Stephen A Smith | Club Random with Bill Maher

Summary

Podcast Summary: Club Random with Bill Maher featuring Stephen A. Smith

Release Date: November 24, 2024

Introduction

In this engaging episode of Club Random with Bill Maher, host Bill Maher sits down with sports commentator and media personality Stephen A. Smith for a candid and spirited conversation. Set in the exclusive and undisclosed location of Club Random, the duo delves into a wide array of topics ranging from sports analytics and political discourse to personal anecdotes and societal observations. This detailed summary captures the essence of their hour-long dialogue, highlighting key discussions, insights, and notable moments.

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1. Sports Analysis and Critiques

Bill Maher and Stephen A. Smith kick off their conversation by diving deep into the world of sports, particularly focusing on baseball and basketball dynamics.

• Baseball's MVP Voting System:

  • Bill Maher criticizes the current Most Valuable Player (MVP) voting system, suggesting it fails to account for postseason performances. He states, “The way they do MVP voting is off because they don't include the postseason” ([04:27]).
  • Stephen A. Smith counters by emphasizing the importance of regular-season achievements, arguing that players should be rewarded immediately once the regular season concludes to maintain its significance. He proposes, “If you're gonna award the regular season MVP the minute the regular season is over, before the playoffs begin, give them the MVP” ([05:19]).

• Aaron Judge's Performance:

  • The discussion shifts to Aaron Judge, highlighting both his on-field prowess and recent defensive lapses. Maher notes, “Aaron Judge seems like a really great guy, right? Handles everything well” ([03:00]), but also points out a critical error that could jeopardize his standing despite his high salary ([03:26]).
  • Smith responds by emphasizing Judge's batting statistics, stating, “If you ain't gonna hit home runs, hit singles, hit doubles, get on banks” ([04:27]).

• Boxing and Emerging Talent:

  • Moving to boxing, Smith lauds Terence Crawford's recent victory, comparing it to political outcomes with, “Terrence Crawford slaughtered him” ([21:32]).
  • Maher reflects on the decline of traditional boxing popularity, attributing it to the rise of UFC and the lack of charismatic figures in modern boxing ([22:16]).

• NBA and Bronny James Controversy:

  • A heated exchange ensues over Bronny James' placement in the NBA, with Maher asserting, “Bronny James is not one of the 600 best players” ([64:41]).
  • Smith defends Bronny's potential but criticizes the mismanagement, suggesting that his inclusion undermines meritocracy in sports ([65:27]).

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2. Political Discourse and Criticisms

The conversation seamlessly transitions from sports to the tumultuous landscape of American politics, focusing on the recent elections, party strategies, and leadership challenges.

• Election Outcomes and Democratic Strategies:

  • Maher expresses frustration with the Democratic Party's approach, stating, “I'm pissed at the Democrats because my issues, democracy, the environment, have no protectors now because you blew the election” ([88:03]).
  • Smith echoes this sentiment, criticizing the Democrats for not effectively communicating their policies and aligning solely with identity politics. He remarks, “The Democrats have gotten on my last damn nerve” ([96:47]).

• Trump's Influence and Base Support:

  • The duo discusses Donald Trump's enduring influence, with Maher noting, “Everyone wants to see Bronny James in the league. The 600 players in the NBA were the best in the world” ([64:41]).
  • Smith highlights how Trump's rhetoric has galvanized his base, despite claims of racism, by stating, “They do believe he is a racist, but they think every white person is kind of a racist” ([39:39]).

• Supreme Court Appointments and Legislative Decisions:

  • Smith critiques the handling of Supreme Court appointments, particularly the delayed retirement of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arguing it shifted the court's balance unfavorably. He states, “The Democrats never talk about it. I'm like, wait a minute, y'all” ([89:12]).
  • Maher adds context by recounting interactions between President Obama and Justice Ginsburg, illustrating the political maneuvering behind the scenes ([100:16]).

• Immigration Policies and Economic Concerns:

  • Discussing Biden's immigration policies, Smith asserts, “You didn't pay attention to that” regarding the influx of immigrants, leading to strained relationships with Republican governors ([25:15]).

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3. Ageism and Personal Reflections

Beyond sports and politics, Maher and Smith explore personal topics such as aging, relationships, and societal expectations.

• Handling Business and Personal Relationships:

  • Smith advises younger generations to seek meaningful relationships over fleeting attractions, emphasizing the importance of compatibility and commitment. He shares, “Forget the woman that excites you. It's the woman you're comfortable being bored with” ([80:30]).
  • Maher counters with his own experiences, highlighting the complexities of relationships and the challenges of maintaining personal connections over time ([78:07]).

• Aging Gracefully:

  • The conversation touches on the societal pressures of aging, with both hosts reflecting on their personal experiences and observations. Maher humorously remarks on maintaining attractiveness, while Smith shares anecdotes about family dynamics and personal growth ([75:00]).

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4. Societal Observations and Media Influence

Maher and Smith provide critical insights into how societal norms and media influence public perception and individual behaviors.

• Impact of Social Media:

  • Maher expresses concern over the authenticity portrayed on social media, stating, “I think what they're putting out on social media is just this sort of fog screen of the life they want you to think they're living” ([62:29]).
  • Smith agrees, noting the difficulty in discerning genuine accomplishments from superficial online personas, which complicates the public's ability to form accurate judgments ([62:50]).

• Demagoguery and Political Communication:

  • The hosts critique both major political parties for their communication strategies. Maher targets the Democrats for their perceived arrogance and failure to address core issues effectively, while Smith underscores the Republican tendency towards demagoguery ([87:37]).
  • Smith emphasizes the disconnect between political elites and the working class, stating, “They cater to the elite” ([96:48]).

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Maher and Smith reiterating their shared frustrations with the current political climate and the strategies employed by both major parties. They emphasize the need for genuine discourse and effective leadership to address pressing societal issues. The dynamic between the hosts showcases a blend of humor, critical analysis, and personal reflection, making for a compelling and thought-provoking conversation.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher ([04:27]): “I think the way they do MVP voting is off because they don't include the postseason.”
• Stephen A. Smith ([05:19]): “If you're gonna award the regular season MVP the minute the regular season is over, before the playoffs begin, give them the MVP.”
• Bill Maher ([88:03]): “I'm pissed at the Democrats because my issues, democracy, the environment, have no protectors now because you blew the election.”
• Stephen A. Smith ([80:30]): “Forget the woman that excites you. It's the woman you're comfortable being bored with.”
• Bill Maher ([62:29]): “I think what they're putting out on social media is just this sort of fog screen of the life they want you to think they're living.”

This episode of Club Random with Bill Maher offers a rich tapestry of discussions that intertwine sports, politics, and personal insights, providing listeners with a multifaceted exploration of contemporary issues through the lens of two influential media figures.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

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[Stephen A. Smith]

Let me tell you what the real problem was with the whole Bronny James thing.

[Bill Maher]

It could take two seconds. Does this melon look ripe to you? Yes, my wife is de. Well, look who's here.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm in the house.

[Bill Maher]

And early.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes, sir.

[Bill Maher]

I love that.

[Stephen A. Smith]

It's good to see you, buddy.

[Bill Maher]

Hope I didn't keep you waiting.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Not at all. I'm good.

[Bill Maher]

You're on Asian people's time.

[Stephen A. Smith]

No problem. No problem. How you doing?

[Bill Maher]

You liked it so much the first time?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Absolutely. They told me you wanted me back. I was happy to come.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I definitely do.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Definitely. You mind if I get. You know, because it's the only show I ever drink my Hennessy and Coke on you.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's so funny you say that, because I look forward to this. Not only because I get to talk to great people every week, but it's the only drinks I allow myself. Really?

[Stephen A. Smith]

I got you. I got you.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, two drinks. I used to have that before I left the house. That's right. And now, you know, you're on A short leash when you're older.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, well, you know what? You're aging gracefully. That's what counts.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I mean, like I think about what a guy like Aaron Judge is going to.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How about that the World Series he just had. Well, I love Aaron Judge, but my.

[Bill Maher]

God, not just the hitting, which can happen, but that the fifth inning with the fielding play that just give it away and like the connection with money. Now look, Aaron Judge seems like a really great guy, right? Handles everything well.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Class act.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, he's drinking somewhere now with Mayor Adams.

[Stephen A. Smith]

They're enjoy that while you can. They after May Adams now together putting him back.

[Bill Maher]

Like everything was going so well for us. And of course Aaron Judge will come back. He's too great and he had a great season. But is the money worth. I mean part of the reason why it's just horrible for people to accept is that you're getting so much money and you drop a routine fly ball like I bet you he thinks it's just all the money in the world cannot make up for how bad I feel. I assure you how bad I feel for letting down the whole city or.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Talking to a die hard Yankee fan. I assure you Yankee fans are not thinking nearly as much about that drop ball as we're thinking about the fact that in multiple playoff series in his career, he is batting less than 150. Listen, at the end of the day, he's paid to hit home runs. And damn it, if you ain't gonna hit home runs, hit singles, hit doubles, get on banks. What you can't do is go to bat 39 times, strike out 19 times. And you know that can't happen.

[Bill Maher]

That brings me to. And you're a great one to answer. This may be the best one. I think the way they do MVP voting is off because they don't include the postseason.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

To me this is bullshit. It's bonkers. Clayton Kershaw, another one, right? Like MVP who is actually most valuable. If you're actually putting your own money into the team and had to pick, you're going to pick the guy who also performs in the off season. I would rather have a guy who had 35 home run in the regular season. Yeah, it's gotta be a guy who gets you there and then performs in the off season. That to me is actually most valuable.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Let me counter that with this. I get where you're coming from. I don't blame you for counterpoint. No, no. I don't blame you for that.

[Bill Maher]

Stephen A. You ignorant slut.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't blame you for feeling that way. Here's what I would say. You have a point. But the biggest point that supports your position is the fact that you wait weeks to award the MVP in the regular season. Damn it. If you're gonna award the regular season MVP the minute the regular season is over, before the playoffs begin, give them the mvp.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Stephen A. Smith]

All right. And then we're fine. Okay? Now that was then. Because we don't want the regular season to be meaningless. So you want to solidify it. You want to make sure you establish its importance. Do it at the end of the regular season, immediately. Make sure no awards are given when the postseason is done, when the whole season starts.

[Bill Maher]

I think we can agree on that compromise. I think it's a good example to America that's trying to bridge gaps right now. And I think this, this is going to make America great again.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't think it's going.

[Bill Maher]

MVP voting right away.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right away.

[Bill Maher]

But then, no hesitation, another award for, you know, I don't know. Well, I guess they do have that. They have the Most valuable Player of the. But to me, it's of the whole team. You know, the whole team right now is sucking fre. Freddie Freeman's dick.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

Right. That's, you know, that's Who. Who really was the most, as much as they had. Ohtani, he showed up. Another guy who did not show up in the postseason.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah, but at least he hit a home run in game one. I mean, at least he got on base and stuff like that, and he showed up. Ohtani, he didn't have. He didn't. He wasn't. He. He was. He was. He was not good for most of the World Series, but he had enough moments in the postseason where, you know, it wasn't a choke job. See, Bill is a difference between. Between a choke job. And you know what? You're just in a slump or whatever. If you're Aaron Judge and you smacking over 50 home runs every regular season and then every post season, all of a sudden, you stink. That's a problem.

