Full Show: Stephen A goes one-on-one with Fiery Cory Booker. Carmelo Anthony earned his Hall of Fame induction.

Summary

The Stephen A. Smith Show: In-Depth Conversation with Senator Cory Booker and Carmelo Anthony’s Hall of Fame Induction

Release Date: April 4, 2025

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1. Celebrating Carmelo Anthony’s Hall of Fame Induction

The episode opens with Stephen A. Smith expressing his excitement over Carmelo Anthony’s induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for the class of 2025. Smith delves into Anthony's illustrious career, highlighting his achievements as a 10-time NBA All-Star and a three-time Olympic gold medalist. He reflects on Anthony's impact on the New York Knicks, emphasizing his scoring prowess and his reputation as "Mr. Buckets." Smith reminisces about Anthony’s time at Syracuse University, where he led the Orangemen to their only national championship in 2003, and shares personal anecdotes that underscore their close relationship.

Notable Quote:

• Stephen A. Smith [05:15]: "Carmelo Anthony is one of the elite scorers the game has ever seen in his Knickerbocker uniform. He was a scoring machine, Mr. Buckets."

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2. Conversation with Senator Cory Booker

a. Cory Booker’s Historic Senate Speech

The heart of the episode features a riveting conversation between Stephen A. Smith and Senator Cory Booker. Smith brings up Booker’s record-breaking 25-hour Senate speech, surpassing the 1957 filibuster by Senator Strom Thurmond. Booker clarifies that his intent was not to filibuster but to highlight and humanize the struggles faced by everyday Americans under the Trump administration.

Notable Quote:

• Cory Booker [18:00]: "We wanted to center their stories. It wasn't about left or right. It was about right or wrong and America taking care of each other."

b. Addressing Criticism and Democratic Party Strategies

Smith questions the timing and effectiveness of Booker’s speech, especially when some of the issues raised had not yet fully materialized. Booker responds by detailing the immediate policy changes that adversely affected Americans, such as cuts to Medicaid and the VA, reinforcing the urgency of his message.

He also discusses the Democratic Party’s communication shortcomings, emphasizing the need for better engagement on digital platforms. Booker highlights his efforts to increase his caucus’s social media presence to better connect with voters.

Notable Quote:

• Cory Booker [22:21]: "Communication is three things: the message, the medium, and the messenger. We need to excel in all three to effectively reach and inspire the American people."

c. Overcoming Partisanship and Focusing on the People

Booker stresses the importance of viewing leadership beyond party lines, advocating for a focus on uniting Americans rather than deepening partisan divides. He shares personal experiences of connecting with individuals from opposing political backgrounds, illustrating his commitment to bipartisan cooperation.

Notable Quote:

• Cory Booker [29:03]: "I love you, man. I don't want you to be my president, but you're never going to pull me so low as to hate you."

d. Democratic Party’s Image and Voter Engagement

Smith raises concerns about the Democratic Party's low approval ratings and its engagement strategy during elections. Booker attributes the party's challenges to insufficient communication of its achievements and policies, advocating for a renewed focus on addressing the real issues affecting Americans.

Notable Quote:

• Cory Booker [27:14]: "Americans have stopped believing in their leaders and what we are capable of together. We need to save the dream for all, not just the privileged few."

e. Introduction of the NCAA Accountability Act

In the latter part of the conversation, Booker introduces the NCAA Accountability Act, a bipartisan effort aimed at establishing due process protections for college athletes, coaches, and universities under investigation by the NCAA. He criticizes the NCAA for exploiting athletes and not ensuring their well-being post-college, advocating for a system that fairly compensates and protects those who generate significant revenue for the organization.

Notable Quote:

• Cory Booker [51:24]: "The NCAA has been allowing athletes to be exploited for decades. It's time to establish fair rules that protect those who are the true wealth creators in college sports."

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3. Key Insights and Conclusions

Throughout the episode, several critical themes emerge:

• Advocacy for the Underserved: Both Smith and Booker emphasize the importance of focusing on policies that address the needs of everyday Americans, particularly those affected by healthcare cuts and economic instability.

