‘Irresponsible!’ Stephen A. Smith Denounces Criticism of Trump’s MAGA Base as ‘Incredibly Unfair’

Stephen A. Smith denounced criticisms and personal insults lobbed against President Donald Trump’s MAGA voters as “incredibly unfair” while also admitting he’s at times “utterly disgusted” with the president himself.

Smith spoke with Barrett Media CEO and Founder Jason Barrett at the Barrett Media Audio Summit in New York City this week, where he discussed expanding his commentary beyond sports and diving into politics in recent years.

At one point, Barrett noted that Smith’s young political punditry career has already included Trump saying Smith should run for office and also slamming him as a “low IQ individual.”

“I’m in good company. He’s called quite a few people low IQ, and it’s been more of a challenge for me to deal with the African American community, my community, than it’s been to deal with the likes of him,” Smith said about the president’s comments about him.

Smith argued the country is living in a time of “extreme polarization” and the president only feeds into that polarization with his public comments. He said he’s “utterly disgusted with how he behaves,” but also pushed back on those who insult Trump’s voters the same way they do the president.

“Even though I disagree with some of his policies, I don’t disagree with everything. But more importantly than that, 77 million people voted for him. And I think that one of the things that’s incredibly irresponsible is when folks target who supported him, who agrees with his policy, and that’s a license to denigrate them the way that you denigrate him. I think that’s incredibly unfair,” Smith said.

The Straight Shooter host recalled hanging up on a caller on his show after the person claimed anyone who voted for Trump was a racist. People’s reasons for voting for a candidate, Smith argued, can be complicated as it is, and those reasons are only complicated more by the country’s “binary” politics.

He said:

One guy called up, said he’s a racist and anybody who voted for him is a racist. I hung up on him and the reason I hung up on that person is, let me get this straight, somebody’s not entitled to look at the economy and say, I want him instead of her? Somebody’s not entitled to look at immigration and say, I think we need to control our borders, I like his policies instead of the Democrats? Somebody’s not entitled to say, I’m pro-life and not pro-choice? What I was trying to was there’s a litany of things that somebody chooses to vote for one candidate over the other, without supporting the candidate at all. It’s just that we live in a binary system and you’ve got to pick one side or the other and one side you vibe with more than the other side. That is not a crime and it’s irresponsible for people to think like that.

Watch above via Barrett Media.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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