[Bill Maher]

That is a problem.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's a problem. But when you. But when you have your moments, then we can respect that, you know, but you can tell the difference between somebody who's struggling and somebody where the bright lights are just too big for them.

[Bill Maher]

I tell you, the Dodgers, they did it, man. Yeah, but, you know, the Ohtani signing. Everybody won 700 million. That's crazy for one player even as great as he is, and maybe he'll never even pitch again. Blah, blah, blah. But I think what they had in mind, and they look like they're right, is they were like, you know what? I think Japan is the New Mexico.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How about that?

[Bill Maher]

And baseball, it's like one thing, if you like, if you have. Every team has a lot of Latin players on it. So it's not like a Latin player is going to go, oh, if I go to the Blue Jays, will anybody speak Spanish? Yes, every team is. But Japanese, like, once Ohtani was on that team, then Admiral Yamamoto came and.

[Stephen A. Smith]

They got somebody else coming out.

[Bill Maher]

That's how they got the new great arm out of Japan, because it's like, where am I going to go? Well, first of all, the West Coast. It's a lot closer to home. That's a direct flight.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How about that?

[Bill Maher]

Tokyo weather's better. What?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Weather is better?

[Bill Maher]

Weather's better. There's more Asian people.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right.

[Bill Maher]

And there's some people on the team I can talk to.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And the team you're going to has more money than everybody, including the Yankees at this point.

[Bill Maher]

And like, the Dodgers are the team of Japan. Do you realize they got the whole country of Japan?

[Stephen A. Smith]

I sat up there and me being a Yankee fan, I'm like, do you realize this might be our last shot? We haven't won a World series since 2009. And we are in a situation right now where we're looking at this Dodger squad. Because Ohtani deferred more than 90% of his salary. They have the money to go out and get Juan Soto from the Yankees if they want to. They can afford them. They can afford them. I said, this is. What a nightmare. This can't be happening. But it is. The Dodgers, I think that. I think Dodgers could be more dynasty. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

To me, I think that was why it was such a smart play that they had to get Ohtani, because again, they got a whole country, and it's not like there's going to be as many Latin players. You know, Japan is going to come up with, you know, a great player. It seems like maybe every year, every couple of years, but, you know, they're probably going to go to Seattle. Suzuki, right? Isn't East Seattle Ichiro. Yeah, Ichiro. And I mean, the Yankees had. They had a great Japanese player.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes. And I got brain lock right now. But I know exactly who you talking about. He pitched well for them. Matsui. He pitched well for them.

[Bill Maher]

My mother used to. He didn't pitch.

[Stephen A. Smith]

No, no, no, no, no. I'm not talking about him. I'm talking about the pitcher that they had. I keep forgetting his name right now. I'm just trying. But Matsui was good too.

[Bill Maher]

Matsui was very good. But I mean, it was a brilliant play. And it was. That 700 million is paying off in that pipeline that they own and other people. It's not.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And not only they pays for himself. Doesn't cost them the money that they're making because they have Ohtani. They can't. Less people gotta look at this. They talk about 700 million. $700 million. No, it's 700 million spread over 10 years. It's 70 million per. This dude walks to the ballpark in a week, they're making 70 million off of this guy.

[Bill Maher]

Not to defend billionaires, but like the average fan is like very angry. And I don't blame them. That a baseball game, which used to be something the common man could enjoy, is something. So it's like Taylor Swift tickets. Yeah, it's like Disneyland. These things that are just so out of reach for the working people.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah, I agree.

[Bill Maher]

You know, the whole election was about the Democrats lost the working people. But why do they have to charge that much?

[Stephen A. Smith]

They really, really don't. They really, really don't when you consider the television contracts that they have as well. So you gotta take that into consideration. They get money from everywhere. They get money from it.

[Bill Maher]

There's no reason they're paying it out in huge numbers. It's not like the game couldn't cost way less. I'm not saying the players. Look, it's free market capitalism. I'm all for it. But that's why kids. The hot dog costs $12. Whatever it is, it's because you're paying one guy $700 million and parking costs.

[Stephen A. Smith]

$50 and a hot dog costs $16.

[Bill Maher]

But that's the provenance of where the money is going.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You love baseball.

[Bill Maher]

Of course. Do I not sound like I love baseball?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Let me tell you this. I like baseball. Here's what I hate about baseball, which is why it's never been my favorite. And I've told people.

[Bill Maher]

I'll tell you what I hated after that.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I gotta throw this by you. You want baseball to really improve and ingratiate itself, particularly with the younger generation on the come up who leans more towards basketball than football. They did a good job with some of the rule changes that they played because it invited more athleticism, et cetera. You know, pitch counts, no shifting. All of this other stuff, bigger bases stolen, stealing all this stuff. But they need to totally, totally, totally get rid of the intentional walk.

[Bill Maher]

They Did.

[Stephen A. Smith]

No, no, excuse me. Oh, no, no, no. I don't mean. I'm talking about. I'm talking about you don't put anybody on base.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you can't.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You gotta pitch to everybody.

[Bill Maher]

You can't do it, right? Great, Love it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Listen, you're grown ass man.

[Bill Maher]

Where's my rubber stamp?

[Stephen A. Smith]

So I'm a grown ass man. Yes, I'm pitching.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Bill Maher's batting about 3:30 and he's coming up to the plate. Well, don't even bother the guys. You don't have to throw it to him. Bill, take your base. Really? But really you're peeing.

[Bill Maher]

But just go back to what they used to do, which is just deliberately pitch where he can't hit it and say, well, I was trying to throw a strike.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But I'm saying something different. I'm saying you're a professional. Like for example, you couldn't walk up to Randy Johnson, you couldn't walk up to Roger Clemens and these cats and go like this, yo, walk him. You could do that. They look at you, you better get out my face. It's me against him. And I'll tell you why I feel this way and I've never changed. One of the rare occasions you got the National League against the American League and Barry Bonds came to Yankee Stadium and I decide I'm going to go as a fan and I'm going to roll up to this game and you get stuck in traffic on the Deegan Expressway in the Bronx. Cross Bronx expressway. You pay $50 for parking. You pay your hot dogs, your popcorn, your soda, all of this other stuff. You're sit. And they walked him. It was driving me crazy. You wanted to see Barry Bonds hit every time.

[Bill Maher]

They were walking.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You wanted practically every time. And you just looked at it and you said, no, you don't get. You gotta deal with Michael Jordan, you gotta deal with LeBron James, you gotta deal with Kobe, you gotta deal with Patrick Mahomes, you gotta deal with Tom. You don't get to avoid them. You gotta find a way to defend against them.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, but again, I don't see how you can force people to throw a ball that they can't claim. Hey, I was trying to throw a strike.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I agree with you, but what I'm saying is I've got 95, 100 mile per hour fastball. It's me against you. Let's go.

[Bill Maher]

All you can do is shame him into it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

What you can strike out.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's exactly, and that's what I'm saying.

[Bill Maher]

But that's not going to work. But Barry Bonds, like, I always defended Barry Bonds. Like, did he take steroids? Of course. All the sluggers did in that era. I mean, it's a shame. But I also think it's a bullshit argument. I've had this argument with Bob Costas many times. Like, everything changes in the game. You know, Babe Ruth didn't have to play against African Americans.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right.

[Bill Maher]

And the mitts were like, literally little mitts. I mean, Babe Ruth's lifetime batting average is.342. If he played today, it would be.242 or.290, I don't know. But it wouldn't be.342.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

He's a big fat guy.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I agree with you.

[Bill Maher]

But, you know, so the records don't bother. The steroids thing doesn't bother me that much. And I remember Barry Bonds once said, can it be that I'm good? I'm just good? And, like, with or without the steroids, he was good on a level.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's where you go.

[Bill Maher]

Few people were.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's where you'll go. Here's where I'll go. This man was 30 and 30 before steroids. He was good for 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases. He was good to bat over 300. He was a Hall. He was en route to the hall of fame. Then in 1994, when you stupidly canceled the World Series, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa returned and they revitalized the sport. 98. I'm talking about this Roger Maris single season home run record. They did all of this stuff, right? And they just galvanized the American public back to the sport of baseball. And you knew they were juiced up, okay? And Barry Barnes is like, oh, so this is how y'all doing? Oh, really? So it doesn't really matter. So, you know, you're sitting up there because, remember in the Game of Shadows book and the excerpts that were displayed in Sports Illustrated, they said that Barry Barnes essentially was using it because of all the attention that Mark McGuire and those guys were getting. And he already knew without it, he was better than them. So they said, all right, this is what you do. Well, let me show you what I'm gonna do when I'm on it. And that's when he smacked 73 home runs. You see what I'm saying? So he was like, this is what I bring to the table, right? And I'm like, wait a minute. So he comes out there and he does what he does, all right? And you're saying it's because he was jealous of the attention that they were getting. And I say, no, wasn't jealousy. He was saying, damn it, y'all supposed to know baseball. They couldn't shine my shoes. All they could do is hit. They hit or struck out. They hit. They hit a home run or they struck out practically. He said, I was. I was swinging on average. I was stealing bases. I was a Gold Glover. I was good for 30 home runs.

[Bill Maher]

Seven time MVP.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You understand? Seven time MVP. And y'all acted like y'all didn't give a shit about me. Y'all thought they were better than me. Y'all were acting like they were better than me. And he said, I'm gonna show you. If I use the same stuff they're using, this is what I could do. And sure enough, he did it. And I'm like, what's the problem? And you gonna keep him out of the hall of Fame.

[Bill Maher]

Everybody who acted like the players taking steroids hurt them so much, they didn't hurt you. They hurt the guy who took the steroids. Their ball shrunk, their mandible got enormous. Their heart probably got enlarged. It was not good for. It was not health food. It was a deal with the devil, and it made it entertaining. Look, I remember that 98 race so vividly. The Mark McGuire. Right. And Sammy Sosa.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Absolutely.

[Bill Maher]

And I have a vivid memory. I don't know why, but chase the 61. I was in San Francisco, of course, with the girl.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Damn right.

[Bill Maher]

And I just remember, it would be wise. We were in a bar, as I always was, in 1998.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And I don't know where we were, but the TV was on in the bar. And I remember looking at the TV and seeing what happened. I went, oh, wow. McGuire hit 58 and 59. And I remember her going.

[Stephen A. Smith]

She didn't give a shit.

[Bill Maher]

Well, of course not. It was a girl in 1990.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right. Well, they do say chicks love the long ball. Right. That's what they say all the time. That's what they used to say.

