President Stephen A Smith?
I opened my refrigerator door this morning and when the light came on, Stephen A. Smith began yakking about the Knicks, President Trump, “woke culture” and the Democratic Party.
Okay, I made it up, but, let’s face it, Smith — that over-the-top, flamboyant, very entertaining sports journalist — pops up on television more than prescription drug commercials on the evening news.
He’s on ESPN in the morning, the afternoon and sometimes at night. He’s weighed in on politics on CNN and recently was part of a town hall with Chris Cuomo and Bill O’Reilly on NewsNation.
He played a character named “Brick” on the soap opera “General Hospital” — not once or twice, but at least 49 times. And this week, he appeared as a sports agent who gets killed on a primetime “Law and Order” episode.
And so maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that, here in the United States of Entertainment, there’s even talk about this Mr. Smith going to Washington — as the next president.
Long shot? Sure. Out of the question? When it comes to politics, nothing is out of the question. But is he interested?
“I’m not prepared” for the job, he has said. “I’m not qualified. I have no political history whatsoever. I’ve never been interested in politics a day in my life.”
So why all the talk about him possibly running? And why hasn’t he ruled it out? Why has he said he has no choice but to keep the door open?
In April, he told Jonathan Karl on ABC News, “I have no choice because I’ve had elected officials, and I’m not going to give their names, elected officials coming up to me. I’ve had folks who are pundits come up to me. I’ve had folks that got a lot of money, billionaires and others that have talked to me about exploratory committees and things of that nature. I’m not a politician. I’ve never had a desire to be a politician.”
What does it say about the state of politics in America that there’s so much talk about a guy with no experience in politics and yet is the object of more and more talk about him entering that world — and at the highest level, no less?
There’s some history here. Ronald Reagan was on television and doing movies like “Bedtime for Bonzo” before he entered the world of politics and became governor of California. Donald Trump wasn’t a politician, either, when he first ran. And yet he won — in large part because American voters had lost confidence in politics-as-usual and were willing to take a chance on an outsider, on someone different.
Smith is no Trump, let’s be clear about that — and that’s meant as a compliment to Smith. He doesn’t invite chaos every time he opens his mouth. Best I can tell, he doesn’t have a long-distance relationship with facts and truth.
But Trump touched on something — that discontent with the political class. Smith has the potential to do the same. It wouldn’t be easy, of course, but it wouldn’t be impossible, either.
“If I had to run,” he has said, “it would be as a Democrat, but I’m not happy with the Democratic Party. It would pretty much need to be purged.”
Smith says he’s a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, but doesn’t like the left wing of the Democratic Party or the “woke” culture it has fostered — the kind of talk that helped Trump win a second term.
Americans, he says, are “literally scared of losing their jobs if they pronounced the wrong pronoun for crying out loud.” Sound familiar?
There’s no question that Smith has a lot of fans — and not only the ones who care about sports. There’s one fan in particular who has said, “I love watching him. He’s got great entertainment skills, which is very important. People watch him. I’ve been pretty good at picking people and picking candidates, and I will tell you, I’d love to see him run.”
That was Donald Trump who said that, in case you didn’t know.
But will Smith actually run or is this just talk to keep us wondering?
One thing is certain: If he did run, he’d have to take a giant pay cut. According to news reports, his new contract at ESPN is worth $100 million over five years — $20 million a year. As for the salary of the president of America, that comes to a “measly” $400,000 a year, plus $50,000 for expenses.
But there’s always that possibility. As Smith has put it, “You never know what God has planned for you.”
Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page. Follow him @BernardGoldberg.