• Effective Communication: Booker highlights the necessity of leveraging modern communication platforms to better engage with voters and clearly convey the party’s achievements and goals.

• Bipartisan Cooperation: The dialogue underscores the value of crossing party lines to achieve meaningful legislative progress, as exemplified by Booker’s collaboration with Republican peers.

• Athlete Rights and Exploitation: The introduction of the NCAA Accountability Act marks a significant step toward ensuring fair treatment and protections for college athletes, addressing long-standing issues of exploitation and inadequate support.

Final Notable Quote:

• Cory Booker [55:06]: "People in this country belong to each other. We need to affirm that bond beyond political parties to lead our nation forward."

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4. Closing Remarks

Stephen A. Smith concludes the episode by reiterating his appreciation for Senator Booker's insights and the importance of such discussions in shaping public understanding of critical issues. He underscores the show's commitment to tackling a wide array of topics, from sports and entertainment to significant political debates, ensuring that listeners are both informed and entertained.

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Overall Summary

This episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show masterfully intertwines sports excellence with profound political discourse. Celebrating Carmelo Anthony’s induction into the Hall of Fame sets the stage for an engaging and substantive conversation with Senator Cory Booker. Booker’s reflections on his historic Senate speech, the Democratic Party’s communication strategies, bipartisan cooperation, and advocacy for athlete rights provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of current political dynamics and legislative efforts. Through impactful quotes and insightful discussions, the episode not only honors athletic achievements but also delves deep into the pressing societal and political issues shaping America today.

Transcript

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[Stephen A. Smith]