[Bill Maher]

And I remember thinking like, you're so right. Sports is such. I know it's your living and it's my pastime and. But it is it like the things I could have done in my life with the time if I hadn't watched sports, which I for. You know, ask me who won the super bowl last year? I guess it was the Chiefs. Okay. I remember that. One, two.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Super bowl champion. Absolutely.

[Bill Maher]

But year before that, I.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Chiefs.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah, that's right. They go in for a three.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Back to back. Yeah, they're going for a three.

[Bill Maher]

All right. But now, before I forget, I want to tell you what I don't like about baseball. And it's something you can change. But here's what makes baseball to me so frustrating and so different than every other sport, okay? The element of luck is enormous compared to any other sport. In basketball, there is the occasional shot that's a shitty shot but still goes in. I'm sure Don Nelson's one that broke Jerry West. Hart turned him into a caricature on that HBO show. I'm sure Jerry west went to his grave to say, I get that shitty shot that went bad. But that mostly isn't what happened. You either make the shot or you don't.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And if you make Indiana. Missed it.

[Bill Maher]

Missed it. But mostly if you hit it right, baseball, it's like 50, 50, whether you will be rewarded or punished for doing the right thing. You sting the ball, it's a line drive, but it's right into the right fielders. And then you hit a shitty blooper. And you know, so like when you, if there was a way to reward, like, oh, wow, he got that pitch. The guy tried to throw 100 mile an hour slider past him and he got it and he got it right on the barrel. Long play. Well, I will say that's what fucks up baseball for me. I'm not getting rid of baseball for it and you can't get rid of that. But it is a lucky sport.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't mind the luck element with sports. I mean, it comes with it. And I love baseball. No, I like baseball and I love baseball. You're right. But I love baseball in person. Don't like it as much watching it on television. I love basketball, either live or on television. I love football on television. Hate it live.

[Bill Maher]

There's nothing like a court seat at a basketball game, right? Nothing.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, look, I've never been to a boxing match, like close up.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, my goodness.

[Bill Maher]

I have that. Maybe that's better.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes. I mean, I bet you it is.

[Bill Maher]

They're punching each other.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Listen, I went to. I had to cover the Mike Tyson Andrew Galata fight years ago when he got out of jail. And you know, he was. He was fighting in Detroit, Michigan. I was there for that fight. I was there for the Oscar De La Hoya versus Fernando Vargas fight. I'm talking about in terms of ringside seats last July. Not this past July, but July for that Terrence Crawford going up against Errol Spence, that was the biggest fight, one of the biggest fights that was there for that.

[Bill Maher]

I didn't even know these people.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I mean, like. Because boxing. Because the promoters have messed up the sport. That's why you don't know enough about them, because Terrence Crawford's great. When we talk about a guy like Terrence Crawford, I need you to think about a Floyd Money Mayweather, a Sugar Ray Leonard, a Marvin Hagler, people like that. That's how great Terrence Crawford is. Okay? And this was supposed to be a big fight because Errol Spence was a undefeated welterweight champion and Terence Crawford slaughtered him. I mean, just took him to school and beat him like he stole something. And, you know, and I don't say, I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I love Errol Spence. But that was an ass kicking. It really, really was. And when you see stuff like that, you know, Canelo, Alvarez, Triple G, sounds.

[Bill Maher]

Like what happened to the Democrats.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How about that? And you know what? And yeah, that was an ass kicking. If we being honest about it, it was a thorough ass kicking. Ain't no way around it, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

All right?

[Stephen A. Smith]

I mean, you know, more politics than me, but damn it. Yeah. A blind man could see the Democrats got their ass kicked. Yeah. It was like, you know what? I like that analogy. Democrats, similar to Terrence Crawford, Errol Spence Jr. Yep. That works. I mean, who's that kind of asking?

[Bill Maher]

It won't work on a lot of people like me who don't know who these people are.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

Why do you think it is that boxing became a sport that I was always interested in when it was Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and even up to, you know, who got his ear bit off?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Mike Tyson. Holyfield.

[Bill Maher]

Tyson. Holyfield. And it's been years now. Is that because ufc, combination of two.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Number one, you can make. And I love the fact that you made that analogy, because the kind of ass kicking that the Democrats just received is similar to a lot of that stuff. I would tell you.

[Bill Maher]

What do you think they should do about it?

[Stephen A. Smith]

The Democrats?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How about having some. How about, listen, I like Westmoreland, Governor of Maryland, but, you know, you have to use your baseball analogy. You have no bull. Who is it? Trump's been the Republican nominee since 2016.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay. It is clear that that's who conservatives want in the White House. Okay. That's who they supported. They didn't give a Damn about the 34 indictments. They didn't give a damn about two impeachments. They didn't give a damn about all the legal issues in the law fair that the Democrats engaged in. They said, joe, that's who we want. This is the difference. And I said this to a lot of people, Bill. The conservatives said, we want that guy. That's who we want. And the voters decided who the Republican nominee is going to be. When you look at the Democrats, they didn't do it with Obama. That's true. Okay.

[Bill Maher]

They did what?

[Stephen A. Smith]

They greased the skids. This is the person we want. It's her turn. It was Hillary's turn in 2016. All right, Biden.

[Bill Maher]

That's not Obama. Obama earned it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

No, no. That's why I said he earned it. But in 26. And I'm not even trying to imply.

[Bill Maher]

Voted Hillary ran in the primary.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not trying to. I'm not even trying to imply that she. But remember, they. They were complaining that Bernie Sanders had some momentum and was compromised by the Democratic Party because they were saying it was Hillary's turn.

[Bill Maher]

Bernie Sanders, remember that? Bernie Sanders, I love him, but he's too far left. And he would have been a bigger disaster than Kamala.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's fine. But what I'm saying to you is still an all. Bill, What I would. And I. Shoot. It's rare that I disagree with you. What I'm saying is the only thing I will push back on is that's fine, but that's for the voter to decide. And a lot of times the Democratic Party seems as if they've got their claws in the mix. Take Biden, for example. Okay, so you know, Clyburn helps him get through South Carolina. He ultimately close to the Democratic nomination. He's the Democratic nominee for the president. He ultimately wins the election. There was supposed to be a red wave in 2022 in the midterms. The Republicans didn't pull that off. And Biden is feeling himself and saying, I ain't going anywhere. I'm not gonna. I told y'all I was gonna be a transitional president. I told y'all I was gonna be a one term dude. I'm just here as a stopgap to pave the way for the future of the Democratic Party. And then all of a sudden, he in office.

[Bill Maher]

He was a veritable John the Baptist, the guy.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Come on, bro. The point is that your ass was gonna be 82 years old in the White House. Come on now. And then. I'll never forget this, bill. I swear to you. I love your show Real Time. I'm a huge fan. I watch it Every chance I get. I have never.

[Bill Maher]

No real fans. Watch it every week. You watch it every chance you get.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm just fucking with you because I got multiple jobs. But here's the deal, bill. But I TiVo it. I say that the DVR. That's TiVo. TiVo. DVR.

[Bill Maher]

I'm going to send you a telegram about.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Here's the deal, man. I have never wanted to be on your show more than I wanted to be on your show when Biden announced that he was going to run for reelection. Because I'm like this. What y'all going to say now? This is some straight bullshit. You got a situation where you won. You won the midterm. You denied, you halted, you warded off the red wave. And you knowing you gonna be 81 at election time, knowing you're gonna be 82 in office. Right? It wasn't. I'm sorry, it wasn't the midterm. It was when the State of the Union address took place.

[Bill Maher]

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[Stephen A. Smith]

So when you call yourself progressives.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, so you're looking forward with a dude that's going to be 82 and would leave office when he's 86. Really, y'all? I'm sitting there like, you got to be shit me. This is what you're talking about. And I'm like. Like, I knew I wasn't voting for Trump. I knew that wasn't gonna happen. But I was saying to myself, what are you thinking? What are you thinking? This. And then I looked at the bullpen, and they had no one. They had no one. They had no one that could compete with Donald Trump.

[Bill Maher]

Well, not on a charisma level. Fair.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay. Fair enough. But charisma is what gets your votes, bro.

[Bill Maher]

Absolutely. And I've said it a million times, insanity, photographs. It really does. I mean, it's charismatic. But I have so many things that I must contend here with. Sure. One, you're an ageist. There are people who are completely crackling. Right at 82.

[Stephen A. Smith]

So, no, no, I don't. It's always a case.

[Bill Maher]

It's always a case by case basis.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right? Yeah. Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi don't have the problems that Biden have. I'm very supportive of, you know, in terms of Nancy Pelosi, in terms of how sharp she is, I don't believe I'm an ageist.

[Bill Maher]

Nancy Pelosi has lost a step in public also, to be perfectly honest. But the job is never what you do in public. The job is done in the Oval Office. All you have to do is be. I never thought Biden couldn't do the job. The job is actually sitting in the Oval Office making decisions. He's not crazy. He hasn't lost his mind. He's not senile.

[Stephen A. Smith]

He just.

[Bill Maher]

Trump just can't do the public part. He never could do it. Well, and add the age thing and you're gonna get things like I killed Medicare or whatever the fuck he said. By the way, Trump, no one has been harder on Trump or more against Trump, blah, blah, blah. I don't have to establish my credentials, but he does do things once in a while that either make me genuinely laugh or make me genuinely go. That's good. Like when he. When he said that in that debate, he once. Well, he had a moment where he went. I don't know what he said exactly. And I don't think.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right there.

[Bill Maher]

And I don't think he knows what he said.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't think he know what he said or did we crack it up.

[Bill Maher]

That's what people love about him.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

It's like he's crazy. But crazy people don't have the time to pretend about shit. That's why he can say shithole countries. You say the time as if nobody else ever said shit about but Bill or thought that there were shit about countries but Bill.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You say the time, I say the interest. Like, for example, so you walk into Club Random, okay? Let me let the audience know what Club Random is.

[Bill Maher]

Well, there's no audience.

[Stephen A. Smith]

It's a conversation that's watching out there. Yeah, they're watching. Yes, watching. Right. But it's no bullshit. You're gonna have a real conversation. You're gonna have a real conversation.

[Bill Maher]

So real.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You're gonna have a real conversation. That's why I'm here. I'm not wasting my time talking to somebody that's gonna be a phony ass.

[Bill Maher]

I got better things to do on my time. You're exactly the kind of guest I like.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You understand?

[Bill Maher]

You know, you don't ever pretend.

[Stephen A. Smith]

No, I get time for that.

[Bill Maher]

So let me ask you this. I read your bio, okay? You're black.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yep. Yes, I am, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes, I am. I am a black man, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

I'm trusting the research of my assistants. If I'm wrong about this, that is on them, and someone's going to lose their job. But that's what I read in the research. You're a black male.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right?

[Bill Maher]

All right, so I was having this, you know, after the election, everybody's all talking. It's all they can talk about at dinner, at parties, even the Hollywood, by.

[Stephen A. Smith]

The way, I'm lucid, I'm. I'm clear and all that stuff, but I got a contact high and I'm a little tipsy, but I'm all right. But I'M feeling great.

