ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has nuked the left’s oft-repeated and never-substantiated lie that President-elect Trump is a racist.
During a conversation with Bill Maher on the comedian’s Club Random podcast, Smith disputed the left’s favorite charge against the former and future president by highlighting Trump’s appeal to black voters, specifically black men.
“So there are all these, you know, white boys are talking to me about Trump, and ‘He’s a terrible racist,’ and it’s like, ‘Well, how could the black people vote for him more each time?’ Maher asked. “And, you know, they didn’t vote for him a lot more, but men did, okay? And I said, you know what? I don’t want to speak for all black people … You tell me if I was wrong or right. I said, you know what I think black people think about Trump? Like, is he a racist? Yeah, but they think every white person is kind of a racist. Like, and do they think that white people, behind closed doors, talk like Trump? Yeah, he’s just a crazy person.”
Smith responded, “Being a black man, you don’t look at white people and automatically think they’re racist. You automatically know they’re different than you, that they think different than you, that they come from a different cultural background and experience things differently than they do.
“We know that the people that he was friends with all of these years, he talked just like that around y’all, and y’all didn’t have no problem with it. Don’t act like you have a problem now.”
Maher then mentioned that President-Elect Trump has “genuine” friendships with black people, which prompted Smith to mention his own “friendly” relationship with Trump and address the attributes of the president-elect that appeal to black people.
“I wouldn’t call myself his friend by any stretch of the imagination back in the day,” Smith said. “But I’ve told this on many occasions. I said this in my recent appearance on ‘The View’ and stuff like that. Trump and I were friendly before he ran for president. He used to have these boxing matches, particularly during the Tyson fights, at the Trump casinos. He would be at the Knicks games and stuff like that. And if we’re being totally honest, all the brothers found him to be cool. They found him to be very cool. So, let’s be clear. Because he knew his sports, all right? He would say what he feel, he bucked the establishment, which we love, and we gravitated to that.”
Maher responded, “And also he was a certain age, and you get a certain like understanding that white men of that age … They’re going to be a little ‘Grandpa, we don’t say that anymore.’ But is he really, like, in his heart, like hateful? No, I don’t think his motivation is ‘I don’t like black people.’ I think his motivation is ‘Everybody must love me.’”
Smith immediately agreed.
“I have never called him a racist. I have never spoken about him that way. Ever,” Smith explained. “Not one time. Not one time. Because I knew him beforehand.”
Trump defeated Vice President Harris largely because of increased support from black and Latino voters. The president-elect saw massive increases among black men, and he carried the Hispanic male vote.