Transcript
Stephen A. Smith (0:00)
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Drew Ski (0:43)
No conclusive scientific research has shown clams can experience happiness.
Kenya Barris (0:46)
I just meant that I feel really.
Stephen A. Smith (0:47)
Good about my coverage.
Drew Ski (0:48)
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Stephen A. Smith (1:07)
Ain't nothing but chaos been going on this weekend, courtesy of one executive order after another from the President of the United States, alienating one half of the country, galvanizing the other. We've got to get into that. Plus, I got the great Kenya Barris in the house. He's got a lot to say. Drew Ski's in the house. He's got a lot to say. And of course, I got to speak on LeBron James. Certain things in life are very, very, very difficult to say, especially about a superstar of his magnitude. But it's necessary. It's nothing personal. It's just necessary. The Stephen A. Smith show in the house. But first, a word from my boys at Prospex on the Big Game. Okay, everybody, I need you to listen up. The teams have been decided. Big game in a couple of weeks, and we're smack dab in the middle of the NBA season. So with all this action going on, the Stephen A. Smith show wants to make sure you take advantage of it all. That's why we've partnered with Prize picks. The best place to get real money action while watching your favorite sports. You see with prize picks, you pick two or more of your favorite players, and then you simply select more or less on their projected stats for the game. Pick Patrick Mahomes passing yards, A.J. brown's receiving yards, or Damonta Sabonis rebounds or all in the same entry and get this. For the big game, prize picks has the Patrick Mahomes free pick. That's right. All Patrick Mahomes needs is just one passing yard for you to cash in. So make sure you don't miss out. All you have to do is download the app today and use the code SAs to get $50 instantly after you play your first five dollar lineup. Again, download the app and use code SAs to get $50 instantly after your first $5 lineup. Prospects run your game. Now let's look at my picks for the day I'll be making picks for the big game. The Kansas City Chiefs versus the Philadelphia Eagles. First up, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. More or less than 0.5 passing yards. Of course I'm going to say more, damn it. I already told you why. Listen up, next up, we've got the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts more or less 212 and a half passing yards. I'm going to go with more in this one. A.J. brown's gonna have to have a big game in order for them to win the championship. You know, listen, Vonte Smith, he's gonna have to do something. Dallas God is gonna have to do something. Saquan Barkley, not just as a runner, but a pass catcher. They gonna need everything in order for the Eagles to beat the Chiefs. And in order to that to happen, everybody's got to be all hands on deck. And Jaylen Herz has to be the ring leader. He has to be feeding everybody the ball. It's going to be for more than 212 yards, I can promise you that. Next up, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. More or less than 63 and a half receiving yards. I'm going to go with more on this too because I think the Eagles with the defense being as elite as it is with Vic Fangio leading these troops, their secondary having buffered up, you're going to have pass rushes like Carter and those boys getting that Patrick Mahomes, he's going to need to get rid of the ball a little bit quicker. Who better to do that with than getting the ball to Travis Kelsey? Mr. Reliable. That's what he's going to do. And possibly Travis Kelsey's last game. I think he's going to show out a little bit personally. That's just what I think. Finally, Eagles wide receiver A.J. brown. More or less than 70 and a half receiving yards. I'm going with more on this as well. Like I just told you, like I just finished explaining. Jaylen Herz got to swing that ball around. He's got to get everybody involved. It's all hands on deck. They all going to have to do it. We going to go with more on this one too. More, more, more, more. It's a given. We understand that's how it goes with prize picks. Who wins you money, Foreign what's up everybody? Welcome to this latest edition of the Stephen A. Smith show, coming at you over the Digital Airways of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio, as I love to do at the very least three times a week. Thanks again to my subscribers and followers as always. We've now eclipsed 1.07 million subscribers on YouTube and we've had millions of downloads over the last few months on iheartradio. Can't thank y'all enough for the love and support. Keep it coming and I'm gonna keep on coming to continue to like and follow the show. Just click the bell to get notified for all of our newest content and you too shall be the latest member of the Stephen A. Smith show family. And remember while you're doing that, to pick up a copy of my New York Times best selling book, Straight Shooter, a memoir of Second Chances and First Takes now in paperback. Just go to straightshooterbook.com to get yourself a copy. Once again, that's straight shooter book.com to get yourself a copy. Let's get started with President Trump and his efforts to freeze federal funding. Trump's mission to cut government spending became very clear this week when the White House offered a buyout to roughly 2 million federal workers in an order to freeze aid. The abrupt stoppage on federal grants and loans announced Monday created confusion throughout the government. So yesterday the Office of Management and Budget. Omg. OM omb. I'm sorry. Sent a memo clarifying that programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start and Pell Grants would not be part of the pause. But today the White House rescinded the federal aid freeze after the