[Bill Maher]

You're not feeling great. You're Lucifer. I'm lucid.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. And. And by the way, are you sure you don't want pot?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Because you.

[Bill Maher]

I tell you, to me, your profile screams, I would love this drug. I'm not saying.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I will say this to you, but I will tell you this. The day I smoke some pot, if I ever did it on camera, it would go viral. It would get about a billion views. Because as much as I've talked about staying off the weed, even though I've only geared that towards professional athletes getting compromising their money, the bottom line is, I've said it so much over the years, it would go viral. But anyway, go ahead into your.

[Bill Maher]

All right, I gotta ask you this question, because. So I'm at this party and there's like a lot of. I'm not gonna say the name, but what they would call bold face names.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And of course, it's after the election, but this is Hollywood. And you know, I love Hollywood. I really do. I love living here and I love show business. And don't.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't like the taxes.

[Bill Maher]

Don't take it the wrong way, but the people here, what, they're loaded with talent? They're not loaded with smartest person in the room.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

You know, okay, I'm not saying they're complete idiots. Some. And there are some very smart people in the business. Some brilliant people.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

But mostly what they got was talent. So they're talking about the election. And of course they all wanna talk to me. Cause they're like, oh, that kid actually knows shit.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes, you do. You do.

[Bill Maher]

You do, Bill. You do. So they're like, of course. They're all upset about Trump. As if their life is gonna change. Let me tell you, for the last year, people have been coming up to me at the nicest restaurants in Hollywood. Cause that's the only place I go. Cause I'm a baller. You know this Stephen. A. Okay, so we're just like, oh, Bill, what are we gon. If Trump wins? I'm like, you know what you're gonna do? Go back and finish your $900 dinner for four people.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right?

[Bill Maher]

That's what you're gonna do.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

And your taxes are probably gonna go down like they did the first time and everything else you could give a shit about.

[Stephen A. Smith]

They don't realize they make it hard on people like yourself and me, who will vote liberal. But we're sensible. We're not extreme. We're not extreme.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not that's why the election was lost.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Well, now you can. Now, don't get me wrong. Inflation, immigration, of course, but that woke culture. They took the shit too far.

[Bill Maher]

You gotta watch my show. I know. You don't get a chance to see it always. You have to see it Friday. Because my end.

[Stephen A. Smith]

This past Friday.

[Bill Maher]

No, this current.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, this coming Friday.

[Bill Maher]

Because my end piece is why I'm mad at the Democrats for just what you're talking about.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I should stay for the damn show. Rather than flying out, I should stay. I was planning on leaving Friday. Watch it. I'd come to the dance show just to watch it.

[Bill Maher]

Awesome.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Just to watch it.

[Bill Maher]

You could hack it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Absolutely.

[Bill Maher]

You can yell at the screen, I'll do it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'll do it. I'll do it.

[Bill Maher]

Now Trump's impression. Now Trump's rising. I can make that joke. Very rude.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Very nasty question. You didn't even say hello.

[Bill Maher]

I couldn't make that joke under Biden. Now I can make that joke. All right, so here's the thing, right? 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 than each time? And, you know, they didn't vote for him a lot more, but men did.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Men did.

[Bill Maher]

Okay? And I said, you know what? I don't want to speak for all black people. And this is where I need to tell you. You tell me if I was wrong or right.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay?

[Bill Maher]

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.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That last part right there. That last part right there. It's not that. It's not that.

[Bill Maher]

He just says it out loud as black people.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't want to speak for all black people. Whatever. No, obviously, I'm.

[Bill Maher]

Cause they're not all alike.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right. Exactly. But I will say this to you as you know, 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. So that second part is very, very important, because when you talk about how TR Trump talks, right? We're going like this. So that's the first time he talked like that when he became president. Who the you think you playing with. We know better than that.

[Bill Maher]

We.

[Stephen A. Smith]

We know better than that. We know that ain't the first time. And 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.

[Bill Maher]

And also had some genuine black friends and black folks who like him.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Well, let me tell you this. I don't know if I told you because it's complicated. I don't know if I told you I wouldn't call myself his friend by any stretch of the imagination back in the. 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, right 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, right? 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 loved, and we gravitated to that. And obviously, he was a young age.

[Bill Maher]

And though he says he was a certain age and you get a certain understanding that men, white men of that age, they're gonna be a little grandpa. We don't say that anymore. That one, him, is he really, like, in his heart, like, hateful? No, I think he.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I've never.

[Bill Maher]

I don't think his motivation is. I don't like black people. I think his motivation is, everybody must love me.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Thank. And that's why. That's right there, what you just said. Everybody must love me.

[Bill Maher]

It's his narcissism. It's not his racism.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I have never called him a racist. I have never spoken about him that way ever. Not one time. Not one time. Because I knew him beforehand. And he called me in 2014. This is a true story. He says, Stephen A. Had a secretary. Mr. Trump is on the line, et cetera. Gets on the line. He says, stephen A. I'm trying to buy the Buffalo Bill. The price tag was $1.4 billion.

[Bill Maher]

What year?

[Stephen A. Smith]

2014. Okay, all right. 2013. 2014. The price tag was 1.4 billion. He had by 1.1 billion. I was being told he wasn't going to get the team. He said, quote Stephen A. If these motherfuckers get in my way talking about the NFL owners. These motherfuckers get in my way, I'm gonna get them all back. I'm gonna run for president. That's what he said. And some NFL officials said, so it's our fault. Years later, they said, so it's our fault. And I went like this. Yeah, because had he gotten over the Buffalo Bills, he would have been an NFL owner. But I bring that up. Let me tell you the story. I bring that up because what I've tried to tell everybody, the Colin Kaepernick situation comes into play.

[Bill Maher]

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[Stephen A. Smith]

If you remember, sports gaming hadn't yet been ruled on by the Supreme Court. That wasn't until around 2018.

[Bill Maher]

Interesting.

[Stephen A. Smith]

If you get a half a point, a half a percentage point, that translates into billions for owners, right? And Trump was making the case and hijacked the whole Colin Kaepernick fiasco just to get the owners back. I'm telling you what I know. Just to get them back, to get in the way of them getting a hold of their money. Because they got in the way of him owning the Buffalo Bills, right?

[Bill Maher]

I mean, that's.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And I said, yo, y'all, I'm telling you what I know. I said this on my show, first take on espn. I said it on the airwaves all over the place. Every interview. I said, yo, y'all, he called me. I'm telling you what I know.

[Bill Maher]

He's gonna get him back.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And that's what it was about.

[Bill Maher]

It's fascinating, it's newsworthy, and it's completely consistent with what we know about how he conducts foreign affairs. I mean, he had a call. Supposedly Putin denies it, but I don't know what that's all about with, like.

[Stephen A. Smith]

They'Re gonna admit some stuff. We know better.

[Bill Maher]

And Zelensky and, like, he's probably not. He says he's gonna get a great deal out of Putin. I don't know how he's gonna get a great deal because Putin Already knows that Trump has like a hard on for Ukraine, all because of the same kind of petty grievances in the past. So that's, again, that is always the motivating thing, this sort of narcissism. I've said it a million times. People talk about narcissism like it's some sort of quirk. It's not a quirk.

[Stephen A. Smith]

It's like it's serious when it comes to. He's not. I keep trying to tell people, if.

[Bill Maher]

It was bipolar, right, People would be alarmed because that word, oh, my God, it's similar.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Let me make a little news here. Black people, minorities in this country that called him a racist, did him a favor when they did that.

[Bill Maher]

Interesting.

[Stephen A. Smith]

They did him a favor because it galvanized his base to say, oh, we don't want to hear that. Look at the economy, look at the borders, look at crimes in the streets of America. We don't want to hear that. And he's able to easily dismiss that because on too many occasions you saw him on camera, very comfortable with minorities. So because of that, the visual that you talk about, it played a role because he knew he had a, he had a portfolio of appearances with black folks throughout decades where you had no problem with him. Then how all of a sudden you gonna bring up rent control issues in 1973? That's not gonna work. That's not gonna work. If you, if you're gonna bring up him in the 1970s when his daddy owned apartment complexes and minorities was in, in those complexes, then don't you have to bring up Biden and his relationship with Senator Byrd, you understand, who was from West Virginia, who died at the age of 97, that was in office until he was about 97, who, by the way, was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. You have to bring that up. Don't you have to bring up, don't you have to bring up the 90s when you had the Congressional Black Caucus and you talking about the crime bill that Clinton pushed through that Biden was so vociferous about. You have to bring this stuff up. You're going to bring up Trump in the 70s. So I'm listening to people and I'm like, are you trying to win or are you just trying to make noise? Because he's going to get past this. That strategy is not going to work.

[Bill Maher]

But that is one of the big things Democrats should be looking in the mirror, as I keep saying about, is that they don't call out their own. And by the way, I've lost a lot of fans. I've gained a lot, too. And I lost a lot who just don't want to abide somebody who is making any sort of critique of the left.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Sorry, this fell.

[Bill Maher]

Did you just.

[Stephen A. Smith]

This fell. Sorry.

[Bill Maher]

Was that back there for years?

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't know. I don't know, man. I gotta tell you, man, as an aside, this is very comfortable. I love doing this, man.

[Bill Maher]

I love doing it with you.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I love doing this, man. I mean, this is the only time I drink on camera.

[Bill Maher]

Me too.

[Stephen A. Smith]

This is the only time I drink cocaine.

[Bill Maher]

We're birds of a feather. But okay, but like, take for this, for example, Doug Emhoff.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yep.

[Bill Maher]

Convalesce.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Supposedly on the verge of being the first man. Yes. That guy.

[Bill Maher]

First. Well, not the first man was Adam.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Well, you know what I'm saying?

[Bill Maher]

He would be the first gentleman. You know what I'm saying?

[Stephen A. Smith]

First gentleman.

[Bill Maher]

They have titles.

[Stephen A. Smith]

My bad, my bad.

[Bill Maher]

First gentleman.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah, first gentleman.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. And, you know, someday there will be one, and there could have been one by now. But the Electoral college stopped Hillary. I mean, she got more votes than him. So you can't say, oh, it stopped Congress. Americans wouldn't vote for a woman. They did. They did. Gave her the majority, 2.6. She's not president because people hate women in this country. She's not president because of the Electoral.

[Stephen A. Smith]

College, which, by the way, diluted Obama's argument talking to black men about Kamala Harris. Hillary Clinton got 2.686 million more popular votes than Trump. She lost the electoral college vote, but she won the popular vote. In the case of Kamala Harris, it's like, wait a minute. What are you talking about? Misogyny, chauvinism. I want to hear that. I don't want to hear that. I love Obama. Love him. Voted for him twice. Don't want to hear that.

[Bill Maher]

He's my favorite.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah, he's my favorite because he's a.

[Bill Maher]

Practical centrist and a good man. And also, like, did the most difficult thing, getting elected the first black president and then giving them nothing.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right.