Carmelo Anthony the NBA. That is something to celebrate today. The politics in our nation's capital that is an entirely different matter altogether. As I will definitely express when Senator Cory Booker rose up in the the House Stephen A. Smith Show Coming at you right now. What's up everybody? Welcome to the latest edition of the Stephen A. Smith Show. Coming at you as I love to do at the very least three times a week over the digital airwaves of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio. And as always, I'd like to take a moment to pause and thank my subscribers, my followers, et cetera, over to airwaves of iHeartRadio. We've had millions of downloads over the last few months and specifically in the digital airwaves of YouTube, we've accumulated over 1.17 million subscribers and counting in less than two years, I might add. I want to thank y'all sincerely for all the love and support. Keep it coming and I'm going to keep on coming. Make sure you get 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. And by the way, to be notified for all of our newest content on the show, just click the bell and you too shall consider yourself the latest member of the Stephen A. Smith show family. I'm standing because I'm a bit hyped today. I'm standing because I got to get started with some basketball talk. Remember Senator Cory Booker who gave that 25 hour 4 minute speech in the nation's capital on Capitol Hill the other day? He and I are going to holler about a few things today with the Democrats and Republicans. We going to be fair, but we going to get into it because he need to get into it after a speech that damn long. Make no mistake about it. But before I get into that, I got to start off with some basketball because I got some stuff on my mind. All right. I want to give props to the one and only Carmelo Anthony who was informed just yesterday he'll be inducted into the Naismith Basketball hall of fame class of 2025. The 10 time NBA All Star was selected third overall in the 2003 draft by the Denver Nuggets, just two picks behind LeBron James and two picks ahead of Dwyane Wade. Mello's a six time All NBA selection who quickly became one of the league's premier scorers, averaging 21 points per game as a rookie. Before all of that, Carmelo burst into the national spotlight. If you remember as a freshman phenom at Syracuse University leading the Orangeman to their only national championship, which was back in 2003. This brother right here is one of the elite scorers the game has ever seen in the New York Nick uniform. He averaged about 24.7 points, okay, averaged about seven rebounds. The brother was a scoring machine. He was Mr. Buckets. This is what he did. His drop step, I mean his jab step, everything. His jump shooting ability, his ability to post play with his back to the basket, play facing the basketball. He is one of the elite scorers the game has ever seen. And I got to tell you something right now. I've known him for years. It's like family to me. That's how much love I got for that brother. Because he's a special dude. He got a perfect name. Mellow because he don't bother anybody. He was never one of those dudes. He was an individual that just got along with everybody. Most folks, if not all of them had mad love and respect for him. They still respect him to this very day. His business ventures off the side. He ain't poor. He ain't getting poor anytime soon. He's a wealthy individual. Make no mistake about it. But he could ball. And when I think about him, I think about two things. Two things. And I'm going to stand here for this one right here. When I see, when I look at him in a Nuggets Uniform. Two things come to my mind. He was drafted by them. Number three. Overall, that should not have been the case. He should have been drafted number two, directly right behind LeBron James. And it's a hard subject for me to bring up because one of the great executives in NBA history was Joe Dumas of the Detroit Pistons, who had guided the franchise as its president of basketball operations to six consecutive conference finals appearances, back to back trips to the NBA Finals, and won a championship, beating Kobe and Shaq and those boys in Detroit 2004 for the NBA championship. What happened in 2003, though? The Detroit Pistons had the number two pick and decided they wanted to go with Darko Milachic. And why did they do that? Because they had Tayshaun Prince. They also had Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups as your backcourt. You had Ben Wallace and you ultimately had Rasheed Wallace. And I get all of that. But in the end, because you had Tayshaun Prince and you had a championship squad, you drafted based on need instead of grabbing the best available talent. And if Carmelo Anthony had been in the Detroit Pistons uniform, he'd have had a title because they wouldn't have lost it with him whether he was starting or coming off the bench. They would not have lost the title with that crew if Carmelo Anthony was a part of that squad. So that's one time that there was an opportunity missed, albeit that was not his fault. And again, it's a subject that's difficult for me to bring up because I love me some Joe Dumas, who I thought was absolutely, positively exceptional at his job, but the biggest, most glaring mistake of his executive career, not his playing career, because he was playing alongside Isaiah Thomas in the backcourt and played with Bill and Bear, John Sally, Rick Mahorn and all of these brothers. Adrian Danley, not forget him. Mark Aguirre, ultimately, remember, Joe Dumas was a champion as a player. He became a