and most others think, have stirred that on,” he said.
He also criticized the administration’s handling of foreign affairs.
“I don’t like the war with Iran. I don’t like the fact that it was never supposed to be a war, but then he had a war and it was supposed to be over but now he’s going off about 11 months and he’s telling folks, wait until after the election, things will get better. I don’t like the fact that Russia and Ukraine hasn’t been resolved,” Smith said.
During the dinner, which lasted more than four hours, Smith said he advocated for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, and raised all of his concerns about the administration.
Smith made clear he has no intention of apologizing to anyone who objected to the meeting.
“Let me tell y’all something. I’m not apologizing for this. You need to understand something. I don’t like what I’ve seen from this president. At all. Especially the second go round in the administration. The first administration, the economy was thriving before Covid hit,” he said.
He continued, “We’re $40 trillion in debt, affordability is an issue, jobs have been lost, Black unemployment has risen, I ain’t happy about it. Not by a long shot.”
Smith also took aim at those who argued he should never have agreed to speak with the president in the first place, defending the idea of sitting down face-to-face with the commander in chief, even one he opposes.
“For those that felt like there’s no way on Earth that you should have spoken to the president of the United States, I’m like, have y’all lost y’all mind? Have you really lost your mind? I am no leader, some political figure in all of this, that’s not me,” Smith said.