[Bill Maher]

To, like, get him. Oz. Like, when you know that they were looking so hard and he had. He had to be. Talk about, like, Caesar's wife.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Hold on. I don't want to objectify anybody. That's easy to do when you got a first lady that look like that.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, stop it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I mean, we. We Clarendra. Right. We being real.

[Bill Maher]

Right? Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm just saying, you know, Michelle Obama is a beautiful woman.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, she is.

[Stephen A. Smith]

It's real easy to avoid giving folks ammunition when you're coming home to that lady.

[Bill Maher]

I feel like you're really overemphasizing that point. I mean, she's an attractive woman. Let me say this, and I don't think that made any difference in anything because I think there was some percentage of people who just did not like the idea of a black family eating off the good Chinese.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not going to objectify the former first lady in the United States. What I will say to you is this though, the backdrop of that, respectfully, the Gary Harts of the world, the John Edwards of the world, former presidential candidates on the Democratic side whose dalliances, whose behavior. I'm just saying. Boehner's, Clinton. I'm just saying. But I'm just talking about at that time, before Trump, that derailed you from the White House.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Stephen A. Smith]

See, Obama preceded Trump. That's the only reason I bring up Michelle Obama, because the thing that could bring you down, that could get you into throes of controversy was your behavior. And obviously those individuals got themselves in trouble and Obama didn't.

[Bill Maher]

John Edwards was fucking his filmographer.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How about that?

[Bill Maher]

And there's a tape of him going down on her when she was pregnant. I didn't know that because everyone loves to see a politician kiss a baby.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's a little bit. That's a little. I got it, I got it. I'm not going there.

[Bill Maher]

One of my favorite shows.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not going there.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, okay. But Doug Emhoff, this to my point about the Democrats, they just countenance no self reflection or no critique of their own. And that's why a lot of them hate me and they go fuck themselves.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Thank you for saying that.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Because first of all, I was right. I warned them about Trump. First off, more than anybody at the.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Especially since the first to warn this country about today he wasn't gonna leave.

[Bill Maher]

And I was right. And warned them about what was going to get him reelected. Your stupid over the top wokeness, they hate that. So. And they just will not countenance any sort of self reflection. Doug Emhoff, Okay. Was credibly accused. I'm not saying it's true. We never know in these cases. But was credibly accused during the campaign.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

By a woman of being rough with her.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

At the end.

[Stephen A. Smith]

If it was Trump, they would have been all over it.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, if it was any Republican.

[Stephen A. Smith]

If it was any Republican, they would.

[Bill Maher]

Have been all over. I mean, not that different than what, Brett Kavanaugh or these. And it's like, it just didn't. And on Saturday Night Live, a guy plays Doug Emhoff, but he's just funny, kind of weird, nerdy Doug.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You don't bring up any of that.

[Bill Maher]

You just don't. It's like nothing to see here because you shut in to only watch msnbc. We'll never hear about it anyway. So we just don't. And it's like, no, look what it got you.

[Stephen A. Smith]

The only defense I have against that is that he wasn't running for office. She was. So in that regard, fine, Trump is running for office. He's not.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, they would.

[Stephen A. Smith]

He's his wife. But having said that, the bottom line, had that been a Republican, you would have pounced.

[Bill Maher]

See, everybody would have pounced.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Listen, I know I've known Sean Hannity for 20 years. Megyn Kelly, I'm a fan of. And by the way, I love y'all conversation. Y'all back and forth. I have a lot of respect for Megyn Kelly. I think that she's smart, she's on it. She's smart.

[Bill Maher]

She's wrong about Trump, but she could be wrong.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But at least she has a fact.

[Bill Maher]

At least she owned it. When I said to her, you know, we'll see if you guys theory that he just says shit, we'll see if that doctrine comes true. And she didn't go, fuck. She went, yeah, you know, it's possible.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right?

[Bill Maher]

And I appreciate that. Now, what I say to those kind of people now is if it does turn out that his he does just says shit doctrine is more than just talk, will you admit it?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Did you see what she said about you?

[Bill Maher]

No, you admit it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Did you see what she said about you, Megyn Kelly? Because let me tell you what she said about you. She said basically the same thing you said about her.

[Bill Maher]

Very attractive.

[Stephen A. Smith]

She respected. She respected where you came from. She respected your position. She didn't think that you were right. But it was a healthy debate, et cetera. Because to be honest with you, the kind of conversation you two had, see, I don't consider myself on that level because I'm not as knowledgeable about politics as either one of you. But I look at her and the conversation that she had with you, and I'm like this. That's what the. That's what the hell I want a damn presidential debate to be.

[Bill Maher]

First of all, I think you know what time it is.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I do.

[Bill Maher]

Time to go. No, but, you know, she. She's not really my Type, but she's pretty hot.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I like, I like, you know, you know, I mean, she's not your type. Whatever.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, I like your Michelle Obama theory.

[Stephen A. Smith]

It's like you, that's a different level.

[Bill Maher]

You can imagine that that political passion if just somehow turned right.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Exactly. How about that? How about that? And you know, use your imagination.

[Bill Maher]

I'm telling you. You know, I understand. I. I think every man. No, maybe not every man.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Not every man. But most.

[Bill Maher]

Knows that, you know, most heterosexual, you could, you could get a woman in a good mood with sex. Let's just put it that way.

[Stephen A. Smith]

In a very. Or you could get them in a very bad mood. If you don't have your business, you gotta get the job done. Yeah. Let's just call it what it is. You gotta get the job.

[Bill Maher]

Absolutely. Absolutely. If you pass out some weak. That's gonna really.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's a wrap.

[Bill Maher]

That's.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's a wrap. You gotta handle your business. You gotta handle your business. I'm fully aware of this. I'm fully aware.

[Bill Maher]

No, that's something I Learned in my 20s.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, in 20s it's hard to stop a hard on from happening. But you know, a couple of times you're like, I was nervous or something and I just did not perform well. And like. Can we be honest? Can we be honest Was a wrap.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Can we be honest as man.

[Bill Maher]

Like, there's no.

[Stephen A. Smith]

When you don't handle your business, right? No, there's one or two things that happen. You either don't. You, you're either not equipped enough to handle your business or you, you know, you, you, you, you a bit fast. You're a bit fast. You're in and you're out. You understand what I'm saying? You don't handle your business and either way does not work.

[Bill Maher]

But the woman I'm saying.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But if you handle your business, it's amazing the profound impact that you can have.

[Bill Maher]

If you don't have. That is true. If you don handle your business, trust me, in the future, you will be handling your business.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How about that?

[Bill Maher]

You will be doing it because.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I understand.

[Bill Maher]

Because I'm saying the woman in this question. I would not make generalizations about all women except for this one. If you don't do it right the first time, there is no second time. This happened twice to me. I don't need it happen more.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not.

[Bill Maher]

You do not. And I don't blame them, Bill. Like, why would it be better the second time?

[Stephen A. Smith]

And maybe it would we on Club.

[Bill Maher]

Random actually It would be better because I wouldn't be maybe so nervous. Or maybe I'd be like, Aaron Judge. I'd be like, oh, my gosh, if I blow the World Series again, it's going to be even worse.

[Stephen A. Smith]

We are on Club Random because that.

[Bill Maher]

Is true with athletes. Like, the more the pressure. The more you suck, the more the pressure builds.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I must confess, right? I must confess, B. It's only happened on a couple of occasions. But there was.

[Bill Maher]

You're back to that. You're obsessed.

[Stephen A. Smith]

There were a couple of occasions, Bill, where dare I say, I didn't handle my business.

[Bill Maher]

Everybody fails.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I mean, it was like, yo. I mean, you know, and the commercial came on and it was over. And the commercial was over and I was done. I mean, it was quick. I mean, building has happened, okay. But they were kind enough to give me a second chance.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, really?

[Stephen A. Smith]

And. And I made it happen. That is true. I mean, I can't deny that. I can't deny that.

[Bill Maher]

You will get a second. Like, I'm talking about not really being able to perform because whatever your nervousness or whatever just bug got in your dick. But like, there's a difference between that and like coming too soon. And when I was young, I remember that happening. That's to me, almost a compliment. Right. I remember once, like, having sex with a girl and then watched. We watched our favorite show, 59 minutes.

[Stephen A. Smith]

It's some other 60 seconds, some other comics. I've never been that bad. I've never been that bad.

[Bill Maher]

That's some other comics joke. I can't remember who from back in my early days and stuff like that, but it was a funny joke. Yeah, but yeah, that can be forgiven because it's almost complimentary that you cut you.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But you gotta remember, Bill, as a man, you don't know if that woman is going to find that forgiven.

[Bill Maher]

Until she does, you don't know.

[Stephen A. Smith]

So as a result, you like praying like, oh, God, I hope she give me a second chance. Because she just gonna go out and talk about, oh, he was.

[Bill Maher]

You don't know.

[Stephen A. Smith]

He was terrible. You know, you don't want that reputation.

[Bill Maher]

You don't know anything that they're thinking when you're young. Like now, if I talk to a girl in her 20s, I know exactly what she's thinking.

[Stephen A. Smith]

She doesn't know what I.

[Bill Maher]

But when I was that age, with the advent.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right. In our time, but with the advent of social media. You damn right you know what they thinking now? Hell, yes. In your 20s. Hell, you know what they think in their teenage years, it's bad out there.

[Bill Maher]

What are you saying? Because they put it all on social media.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Because they put everything on social media.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but are they being honest on social media?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay, that's fine. But a lot of people believe they're being honest. So when they talk shit about you, what is it? Believe you stuck with the reputation.

[Bill Maher]

I think what they're putting out on social media is just this sort of fog screen of the life they want you to think they're living. Or you know who. It's just. I mean, that's one reason why that generation is so fucked.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And it's also convoluted because there are those of us who have social media accounts, who have YouTube channels, who have podcasts, et cetera. We've done it. We've been in the business. We've accomplished what we've accomplished. But it's convoluted by an abundance of people who haven't accomplished shit and are using social media to come across as if they have accomplished something. And it's hard for the audience at times to dissect who's who unless they really, really know you. They know Bill Maher. They know Stephen A. They don't know a lot of people.

[Bill Maher]

But that generation, there's so many ways to be, like, rich and either sort of famous or famous for a minute by doing nothing. Crypto influencer. Yeah. You know, it's no wonder that none of these kids, like, really, you know, I guess this is, you know, because I live in LA and I see this sort of world of Nepo babies and trust fund kids when you're out, right? That, like, they.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I loved your new rules on Nepo babies, by the way.

[Bill Maher]

That was fantastic. Because that was about.

[Stephen A. Smith]

On that one. That was special. That was nice.

[Bill Maher]

Thank you.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You did a great job on that.

[Bill Maher]

I love that one. That started here in a conversation with Bob Costas. And Bronny James is the one who fucked it up. Because the point of it, for people who didn't see it, is that sport's the last place where you can have trust that it's not Nepo babies. Like everything else, even modeling now, Nepo babies, but certainly politics always was. Show business is rife with them. Everything is Nepo babies except sports. You could always count on the fact that the best, the 600 players in the NBA were the best in the world, not just in America. And Bronny James is not one of the 600 best players.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Let me resp. First of all, I agree with you. Let Me tell you what the real problem was with the whole Bronny James things. And I love this kid, and I love his.