champion as an executive. But by passing up on Carmelo Anthony, I believe it interrupted a lengthy period of time. They would have been dominant, and it certainly cost that brother a championship in Detroit. He should have been a Detroit Pistons. But I'm a walk over here to think about my next subject, because Carmelo Anthony ended up being a New York Knickerbocker. And I understand that. Here's what happened, ladies and gentlemen. He was in Denver as a nugget. The year was 2007. LeBron James, D. Wade, Melo. Everybody was operating under their initial deal into the NBA. Back in 2003, contract negotiations kicked in. And what LeBron and D. Wade and ultimately Chris Bosh did, was carve out and opt out in their clauses for the year 2010 when they were due to become a free agent. Rather than grab the whole five year deal for the bag, they said, no, we gonna exercise a player option after year three. Melo didn't do that. He had a contract. He had a contract with Denver. That was for five years with no out, because being a Baltimore native growing up poor, that brother wasn't putting himself in a position where he wasn't going to be able to get that money. He wanted every dollar guaranteed. And so he signed off for the five years as opposed to taking the three and opting out because he didn't want to find himself getting injured or anything like that. And then after three years, he'd be able to compromise his money. That was a risk he wasn't willing to take. Where's LeBron? D. Wade? And ultimately, Bosh did. Why do I bring that up? Because whether D. Wade, LeBron and the crew want to admit this or not, this brother right here, Carmelo Anthony, would have been with Miami. It wasn't supposed to be Bosh. It was supposed to be Melo. And here's what I'm saying to all of you right here in America right now, as we speak, I want to make sure that for the record, I am very, very clear with what I am about to say. I love me some Chris Bosh. What he did on the defensive side of the ball can't be minimized in any way. He's a Hall of Famer. Props to him. But I believe that if Carmelo Anthony was on the Miami Heat, Miami Heat doesn't have two titles out of four in the LeBron D. Wade era. I believe they have at least three. Because that loss against Dallas, when LeBron struggled in those fourth quarters, the D. Wade, that was deferential because he knew that LeBron was the best. And even though he did his thing, he was being deferential. That wasn't Carmelo. Carmelo would have said, man, yo, y'all give me the ball. Give me the ball. I'm tired of this. Give me the ball. And he handled business. That was the kind of offensive juggernaut that he was. That level of aggression, that's who he was. He wasn't being deferential to anybody. When the ball was in his hands, the ball was going to be in his hands. That Carmelo Anthony, I believe, would have saved the Miami Heat in that final series against Dallas. And LeBron James Fershee in South Beach. So that's not one, but two opportunities, two bites at the apple in my opinion. One not no fault of his own and the other is a fault of Carmelo Anthony because he didn't have that opt out in his contract that ultimately cost him a championship. And that's the only thing that's sad about his career. He's a three time Olympic champion, but he's only won three playoff series in his career. He lost 13. He's one of the greatest offensive players we have ever seen in our lifetime. He's a Hall of Famer. A Hall of Famer without question now because he's won three Olympic gold medals. He's a 10 time all star scoring champion, 2013, averaging 28.7 points a game. Mr. Buckets. But no matter what he is as a basketball player, he's even better as a person. I couldn't be happier for him and what he's been able to achieve. I just wish that Carmelo Anthony had captured an NBA championship. He never played in the NBA finals, never won a championship in the NBA. It's the only place he's never won. That part saddens me because I think that messes up an otherwise flawless, impeccable basketball resume. Jim Boeheim coached at Syracuse 40 years. There's only one man that delivered him a championship. He's had Derrick Coleman. He's had Sherman Douglas. He's had the greatest show in the history of college basketball in Dwayne Pearl, Washington. But only one man delivered him a championship. It was Carmelo Anthony, three time Olympic gold medalist, national champion and now a Hall of Famer. I'm really, really, really happy for him. I just wish that I could have seen him in an NBA Finals because it would have been something to behold. That's all I wanted to say. That's all I wanted to say. Coming up, he stood on the senate floor for 25 hours speaking out against the Trump administration, breaking the record for the longest speech in history. But was it worth it? I'm about to find out. When I ask him, I'm talking about New Jersey senator, the one and only Cory Booker. He's here next, right here on the Stephen A. Smith Show. Don't go away. All right, everybody, listen up. With all the big time sports action that's happening each and every day, the Stephen A. Smith show wants to make sure you are taking advantage of it all. That's why we've partnered with prize picks. The best place to win cash while watching sports the app is really easy to use to make a lineup. All you have to do is pick more or less on a few player stats. Choose from any of your favorite players, Luka Doncic, Jimmy Butler, and Zach Lavine, all in the same entry. Then sit back and watch. The list is absolutely endless. 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[Stephen A. Smith]

