ESPN's Stephen A. Smith says he feels like a fool for voting for Kamala Harris
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith admitted that he and others who voted for Kamala Harris in November's election feel like "d--- fools," during an appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher on Friday.
Smith made this declaration when discussing comparisons between Harris' campaign and Barack Obama's campaign in 2008. The sports pundit argued that the fact that Harris was not nominated via a legitimate primary, and the fact that she performed so poorly during her short stint in the 2020 Democratic primary, made her undesirable to voters.
Harris dropped out of the 2020 primary in 2019, before even reaching the Iowa caucus. She never received a single primary vote before being anointed the nominee in 2024.
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"Kamala Harris, who didn't resonate during the primaries in 2020, couldn't even get to Iowa, suddenly is the Democratic nominee, then you roll up to the convention in Chicago and everybody is like ‘She’s a rockstar!' So it's like ‘How’d that happen?" Smith said.
"Yes I voted for her, a lot of people voted for her, but in the end, we end up feeling like d--- fools, because we supported it, we fell for the okiedoke as they say. If you had a primary, the likelihood is she would not have been the Democratic nominee."
Smith has been a harsh internal critic of the Democratic Party during and after the 2020 election.
During Friday's appearance on Maher's show, he scolded liberals for choosing not to campaign on issues that the American people were most concerned about, while admitting that Trump did, and was the closer candidate to the center of the political spectrum.
"Here’s the deal: the man was impeached twice, he was convicted on 34 felony counts, and the American people still said, ‘He’s closer to normal than what we see on the left,’" Smith said.
During an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity days after Election Day, Smith insisted that the results were a referendum of the Democratic Party.
"I think that in light of those results we have to look at this election as a referendum on the Democratic Party. And America’s saying we’re not feeling where you are, we’re not feeling where you tried to go, we want no part of it, we’re not having it – and they made their choice and we all have to accept it," he said.
During an interview on "The Will Cain Show" on the Thursday after the election, Smith delivered a scathing critique of the Democratic National Committee and its message ahead of Election Day and pointed to transgender issues as one of its weak points.
"It’s such a strong tilt to the progressive left where we are talking about transgender issues and culture wars and identity politics and all of this stuff. We are sick of all of that. That makes total, total sense to me, and I’m good with it, even though I didn’t vote for [Trump]. I’m not as taken aback and feeling like nothing but gloom and doom and the world is coming to an end because the person I voted for didn’t win," Smith said.
Smith has said multiple times that he would consider running for public office. After the results of the election, he has been one of the few figures in the liberal media to embrace the outcome of Trump's victory and has been heavily critical of left-wing figures like Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Jimmy Kimmel in their portrayal of Trump.
Smith also did not rule out a possible presidential run for himself during an interview on "The View" the week after the election.
"I have no desire to be a congressional figure or a senator. But if you came to me and you told me I had a legitimate shot to win the presidency of the United States of America, I would definitely consider it," he said.
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