[Bill Maher]

Not against him.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Not against him. His mama, his. Listen, LeBron James, one of the top two players in the history of basketball. He's on the Mount Rushmore basketball. He's absolutely a amazing. Okay. And a good dude as well.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Let me. Let me explain where they messed up about Bronnie LeBron James has done so much for this league. Him wanting the moment of being in an NBA game with his son is not the crime. Here's what the crime was, Bill. You have that moment on opening night. At that moment, Bronny James, you know, you belong in the G League. Go to the G League. You know, why you here? Listen, this was important to my dad. My dad is phenomenal. He's done so much to the game. And the one thing that he dreamed of having was me on a basketball court for an NBA game with him. Ladies and gentlemen, now that I got this moment, it's time for me to go and earn my stripes. I didn't earn it at usc. Cause I wasn't there long enough. Right? I'm a high school all American, averaging 14 points a game. All right, which is better than most of us, by the way, but still, high school. All Americans usually are doing more than that. All Bronny James had to do. And I understand that that's a lot of. That's a lot to put on a kid that's 19 years old or so. But all Bronny James had to do was say, now it's time for me to go to the G League, y'all. I gotta earn my stripes. Then a Bill Maher and others can't come out and say what they said, but. Because he was soaking it all in, right? And one game after another, you're traveling with the team, you're in uniform, and you're taking up one of those roster spots. Now, it brings into question the meritocracy and what was religiously associated with the NBA, which is why your point was not only on point. Because factually, you were correct, but your timing was impeccable. See, you didn't wait. You know, it wasn't like six months late or anything. No, you were right there. Week one, like, wait a minute, y'all. Wait a minute. Now, let's.

[Bill Maher]

And you were right two years ago. Yeah, well, before that. I even said in the piece. It's funny, I even said in the piece, everybody wants to see Bronny James in the league. With his father.

[Stephen A. Smith]

So you spoke about Bronny James two years ago.

[Bill Maher]

Two years ago.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I didn't know that, Bill. I didn't know that.

[Bill Maher]

That's when I did that piece and I said, everyone wants to see it, but he won't make it unless he's good enough. And then they fuck that up. And I even mentioned Doc Rivers kid plays, but not because he's Doc Rivers.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Kid, but Austin Rivers because he's good.

[Bill Maher]

Enough to be good enough to be on an NBA one.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Austin Rivers was good enough to be on an NBA roster, especially defensive and coming out of Duke, playing at Duke and being drafted, he earned no strikes.

[Bill Maher]

No, he was an NBA player. He was an NBA star, but an NBA player.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes, he was. Absolutely true.

[Bill Maher]

You know, so look, the 12th guy on the team, does he play anyway? No, but he just. It adulterated something that was pure.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And then they.

[Bill Maher]

It's the last thing that was pure. And by the way, I gotta say, the Lakers, it made me just think the Lakers. First they take a season where they just give it up to a farewell to Kobe.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Kobe, who earned it.

[Bill Maher]

Come on, really? You earned the team giving you a season of.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Cause you had nothing else. It's not. They didn't.

[Bill Maher]

But shouldn't you start trying to rebuild something else?

[Stephen A. Smith]

What I'm saying, they were captured. They had a lot of errors that they had made with the gym buss. Error because he was busy at Hooters instead of running a fucking team. But the point that I'm trying to make to you is that it looked bad. That was true. But in the same breath, every team, once they win a number of championships, ultimately declined because once that wears off, you don't get good draft picks. You're not in good draft positions. You're not necessarily getting those free agents. So that was. That was totally different. That was totally different.

[Bill Maher]

But you know what phrase I've heard enough of for a lifetime is I gave to the game. You know what you gave to you? No one's putting a gun to your head and making.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And you didn't play for free. Free. And you damn sure didn't play for free.

[Bill Maher]

You played for free. Yes. You sacrificed your body. That was your choice.

[Stephen A. Smith]

By the way, as an aside, before I forget, you know who watches this podcast? Commissioner Adam Silver. When I was here last time, he's been a long time. When I was here last time, he was the first call I received. No, once you posted the podcast. My last appearance, he was the first call I received. He loved it.

[Bill Maher]

There's A guy who watches every week, real time. He loves. No, I know. I love Adam Silver and I think he's done an amazing job. Yeah, he has. And it's not an easy job because players are very different than they were 20 years ago. Even coaches say you can't yell at this generation of players.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right. I think you can. I think personally you can.

[Bill Maher]

You better have a lot of stature.

[Stephen A. Smith]

There you go, there you go. You're Eric Spoelstra, you're Steve Kerr, you're people like that. You can yell at players. If you're a coach with significantly less cachet, you better shut the fuck up. You better tread lightly, otherwise it's gonna be a problem.

[Bill Maher]

So Aaron Rodgers was here.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yep.

[Bill Maher]

But I don't know.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I love Aaron Rodgers, but he's having an awful season. Awful.

[Bill Maher]

It's just as a, you know, huge Aaron Rodgers fan. And jets too. I mean, when I was a kid, people always say we were Giants or a Jets fan. I say we were both. Why wouldn't we be? We were New York area that would know the teams. Why shouldn't I avail myself? We thrilled when Joe Namath won it in 69, but it's a damn shame.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That they haven't won since.

[Bill Maher]

I learned football watching the Giants on my father's knee. If I had to pick, it would be the Giants first because that there's a sentimental value. I took my father to the super bowl when it was out here in 86 against the Broncos in Pasadena, using like my last bit of checking account money to get him out here and get a ticket to that game. Nosebleed seats. But we were. But he was a Giant fan since they were inception, practically. So, you know, but we had such hopes for the jets and you know, is it just that time caught up because they thought they had a great roster?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Aaron Rodgers. Respectfully, Aaron Rodgers fucked up. Here's how this happened in Green Bay. He is spectacular. I think that Aaron Rodgers is one of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL.

[Bill Maher]

Four time mvp as a talent. That's a lot. That's a lot of MVPs.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's fair. But he hasn't been back to the super bowl since he won it in 2010.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Not all his fault, so.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Of course not. Of course not. But what I'm saying is, is that when you're in Green Bay, you're letting everybody know that the organization doesn't appreciate you enough. They don't appreciate your football iq. They don't appreciate your evaluation of talent. They don't Appreciate your greatness that you've displayed at Lambeau Field, on the football field for them for over a decade. And you say you've given every indication you want to be appreciated, you want to be respected, you want to be given the level of deference that others to say Tom Brady's the Peyton man, as John Elwes of the world and others have received, and the jets give it to you, and this is the result. Now, last year doesn't count because you got hurt the fourth play of the game. The fourth play of the game.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Game one of the NFL season. You can't control getting injured and all of this other stuff, but you've been there this year and your offense has sucked.

[Bill Maher]

And oh, by the way, why, what is it that I think they had.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I think they had a defensive mind of coach and Roger Salah that you didn't have an offensive mind. And you defer to Aaron Rodgers. You defer to what he said he needed, what he said he wanted, what he said would work. And then you went out and got your ass kicked. Now, that's where it hurts. Now, if you had an offensive.

[Bill Maher]

But why doesn't Aaron Rodgers know? He knows as well as anybody, like, he couldn't be an offensive coordinator in the league right now.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You have people who believe Bill, like you have producers and editors and stuff like that working on your podcasts and your shows. Yeah, you're the last say, but you're going to know how and when to be deferential. If you are somebody like an Aaron Rodgers who was never in a position where anybody had to be that way towards you, and then suddenly you're empowered. Now it becomes a bit tricky because ultimately you want to make all the damn decisions. Now, he'll deny it, but nobody believes him. Nobody believes, like, for example, Woody Johnson, the former ambassador to Great Britain, by the way, under the Trump administration. Also, suddenly he comes back to the Trump. Suddenly he comes back York jets as the owner. He takes over from his brother, who he relinquished control to for the time that he was being the ambassador to the great bidder. Suddenly he's going to come back in the folder. He's going to say, yo, I'm going to fire Robert Salah, whatever. Talking to Aaron Rodgers. Nobody believes that Alan Lazard comes from Green Bay to the New York Jets. You had nothing to do with that. Nobody's going to believe that. You think devonte Adams coming to the New York jets, all right, after not being there and depart from Green Bay, the people we know you had something.

[Bill Maher]

Plainly, Aaron Rodgers was playing general manager of the jets, without question.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And that's where his legacy is going to be hurt.

[Bill Maher]

That's interesting. That's interesting. So you're saying they gave too much power?

[Stephen A. Smith]

No, I'm not saying they did, because I would have given it to him, too. I'm saying once he got it, he messed up. Like, we got to call balls and strikes. At the end of the day, they weren't wrong for giving him the power. You were wrong with the decisions you made. Once you had the influence, the influence that you swore you deserve. And once you got it, you didn't produce results.

[Bill Maher]

Boy, being an athlete's like being a hot chick. I mean it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How? How?

[Bill Maher]

So it goes fast. Like you have your peak where all the guys are buzzing around you. What?

[Stephen A. Smith]

I gotta admit to you, bro, I see some honeys out here that's in their 50s looking better than honeys in their 20s and 30s.

[Bill Maher]

I can't say, Bill, ridiculous, but. Okay, that's not ridiculous. It is ridiculous.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Well, there are some. Some sisters I'm going to speak for some black women out here.

[Bill Maher]

Maybe in the picture in Us magazine, but come on, let's get real. This is Club Random. I mean, the corruption of the flesh happens to us all.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

We're just not as physically attractive in our 50s as in our 20s, Bill. In our 20s, you have to almost work to not be.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Can I ask you a personal question?

[Bill Maher]

Uh. Oh. Can I ask you a personal question?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Do you. I mean, we on Club Random, right? We on Club Random?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Do you like voluptuous women?

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You don't?

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Really?

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Stephen A. Smith]

What's wrong with you?

[Bill Maher]

What am I, under oath? No, I don't. What's wrong with you? I have a different.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I mean, I gotta take a drink on that. What's wrong with you?

[Bill Maher]

What's wrong with you?

[Stephen A. Smith]

I mean, hips, thighs, legs.

[Bill Maher]

All right, I say it. I'm white.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay. So you like them real thin. You like a real thin, skinny.

[Bill Maher]

I like what they call an athletic body. Swimmer's body. Yes. I mostly fuck small boys.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

[Bill Maher]

That's ridiculous.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm just saying to you. I'm not saying most because you're absolutely right. For the most part, you're absolutely right. But I gotta tell you, there's some women out here in their 40s and 50s that look better than they looked when they were in their 20s and 30s.

[Bill Maher]

To you, everything is to you or to me. But I find that ridiculous. I mean, that's not ridiculous.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I Wish I could put them on first so I could show the evidence. Because I have evidence, Bill. Evidence, evidence.