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[Cory Booker]

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Whatever you need. How about you tell me what you had in mind?

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[Cory Booker]

Would the senator yield for a question? Chuck Schumer. It's the only time in my life I can tell you. No.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I just want to tell you a question. Do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you.

[Cory Booker]

The power of the people is greater than the people in power. It is time to heed the words of the man. I began this whole thing with John Lewis. He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation. I want you to redeem the dream. Let's be bold in America. Not demean and degrade Americans, not divide us against each other. Let's be bolder in America with a vision that inspires with hope, that starts with the people of the United States of America. That's how this country started. We the people. Let's get back to the ideals that others are threatening. Let's get back to our founding documents. That those imperfect geniuses had some very special words at the end of the Declaration of Independence was one of the greatest in all of humanity. Declarations of interdependence. When our founders said we must mutually pledge, pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. We need that now from all Americans. This is a moral moment. It's not left or right. It's right or wrong. Let's get in good trouble, my friend. Madam President, I yield the floor.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Welcome back to the Stephen A. Smith Show. That was my next guest who made history this week on the Senate floor. He currently serves as the US Senator from the great state of New Jersey. Please welcome back to the Stephen A. Smith show, the one and only Senator Cory Booker. Senator, first off, how are you? Have you gotten any rest?

[Cory Booker]

I've gotten a bit. Body's still weary, but the soul is soaring right now, so I'm doing all right.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I know you're limited on time. Thank you so much for your time. Let's get right to it. On Monday, you stood on the Senate floor and began a marathon 25 hour plus speech and, you know, criticizing the Trump administration. You set the record for the longest speech in the chamber, surpassing the previous marksette in 1957 by segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond. Thurmond spent more than 24 hours filibustering the Civil Rights Act. You weren't doing a filibuster. I want to know what the reason for this was for you and what do you think you accomplished?

[Cory Booker]

I'm grateful for the question. You know, we started by being very plain what this was all about. A lot of folks are hurting in this country right now and we wanted to center their stories. My office has gotten tens of thousands of folks reaching out farmers who are losing their farms because of the policies of this administration. Veterans who are being laid off or having their benefits undercut. We wanted to center their voices. We were having people who were receiving Social Security who couldn't get responses from the Social Security office because of the tens of thousands of people that are being cut there as well. We wanted to tell stories, and we didn't want to make it partisan. So we brought in Republican voices, from Republican governors to Republicans afraid of losing their Medicaid. We brought in Republican think tanks like the Manhattan Institute and the Cato Institute, just to really lay it plain that this wasn't about left or right. It's about right or wrong. It's about America taking care of each other. So when you ask what you what we accomplished, the first and foremost is most people don't pay attention to that institution, and probably for good reason. But we wanted to have people pay attention to the people who are hurting in America, whose voices often don't get told because I stood for 25 hours. But you and I both know this. There are people like those folks working shifts at the IHOP in Newark right now on Bergen street who are working two shifts, no rest, and hoping they can maybe get a third around the clock so that they can make enough ends meet to afford rent. Well, the rent's going up. Price of groceries are going up, price of everyday living. And so we've got to start talking about the real issues of our country, not in a way that talks down to each other, but lifts folks up. And that's what I was trying to do.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Senator, there were some people that were looking at you, and in terms of what you had to say about fears of Medicaid being destroyed, and essentially they used that as an example to highlight that primarily some of the things that you were complaining about haven't even happened yet. So why is he doing this now? What do you say to such assertions like that, that you were talking about things that haven't happened yet?

[Cory Booker]

Well, God, I mean, it's been 72 days, and a lot of things have happened that are real. Health insurance is up. He cut funding to the ACA portals, making it difficult for people to get health care, and rolled back things that the Biden administration did that brought down the price of prescription drugs. People are feeling that pain. We know when it comes to healthcare, those things have happened. What's happening to the va? No president in my lifetime or yours has laid off more VA members, including many of them that are doing things to prevent veteran suicide, which is a shame of our nation. But when you talk about specifically Medicaid hasn't been cut. When do you want people to speak up? It's just like the aca. We started fighting to protect the ACA months before it happened. But God, we had to garner and galvanize people to join us in the fight. And that public pressure made John McCain and Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins change their vote. So you and I know you don't prep for game day on game day. You got two a days during the summer, sometimes three a days. You start prepping long before the actual vote comes. And that's what we're doing.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I don't know if folks see this the way that I do, but when I was watching you and I did not watch the whole 24 hours, 25 plus hours. So I did not do that. But I certainly tried to watch some of it. Make no mistake about that. When I watched you talk about these things, I found myself growing a bit concerned. And here is the reason why I give you credit because I thought that you adroitly utilized fears pertaining to Elon Musk in Doge as opposed to going at Trump directly. Because I think that he's become the master at playing the victim. And every time the Democratic Party has come at him in such a way directly, it's worked to his benefit as opposed to his detriment. Nevertheless, I do find, I did find myself asking where was this Cory Booker and where were the Democrats leading up to the election? Because as outspoken as you were, there were an abundance of people clamoring, maybe not directly for you, but for the Democratic Party to speak on issues that were far more substantive than the stuff that we was hearing during the campaign. What do you say to that?