administration received a flood of calls from lawmakers and state officials with questions on how it would impact their home states. His part of the statement from the Office of management and budget, quote, OMB memorandum M2513 is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the President's executive orders, please contact your agency general Counsel, end quote. If the freeze had not been rescinded, it would have essentially set up a long brewing legal battle over the core constitutional principle that says Congress gets to decide how to spend taxpayer money legally. These arguments would eventually have made their way up to the Supreme Court, where some legal Experts believe Trump could be in for an uphill battle. Meanwhile, a federal judge had temporarily blocked part of the administration's plans to freeze the federal aid. Ladies and gentlemen, let's get one thing straight. All of us should have a heightened level of sensitivity for the desolate and the disenfranchised amongst us. If you are poor and impoverished or you are old, we need to be looking out for folk. For those folks. First, people got to eat, they got to survive, got to have a roof over their head, got to have clothes on their back, food on their table, some heat. Can't freeze to death in certain parts of this country, particularly how vicious these winters have been. And if you're old and you put in your time and you paid your taxes and you got Social Security and stuff out there, and that's not enough to live on, we got to help them, too. So nobody's advocating for anything otherwise. When the Trump administration spoke up and they clarified that Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security wasn't being compromised and stuff like that, I believe them. Having said all of that, they. How they. How they've looked over the last few days, dare I say the word inept might apply. They look a bit confused at the very, very least. I mean, you have situations where other Republicans had to step in and say, wait a minute, this is a bit chaotic. This is not the way to go. It would take a lot in order to continue to move with fluidity and not disrupt our entire apparatus when it comes to federal funding, as it pertains to Medicare and Social Security and things of that nature. So that's something that's going to be a blemish on Trump's resume, no question about it, because he's going to come across as somebody who doesn't know what the hell he's doing. That's what they're going to say. How true that is, we don't know. But it's clearly something that the left is going to say. Here's what I like about it. What I like about it is that. Go ahead, Democrats, attack that all day. Finally, you're attacking something substantive. Finally. Because that makes sense. That absolutely makes sense. If he were to go along with his federal freeze and that disrupted so many American lives, that would have been problematic. When you speak up on those issues. Those are the Democrats that we remember. Those are the Democrats we voted for. Those are the Democrats we can support. That's what you do. We got a whole bunch of stuff going on here, and we gotta understand something. Trump deserves heat for this for how discombobulated and somewhat disorganized disappeared to be. But he doesn't deserve it. About everything. I'm just looking at some of the decisions that he has made and some of the things that he has taken heat for. If you have illegal immigrants in the country, the more you have, the more some have to be taken care of. And how are you going to take care of them? Through taxpayer dollars. And when you're complaining about being able to help the desolate and the disenfranchised amongst us, how can you justify supporting folks who aren't American citizens ahead of those who are? You can't do it. That's the argument for the right. Why you think he's able to get away with America first during his first term? Why you think he's able to get away with slogans like make America great again? Because once upon a time, the belief was it was America first. When he threatened Colombia with tariffs, when they weren't willing to take a military plane with immigrants on it being returned to Columbia and he had to get on the phone with Mr. Petro, the head of Columbia, what do you think happened there? He threatened to smack 25% tariffs on them, threatened to elevate it to 50%. Why you think he did that? Why you think the President changed his mind for Columbia? Why do you think he changed his mind? Because what Trump said is, we being pinched. It's time y'all get pinched, too. What do you think he's talking about when he's talking to Canada? What do you think he's talking about when he's talking about Mexico? What do you think he's talking about when he's talking about China? He's saying we getting hoes, we're getting pinched, we're suffering. Why should you live pretty? So he's. You're not going to get folks to disagree with him on everything because the left took it to a different place. When you're talking about identity politics, when you're talking about woke culture, when you're talking about transgender, what do you think is going to happen? That ain't issues that affect the everyday lives in the pocketbooks of the average American. But if you let 12 to 14 million immigrants cross the border illegally and you're giving out $53 million prepaid credit cards in the city of New York and you're spending billions of dollars as a state like California, what do you think people are going to complain about? Because they're going to look at it as a direct assault on their Wallet, which is a direct assault on their livelihood and their quality of life. And they're going to say, wait a minute, what's going on? What does that have to do with the conversation? It's Trump. What is he doing? Offering buyouts to 2 million federal employees, Everybody. Oh, whoa, wait a minute. Yeah, that might be excessive. It might be too