[Bill Maher]

I've seen your evidence. I know you got a hard on from Michelle Obama and it's great that you have your thing because I don't have a heart on.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I mean, she's.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, I'm just saying she's a beautiful woman.

[Stephen A. Smith]

She's a beautiful woman.

[Bill Maher]

I agree. But you know, they, Picasso used to sleep with very young women and you know, they tried to come after him about.

[Stephen A. Smith]

They should have.

[Bill Maher]

And his. I'm sure they should have if they were underage. But his response was, I'm an artist. I think I know what beauty is. Okay, right. Get out of my studio.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right, right.

[Bill Maher]

And you know, look, I look at pictures of myself when I'm younger. I'm better looking. I'm sorry, I can't pretend I will.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Say this to you. For me, can I speak about me personally? I definitely feel that way about me in my 20s, me in my 30s, in my 40s. I think I look better now than I did then.

[Bill Maher]

But you know what?

[Stephen A. Smith]

And then I looked over the last 20, 25 years.

[Bill Maher]

You're the luckiest guy in the world.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm very lucky. I'm very lucky.

[Bill Maher]

If you like women in that age range because you're getting the best of both worlds if you find them the most attractive. They're also like, of course, easier to deal with usually because they're more world seasoned, smarter.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, the women. Yes. I don't.

[Bill Maher]

And then.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, we don't dis, we don't agree on that.

[Bill Maher]

They're not. I mean, I will accept the fact they're not smarter.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I didn't. No, no, they're definitely smarter. I'm talking about the easier to deal with. Oh, hell to the no.

[Bill Maher]

Well, not if you get hell to the no No, I mean easier to deal with in the sense of like, Girls who are 20 are like, you know, my is golden and girls are 50 are like, are we going to do it? Or what?

[Stephen A. Smith]

I find. But, but, but you miss here's what you messed up. Here's where you messed up. You missed the 30s and the 40s where they do think it's golden. Like, ain't nothing better than this. Okay. And it's like, you do understand there's. There's a billion out there. That, that, that, that, that, that, that could potentially be better you doing.

[Bill Maher]

So you never got married, right?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Never.

[Bill Maher]

Me neither.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Never.

[Bill Maher]

We're like the last two.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I will say to you that eventually I think I will. Because it's more than being single and being able to sex whoever I want. I'm beyond that. I'm beyond that. I've had my promiscuous years, and they were lovely. And I must say, why do they have to get a toast to that? It really, really was lovely. And I can say that respectfully because.

[Bill Maher]

I wasn't a. I kiss goodbye to lovely.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I wasn't one of those dudes that was a liar. I would let somebody know, look, this where I'm at. If you're with me, this is what you get.

[Bill Maher]

I was the same woman.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not that dude. But I will tell you, I still.

[Bill Maher]

Don'T know why we have to bury Lovely.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But I will tell you that when you get older, there is something to be said about that companionship, that person that you want to be around.

[Bill Maher]

No, I'm very different.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And here's the biggest thing for me. And I don't know whether you agree with me or not, but I'm interested, interested in hearing how you feel about this Bill. To me. I tell. And I had to tell my little nephew his ignorant ass because he just doesn't know anybody. He's clueless. But I'm here for him. He's about 35, my nephew Josh, he's picturing a tab. No, no, no, no, no, no. He's ignorant and shit, okay? But I love him to death. He's like a son to me, but he's my nephew, okay? And I'm like, here's what happens. You get to a point and I say this. Forget the woman that excites you. It's the woman you're comfortable being bored with.

[Bill Maher]

I could not disagree more.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Really?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You really feel that way?

[Bill Maher]

I not only feel that way, I feel like I've learned that lesson the hard way. You can pretend that that's the thing. Like, I remember when I got to a certain age and I thought, oh, yeah, you know what? You know, I'm not like have needing to have sex like 247 anymore, you know? And sex is great, but no, I could be a thousand years old, and even if it's just one minute a week, it's still water flows downhill. It's just the heart wants what it wants. I don't know.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I agree with that part.

[Bill Maher]

It's just the glue that holds things together. And for me, anyway. And when you don't have the glue. I've told this story before, but I said to a girl once, you know, it's like the Relationship is the plane and the sex is the fuel.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Hold on. Let's not. Let me not mess up with your audience by acting like I was talking about sex being boring. That is not what I was talking about. I'm not talking about the sex. The sex got to be what it needs to be. I'm talking about you upstairs watching Law and Order. She's downstairs watching Whatever. Sure doesn't matter to you, is what I'm saying. You don't have to be under one another. You see, as long the sex has to be good, there has to be a level of compatibility.

[Bill Maher]

That's when you should be under one another during this time.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm just saying you don't necessarily have to be all excited by her 247 outside of the bedroom.

[Bill Maher]

That's true, but that's why I never really lived with anybody or I thought that was a great idea. Because. Because I feel like I don't want to see people at their worst, and I don't want them to see me at my worst. Like, a lot of life is disgusting. The bathroom I could go on.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But, like, excuse me for asking, how many siblings do you have?

[Bill Maher]

One.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay. I have five. Four older sisters. So when you talk about not seeing them at worst. I grew up accustomed to seeing four. Worse.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but I grew up also, like, smelling other people's shit. We had one bathroom that we all use. You know, it's like. You know, it is worse.

[Stephen A. Smith]

My mother was like Mother Teresa let aunts, uncles, cousins, and stuff like that come live with us. And so even though we only had one working bathroom. So I've seen women without makeup. The hair's not done. And I don't. It doesn't phase me. My whole point is this. When we go out, are you ready?

[Bill Maher]

I'm not saying, are you ready? I'm not saying going into a bathroom after someone else has just taken a shit is the worst thing in the world.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah, but it's pretty close.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes, it's pretty close.

[Bill Maher]

You took the words right out of my mouth.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Close.

[Bill Maher]

It's just about the worst thing in life.

[Stephen A. Smith]

It's pretty close. Yeah, it's pretty close. But I'm just saying, for me personally, it's like, as I've gotten older, you know, and I'm happy about it, Bill, because here's what I don't want. I'm 57. How old are you?

[Bill Maher]

I'm 35.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay. Yes, sir. Here's my deal. I don't want to be one of those dudes in my 60s.

[Bill Maher]

Me neither.

[Stephen A. Smith]

At the club. At the club.

[Bill Maher]

At the club.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Hoping, praying, that I want to. I don't want to be that dude. I like the fact that's why you.

[Bill Maher]

Have to be a success in life.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right.

[Bill Maher]

Because otherwise you'll be at the club.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right. Because when you're successful, they'll come to you. You don't have to go to them.

[Bill Maher]

To a degree, that's true. Like, there's a certain point in life where I think it's very fair to say I've been chasing girls all my life. Now it's time for you to chase.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't chase.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't chase.

[Bill Maher]

First of all, if you do, you just look bad.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You can't chase.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not doing that.

[Bill Maher]

Our age.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not doing that at all.

[Bill Maher]

Unseemly.

[Stephen A. Smith]

No.

[Bill Maher]

Hello.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How you doing? You look very, very beautiful. I hope you have a wonderful day. Keep it moving.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that's kind of chasing.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's not chasing. That's not chasing even that.

[Bill Maher]

Well, once you say beautiful, you're kind of hitting somebody.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm just saying.

[Bill Maher]

No, I mean, you're putting it out.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Not at all. I've seen. I've seen women who are maybe out of ringing their finger.

[Bill Maher]

No, if you wouldn't say it to a man, there are plenty. You wouldn't say, man, it's flirting.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not. I'm not a homosexual, so I wouldn't say that to a man.

[Bill Maher]

Again, this is not what I read in the bio, okay?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, you. Please. You damn sure should have. But I'm just saying. No, not this.

[Bill Maher]

Am I getting bad information?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, you damn sure didn't read that in the Bible. But I'm just saying to you that I have no problem being. I've been complimentary to many women I've had no interest in whatsoever. I'm just like, yo, you, the nice outfit, you look good, whatever. You keep it moving.

[Bill Maher]

It's no big deal.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But I'm not. I can tell you this much. I don't give a damn how fine you are. I have stopped. I stopped chasing more than a decade ago.

[Bill Maher]

Well, let me tell you, if your thing is women in their 50s and you put it out there, 50s, 40s. What? You just said 50s 40s. I'm telling you, I got flexibility.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I got a girl, so I'm good.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. Okay.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Let me throw that out there.

[Bill Maher]

Right. But that, by the way, that makes you even more attractive to them.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right.

[Bill Maher]

One thing women hate is a Guy who doesn't have someone who they have to get rid of two things.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Two things that you're right on the money, no matter what they're willing to admit. Here's number two. I have two daughters. When they were younger. They're teenagers now. 16 and 15 when they were younger. Oh, my Lord, Bill. I mean, all I had to do was walk in a supermarket or a mall with one of them.

[Bill Maher]

It was a real trap. Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Oh, my God.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I couldn't believe it. I was like, people. This is really true. This is really true. I walked in there when my daughter is like a magnet.

[Bill Maher]

Better than a dog.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Absolutely.

[Bill Maher]

Even better than a dog.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Absolutely.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not saying that's a reason to have kids, although. But. Yeah. There's only one thing that could make you more attractive than having your daughter in the supermarket market. The wife dead. If you were a widower, because that shows that you can commit. But you didn't leave her.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah, but here's the problem with that.

[Bill Maher]

Well, there is a problem with that. Conversation.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Conversation. No, no conversation has to take place for the person to find out you're a widower with the child. You don't have to have any conversation.

[Bill Maher]

It could take two seconds. Does this melon look ripe to you? Yes. My wife is dead. They will not be offended by that.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Man. You might be right.

[Bill Maher]

Does this parsley look fresh? My wife is dead. That's all you got to do.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes, Ladies and gentlemen, I got a buzz and I'm, you know, I've been drinking, but go ahead.

[Bill Maher]

No, no.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah, I'm good.

[Bill Maher]

You. You want to go?

[Stephen A. Smith]

No, man, I'm good. I'm straight, man. I'm straight. I'm having a good time.

[Bill Maher]

I got about 10 more minutes in me before I go to pee. True. Same.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Same here. Same here. I mean, I got a piss right now, but I can hold it for the next 10 minutes.

[Bill Maher]

What did we not get to do, you think?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Politics. I don't think we got to enough politics.

[Bill Maher]

Great politics.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's your lane.

[Bill Maher]

It's my lane.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right. Democrats fucked up.

[Bill Maher]

My candidate that I voted for did not win.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Same here.

[Bill Maher]

But that's happened before.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Same here.

[Bill Maher]

And I'm like reading the riot act to the left this week, and I'm thrilled about it. Then we have another show. One more show after that. That's the end of our season. So we're doing Show Friday the 15th and then the 22nd. So I'm going to hit the left hard this week. Just which I think is absolutely apropos, I think to say.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Well, I completely.