[Cory Booker]

Well, first of all, what I said it on the floor, and maybe this wasn't the part you were listening to is before you even get to Democrats and Republicans, I just stood before the American people and said I could be doing better, that I'm out here because my constituents were saying. Exactly. What you're saying is you're not doing enough. Do something different. Take a risk. Show us how much you're, how far you're willing to go to fight for the people who are getting hurt. I again, I keep bringing it back to sports because I know that's a common plane we stand on. Yes, the team that loses. If you don't learn from that loss, you're going to be a loser over and over again. And whatever you want to say, the Democratic Party has to own up to it. Now. It's not about pointing blame. It's about taking responsibility.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Right.

[Cory Booker]

And so I said that quite plain to the American people.

[Stephen A. Smith]

You absolutely did.

[Cory Booker]

I accept responsibility. The Democratic Party has made mistakes. We. I said in the 100 body, we've all made mistakes around, right? Let's stop talking about each other and let's start talking about the possibilities of this nation. I asked folks that. I said, it's a new generation of leadership coming in America. Baby boomers are leaving, and they've done incredible things. My parents were baby boomers. The civil rights generation were baby boomers. You know, we have. This is the last baby boomer, President Donald Trump. It's time for us, though, in our generation, like the young John Lewis did, like the young Fred Shuttlesworth did, like the young Ella Baker did. It's time for us to redeem the dream and start talking about America in a way that inspires people. Because this is what King did that was powerful to me. He didn't stand up on the march on Washington and talk about how racist Bull Connor was or how evil George Wallace was. He started to talk about us and who we could be together. He called us to our moral imagination. He redeemed the dream by saying, I have one, and put out a dream that nobody can deny is that which we should be going.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But, Senator Booker, respectfully, a lot of people will look at a certain thing and they hear what you're saying, and it's very difficult to refute anything that you're saying at this particular moment in time. But in the same breath, there's a difference to being listened to and being heard. And when we think about the Democratic Party and you say, and you are absolutely accurate when you say that you sat on the floor, you've made mistakes, the party has made mistakes. What were those mistakes? What were those mistakes that need to be corrected by the Democratic Party? Because even though you're saying that you don't want to talk about party affiliation, you're talking about human beings, you're talking about American citizens and American lives. The fact of the matter is you're a senator for the Democratic Party. So people are looking at you and they're saying there's one side or the other. If you're talking to folks, they still see you as a Democrat. What did the Democratic Party do wrong that you felt compelled to take responsibility for to some degree, anyway?

[Cory Booker]

Well, forgive me for the inadequacies in my communicating right now, and I'll try to say it more plainly. The mistake that I spoke to on that floor was we didn't do what I did that night, we didn't do a good enough job of centering other people's pain, other people's hurt, other people struggle. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I started my career in Newark, New Jersey. I still live in that same neighborhood that I moved in to be a tenant organizer, because the worst slumlords were taking advantage of people. And I remember as a bright young lawyer from Yale University and one of the old grizzly tenant leaders, a guy named Frank Hutchins. When I was sitting in the meeting, all I needed, all I needed, give me the information I need to file my complaint. But that meeting went on for three hours, Edmond, probably longer than that. When we got out, I made some quip that a young lawyer probably would make, like, God, we got had everything we needed in the first 30 minutes. God, that was a long meeting. I made some obnoxious young quip, and he stopped in his tracks, this old tenant leader. The record for the longest rent strike in Newark's history. He stopped and he looked at me and he goes, we can't even begin to heal the buildings until we heal each other. You need to see people, Corey. You need to hear them. You need to love them. I think that the reason why neither party, either Donald Trump or the Democratic nominee, got the majority of votes, that means nobody, more people voted against each candidate than voted for them. Both of them, nobody got over 50%, is because Americans have stopped believing in their leaders and believing, frankly, in what we are capable of together. This dream of America, as Langston Hughes said, there's a dream in this land with its back against the wall. Save the dream for one. We must save it for all. This idea that we're all into, to get all into it together, this idea that we lean on each other, that we need each other, we're losing, that we're so tribal now that we hate each other before we even listen to each other.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Well, let me interject, because I'm talking about winning. I didn't vote for Donald Trump. I didn't want him to win. But he won the election. He won every swing state. He won the popular vote. He won the Electoral College vote. He's got the House and the Senate. My God. I mean, the man won. And what I'm thinking about listening to you, I hear exactly what you're saying. My retort to that would be, you were on the floor. The word demagogue was mentioned. You've got people complaining about Doge. You got folks out there attacking Tesla and what have you. You see a lot of the things that the Republicans are using on the right to point to the victimization they're suffering from and the fact that the Democratic Party hasn't spoken up about what's great about their party. They've spoken more about what's bad about Trump and the gop. To that, you say, what. How do you explain that? And how do you feel about that? People saying those things?