much. But guess what? The idea ain't that damn bad. Why? Because he's already telling you we're downsizing this government. Y'all gonna lose some jobs. Now, the overhead is too steep. We got a downsize, so we gonna let you go. You. If you accept the buyout, you'll probably get about eight months pay. That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying. And you best believe. Let me be very clear. Some of them better take it because they gonna get cut anyway. If I tell you. Yo, Griff, what's up? Yo, Galen. What's up, Sherry? What's up? ISO H to the Enzo. What's up, bro? If I tell you, look, man, I'm gonna let you go right now. But you got eight months pay coming your way. If you don't take it. I might let you go. I might not. It might be in three months, six months or a year, two years, or it might be next week. What you gonna do all of a sudden? See, we gotta bring it where the goats can get it. As the late, great Joe Madison would say on Urban View Radio, we gotta put it where the goats can get it. That's the analogy. That's a real life analogy. Yo, Galen, what's up? Eight months pay. Or I can let you go at my discretion. I might. I might not. It might be soon, it might be later, I don't know. But you might be gone. You see where I'm going at, ladies and gentlemen? That's what he's talking about here. We got a whole bunch of people out here complaining about everything, complaining about the buyouts. He's clearly coming to downsize government. Why do you think Doge exists? Ramaswamy walked away from, but that Elon Musk is still overseeing once again is the press secretary for the fort. The presidency. The White House is not a recession. This is not a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court's injection. The president's eos on federal funding remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented. They're going to fire people. They're giving you advance notice. You're getting, you're going to be gone. Now you can take it with eight months severance or you could take your chances. That's what he's doing. They ain't playing. So this is the way it goes and why. Let's not forget it's a product of spending. Now don't let the Republicans off the hook. Some of them have overspent too. Even Sean Hannity and Mark Levin admit that for years and years and years. When we think about a $36 trillion budget that we have, the, the Republicans hands ain't, ain't, ain't clean in all of this. Trump spent, W. Bush spent, H.W. bush spent. Read my lips. No new taxes and then put it off. More taxes. Reagan spent. It's not about spending. Cuz they all spend. It's who you gonna spend on what you gonna spend on Democrats and Republicans. They're all guilty. All of their hands are filthy. In this $36 trillion deficit that we operate under. They gonna make changes. It's coming. That's the way that it goes. And if you are the Democratic Party, rather than give that old song and dance with your frivolous arguments about in regards to identity politics and woke culture and immigration and trans. Not even immigration trans issues as opposed to LGBTQ overall issues, if you're gonna do all of that, that's not what people care about when their wallets are being pinched, when eggs and milk and gas and bread and everything is expensive. They don't care. They only care when they're comfortable. They don't care when they're suffering. Get used to it, Di. Oh, everybody's in an uproar about Di. You know what my uproar was? I don't like the fact that you're acting like everything associated with DEI involved some incompetent people that weren't getting jobs based on their merit. But you're forgetting why the need for DEI was necessary to begin with. Similar to why the Rooney Rule in the National Football League was, was necessary to begin with. Similar to why affirmative action was necessary if you hadn't been so insidious, so vicious, so inequitable in terms of how you treated other human beings that weren't white. Those programs wouldn't have needed to be in existence. But that doesn't mean that the left didn't go overboard in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis by those police officers, mainly Derek Chauvin, and that they didn't use it as an opportunity to try to guilt the nation into voting for them, regardless of the incompetence and the tone deafness that they operated under. Everybody's hands are dirty, everybody. The difference is Trump's don't. Trump doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. And dirty are so. Yeah, you right. This whole thing with the freeze, the federal freezing, has been somewhat mishandled, particularly in the public eye. And he had to be called on the carpet for it. And he had to backtrack a little bit to make sure that they dotted their I's and crossed their T's appropriately before moving forward with it at a later date. Date. But make no mistake, he has sent the message he ain't messing around. Now the Democrats can get back to doing the job they were supposed to do, legitimately pointing out the flaws in his vision moving forward as opposed to trying to take us back when you swear he's the one doing it. It's you two trying to get us back to a time where we fall for your frivolous nonsense instead of the issues that are really, really important to us. Coming up, he's known for the sitcoms Blackish and Grownish, and he also directed the hilarious you People on Netflix. The one and only Kenya Barris is here. We'll get to him just ahead. But first, Drew Ski is here and he's got some exciting news from prospects. That's next on the Stephen A. Smith Show. My guest is an actor, comedian and creator of reality shows, comedy tours, a record Label and over 16 million followers across Instagram and TikTok and over 2.3 million subscribers on YouTube as well. He's here to talk about the prize pick Super Sweat Contest. Please welcome my boy. Drew Ski's in the house. What's up, big time? How are you, man? How's everything?