[Bill Maher]

Because I see, you know, I mean, look, there's a lot to hate already about what the other new regime is doing. I mean, some of the appointments are pretty crazy.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You know, what is it? Heg set fast news. The defense secretary.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Can you take away week before you get apoplectic about what they might do to talk about what you did do or didn't do or didn't do, how you fucked this up. Because my point at the end of this thing Friday is that I'm pissed at the Democrats because my issues, democracy, the environment, have no protectors now because you blew the election. I have nobody standing up for the two issues that are my issues, which democracy and the environment, my two most important issues. Those are not priorities in the new administration. In fact, they're antagonistic to both of them. So I have no champion in Washington. They have the courts. They have the House and the Senate. And you totally left me unguarded.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Here's my issue.

[Bill Maher]

I don't follow hockey, but there's probably a goalie analogy.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Here's my issue. Generally speaking, we could talk to the economy, immigration, crime in the streets, blah, blah, blah. Here's my ultimate issue. The arrogance of the Democratic Party.

[Bill Maher]

That's I'm saying the same thing.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Arrogance of we saying the same thing in two different ways. The arrogance of the second Democratic Party. So Biden doesn't decide to run for reelection. Use grease the skid so he doesn't have to go through a process. June 27, he shows up and he embarrasses himself and positions naturally for the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, to ultimately ascend and become the Democratic nominee. But the last time we saw in the primary, she couldn't make it to Iowa. Did you really, really think that was going to work? And then here's what you did. Did you discuss the economy enough? No. You could have discussed the border because unlike Obama, who was, quote, unquote, the deporter in chiefs, according to the Republicans, because he deported more immigrants than Trump did.

[Bill Maher]

According to. Not just Republicans, Democrats. There were Democrats who called he deported.

[Stephen A. Smith]

More immigrants than Trump, which means he just didn't talk about it, but he did it. Biden walks into office and day one, you signed an executive. Day one, that opens the border and you let more than 12 million immigrants cross the border illegally. And you don't think that's going to be a problem. You knew that the governors, DeSantis in Florida, Abbott in Texas, and Others were going to sit up there and attack sanctuary cities by busing these immigrants to your cities. Since you had no problem with it, you were ill prepared to deal with it. Okay? All of this stuff was going on, and I'm looking at it, and I'm saying, so your plan for this election was to come to women and say, forget the economy, forget immigration. Roe v. Wade was overturned. It's now a states rights issue as opposed to a federal issue. You thought that was going to be enough? You thought it was going to be enough for you to look at black men and say to black men, you're misogynistic and chauvinistic, and that's the reason why you're not voting for Kamala Harris. You thought it was going to be enough for the Latin Latinos to bring up immigration when you're not paying attention enough that the Cubans think different than the Dominicans, and the Dominicans and the Cubans think different than the Colombians, and they think different than Venezuelans and the Guatemalans and the Puerto Ricans and the Mexicans, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of these Latinos in America want the borders closed. You didn't pay attention to that. You're from California. You were a district attorney here. You were a state attorney general here. You were a senator representing here. And you didn't know that the Latinos were going to say, yo, we don't like open borders. You didn't know that?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Stephen A. Smith]

So I'm looking at it, and I'm saying, all of these things are going on. All of these things are going on. And your argument essentially was. You didn't say it, but this is essentially your argument. It's her turn. It's her turn. No, the Republicans don't play that. They say, hell with all of that. Whose turn it is? We want him. Who do the Democrats want? If you ask them today, they still don't know. They say Kamala because it was too late to say anybody else, but you didn't know who they would say.

[Bill Maher]

And also because there was a primary, and also because the Democratic Party is ideologically captured by identity politics.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's my. And I'm totally with you 1000%. Listen, I'm a big bill, just so you know. I'm a fiscal conservative. I'm a social liberal. Live and let live, bro.

[Bill Maher]

And a freak in the sheets if you're 50.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I do try.

[Bill Maher]

Give us a call.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I do try. I do try. I do try. No doubt. But here's the deal, man. Listen, I'm a social liberal. And what I mean by that is gay rights. Absolutely. Transgender rights and all this stuff. I got no issues with you. I don't want anybody. I'm a black man. I don't want anybody's civil rights violated. I don't want anybody being persecuted in the streets of America. I don't want you being mistreated. I don't want you being denied the same rights that I have. That's fine. But the Democrats took it too far because it wasn't just about their rights. You wanted folks to like and embrace and accept everything. Excuse me. There are some people that. Guess what, they might watch prostitution, but they ain't fucking with them. They might like. They might like porn stars, but they ain't messing with them. They might like strippers, but they ain't messing. It's all right. Yep. Do you. But I don't want it in my face. You got people that think like that, and knowing that that's the reality and knowing that that doesn't even make up 1% of the population. You are caught on tape if you're carrying Harris saying, quote, I'm for transgender operations for prisoners. You didn't think Trump was going to use that? I'm just saying, like, this is why I say I voted for Kamala Harris. But I can't deny that strictly from a campaign perspective, Bill, he was the better candidate because he played to his constituents.

[Bill Maher]

In their defense, they had a meeting and they decided that Free tits for murderers was a good slogan.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay. And where did that get them? Because in the end, when you trying to pay your bills.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. But here's the.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You got peace in the streets that you worried about. You're not going for that.

[Bill Maher]

Here's the silver lining. You're trying to win. The election showed we're much less racially tribal than we thought we were. I mean, Trump is a strange guy. Guy to bring together all these different coalitions. But, you know, he like one Latino men, 13%.

[Stephen A. Smith]

They said it was a 13% jump.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, okay. Well, whatever it was.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And a 5% jump in a black vote. And even more that amongst black men. That's what they said. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And did better. You know, Young. I mean, I mean, just like, we're not really divided so much along the lines that the media paints us in.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right. We're more of a centrist nation. The fringes on the mega right and the extreme left, the squad and all of that, those are the fringes. Most of Americans are sent to. Left or right.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. And most Americans are just anti crazy.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, I have a line in the thing I'm doing Friday that Democrats run campaigns now. Like, the voters don't live here. Like, they don't live here. And like, they don't, like, go to Starbucks and the office and the store, you know, like, and they do. And they see women and people of color and it doesn't look like a racist patriarchy, patriarchal nightmare. It doesn't look like that. And so if that's what the Democrats are selling, it just, they don't know.

[Stephen A. Smith]

What the hell they're selling, what they want to do. And listen, I'm just going to say it plain. The Democrats have gotten on my last damn nerve. If it wasn't for Trump, I would have voted Republican because I'm so sick of how they are. It's always about the other side and engaging in demagoguery for you to get my vote as opposed to really articulating what you're bringing to the table to offer me and my community.

[Bill Maher]

And they're snobby.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And they're snobby. They don't cater to the working class. They cater to the elite. And then they accuse the Republicans of doing.

[Bill Maher]

They won't even listen to them. There's a lot of stories now in the news about people who have been saying in the media, there was this Yale psychologist who said it on cnn, I think that, or maybe it was MSNBC, that if you have a relative who voted for Trump, cut them off, don't see them for the holidays. Don't see them for the holidays. This is what got you into this mess. Exactly. Take the clothes, spin off your nose and talk to the other side of the country because you don't have a monopoly on being smart. In fact, I could prove how stupid you were, educating me million things and you wouldn't even talk to the other side.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Educate me about this. I've held this against the Democrats for years and I've said it publicly. So let's go to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Obama is in office. He's there. You know, he's going to select a liberal to be on a higher court. You know this. According to the reports, if they're wrong, I apologize. But according to the reports, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former Supreme Court justice, who was approaching her 80s, if not in her.

[Bill Maher]

80S, and very soon, who had health.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Issues, cancer being one of them. Okay. Didn't want to step down at the behest of the Obama administration because she wanted, wanted her successor to be selected. By a female. Now, let me say this, Bill, okay? The Democrats lose me when I never hear them mention that. And here's why, respectfully, to this former great Supreme Court justice who did a lot of good, you put your own personal preferences against the interests of the country. According to you and your ideology, what you believe would best serve this country. Because you said, you assumed, arrogantly, I might add, Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump. And then when Hillary Clinton failed to beat Donald Trump because he got more of the electoral College vote than the popular vote, okay, the court was able to be swung six three instead of five four. You did that. They never talk about. They never talk about it. I'm like, wait a minute, y'all. All she had to do was retire and let the liberal president select the Supreme Court justice. And because you didn't do that, not only is the court swung six, three, it's on the verge of swinging seven two. Because now you got people saying Sonya Sotomayor is gonna step down because she's had health issues with diabetes. She's in her 70s. She's 70 years of age.

[Bill Maher]

Well, she's.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And now that. Listen, you had one pundit literally advocate she should step down now so Biden could insert the liberal, another liberal, into the court. That's going to be there for years to come. This is what you've regressed to purely for arrogance, nothing else.

[Bill Maher]

Obama did have Ruth Bader Ginsburg for lunch when she was Supreme Court justice in a kind of a, you know, wouldn't it be great to spend more time with the grandkids kind of way.

[Stephen A. Smith]

How about that?

[Bill Maher]

You know, he did try.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes, he did.

[Bill Maher]

To move her along.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not blaming him. I'm blaming her.

[Bill Maher]

I called Biden Ruth Bader Biden. Yeah, I heard you say that a long time before. He said. Because I said, you're going to be the Ruth Bader Biden of presidents. And that's exactly the case. I mean, a lot of people are blaming the whole thing on the fact that he wouldn't get out and he deserves embarrassed party. Looked like the party was the party of doddering old men. And then, you know, as you say, she. Look, the whole thing, it is what it is. We are where we are. And, you know, all I can say is, as I conclude here, I'm not gonna lose my shit until it happens. I did that when the first Trump administration. I'm not gonna chase every silly thing they say, right? I'm just not gonna do it. Like, could he blow up the world on the first day. Absolutely. And put thousands of people in Guantanamo. I don't know what he could do. He's too unpredictable. I don't think he knows what he could do. But I'm just not gonna lose my nervous system until it happens, so. And am I pissed off at the people who put me in this position? I am. You were supposed to be my protector and a lot of people's protectors. And you blew it with your booty boutique issues and your bullshit woke nonsense that the country rejected again. Across lines.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Across lines. And so blacks, latinos, whites, white women, white men, Right? Everybody.

[Bill Maher]

If there's anything good to come out of this, it's that you and I, who I read from your bio. All right.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Thank you, man. Thank you so much, bro.

[Bill Maher]

Go back to work. That's always so much fun. Now I had Shake won't do it, buddy.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Appreciate you, man. Thanks so much, man. I had a good time.

[Bill Maher]

Each other's excuse for getting. For getting drunk.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I got. I'm a little tipsy.

[Bill Maher]

Each other's excuse for getting drunk. There's a lot. That's a bond.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You're the only That's a bond. You're the only place where I ever get a little Tiffany. No doubt about it.

[Bill Maher]

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[Stephen A. Smith]

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[Bill Maher]

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[Stephen A. Smith]

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