[Cory Booker]

Brother. I'll tell you this, Stephen, I'm one guy, and every day I stand up and my mom tells me this. Don't define yourself by who you're against, but by what you're for. I remember Donald Trump, the first time he mean, tweeted me. I think Chris Cuomo was interviewing me on a morning show. It was a. The Democratic Convention. And he said, this is what Donald Trump said, said about you. What do you have to say back to him? And I looked at the Chris Goldman, I think I surprised him. I said, what do I have to say to Donald Trump? Because he said that about me. I have to say, I love you, man. I don't want you to be my president. I'm going to do everything I can to stop you, but you're never going to pull me so low as to hate you. I sat on a plane not too long ago, and you know how this. And you get this. People look at you. I know you from somewhere.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah.

[Cory Booker]

So a lot of people say things to me in airports and mostly kind things, but sometimes I think, you know, it's May is almost here. I think you should send me a Mother's Day card, because I hear it a lot. You mother.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yep.

[Cory Booker]

But this time I'm sitting down, and the. The couple next to me, it's a mom and a dog and a. And a daughter, 60 and 80. And they look at me and they go, who are you? Are you a professional athlete now? I'm a big black guy and who played at Stanford.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yeah.

[Cory Booker]

And. And, you know, my ego. I didn't want to be insulted because that guy. You're making an assumption. My ego is like, well, I could be. But I look at her and I say, no, ma'am, I'm not. And then she goes, well, who are you? Why are so many people taking notice of you? And I said, ma'am, I'm a United States senator. And the very first thing she wants to know, which most Americans want to know when they meet some congressman or congresswoman out about in the wild, is are you on their team or my team? And she looks at me and she goes, are you a Democrat Republic? And I go, ma'am, I'm a Democrat. And then she crosses her arms, looks sour at me, and swivels herself away from me as she says at the last moment, I should have brought my Trump hat. And then put turns away. And so here I am, here in the same old tune that is so hurting our country, it's now invading our own Thanksgiving tables.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay, but hold on.

[Cory Booker]

Go ahead, go ahead. Because I'm not blaming her, okay? I am not blaming her. I look at the woman and I say, ma'am, Ma'am, excuse me. Donald Trump, he signed two of the biggest bills I've ever written as a United States senator. One called the First Step act, liberated thousands of people from prison. Two, I did with a man named Tim Scott, Republican from South Carolina, that brought hundreds of millions, hundreds, excuse me, tens of billions of dollars of new investment into the poorest rural and urban areas. And she looked at me, she turned back around, looked at me, confused. Here I was talking about the work that Donald Trump and I did together. By the end of that flight, we were laughing and talking and connecting and finding out that the lines that divided us are nowhere near as the ties that bind us. Okay?

[Stephen A. Smith]

And I get that. So that tells me that you as a politician, can work across the aisle and communicate and deal with somebody from the opposite party that happens to be in the White House. You ran for president in 2020. Clearly, you have aspirations to be a leader in this country you already consider considered a leader in this country. So what do you say when you look at how you've conducted yourself, which appears to be the right thing to do because you're getting stuff done across the aisle like you just articulated, but clearly the party doesn't feel that way, and it's working against them. I'm looking at the Democratic Party right now, and I'm telling you, Senator, man to man, straight up. When you talk about individuals like yourself, like Governor Westmore, like others that I have met, no problem. When I look at the party on the left right now, I've never been more disgusted with what I'm seeing because of the ineffectual, the ineffectiveness of the party in terms of competing against the other side? I'm not talking about you individually. I'm talking about the party that doesn't seem to vibe with the kind of communication skills and the kind of message that you just finished preaching about a couple of minutes ago.

[Cory Booker]

Well, there's. There's no singular party leader Right now there's all of us. And I'm going to tell you this. I am a competitor. I want to win. I'm going to fight. So my team wins. But what I'm going to tell you right now might surprise you. My team is not the Democrats. My team is Team America.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay?

[Cory Booker]

And the reason why I am one voice. But there's a lot of voices right now trying to talk about where our party is going. I believe that when we start talking about more about where America can go, will go, must go, then that person, regardless of party, is a person that's going to be followed. We need more up and coming leaders to let folks know they are more concerned and connected to community than they are doing a party's bidding. You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. And I'm looking for a leader. I know we share a friend, Frank Luntz. He came into my office, shocked me, what's this Republican pollster doing up in here? And he said that we are at such a pivotal point in American history. He told me he's just looking for people that might be able to help heal this nation and lead us to the next generation. And he said I got a few people on both sides of the aisle that I'm betting on. And so I'm telling you right now, I am a Democrat as my grandfather was who moved to Detroit, Michigan and got a job on an assembly line like many blacks did. He was one of the early black union organizers. And he used to tell me the Democratic Party ain't right all the time. But when you throw up the issues, they're the party of civil rights, they're the party of workers rights, they're the parties of women's rights, they're the party of labor, they're the party of Medicaid and Medicare. He's like when I just I'm gonna be a Democrat. But he looked at me, but he looked at me, wanted me to vote Democrat, right? But he said, your loyalty must always lie with your ancestors. Calling your ancestors were Republicans and Democrats. Cuz when my granddad started, most blacks were Republicans.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes he was.

[Cory Booker]

It was the old thing. Turn Lincoln's picture to the wall. We're going with fdr.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Has, has the Democratic Party taken the black community, amongst others, for granted? Think about what you just said. Think about all the things that the Democratic Party stood for according to what you just articulated. And think about the fact that we didn't hear much of that message during the election. Cause that's where my disgust lies, sir. My disgust lies was that we were involved with culture wars. We were involved in talking, you know, about ideology and identity politics. We weren't talking about the issues that you just finished articulating at all.

[Cory Booker]

I don't know if I agree with that, man.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Come on, Senator. Come on.

[Cory Booker]

Let me tell you something.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Go ahead.

[Cory Booker]

I'm the only. Hold on. I am the only United States senator, the only one that lives in a black community that's at or below the poverty. I live in that same neighborhood I lived when I moved in after law school and started getting.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But I'm not talking about you.

[Cory Booker]

I got my Stanford, my PhD on the streets of Newark, Right? And I still live there. I am connected to my community.

[Stephen A. Smith]

I'm not talking about you.

[Cory Booker]

I know you're not talking about me, but what I'm saying to you is I would get the same folk challenge of me in the barbershop. And yes, I know you're thinking, you go to the barbershop, I get the same folks challenge I get. The brothers challenged me in the barbershop. What have the Democratic Party done for us? And so here was the breakdown. I would say, open the door. Let me point to stuff. Because we in Newark, from Flint, Michigan, to Newark had lead in our water. I worked to get the stuff in the bill that helped us get every lead pipe out of the ground in the United States of America. Because lead poisoning may not be some sexy issue, but it was plaguing our communities. Let me give you another one. The maternal mortality rate in America is shameful. We're the wealthiest country in the world, but we have women dying in childbirth higher than any other countries. But for black women, it's three times the rate. We got Joe Biden working with him to expand Medicaid, address this issue in a very significant way. They're rolling it back now in this administration. I turn around, I said, the asthma rates in our city are four times in suburban towns. I talked about literally the biggest tree planting. And for urban areas in all of humanity. I would go through my list and people would say exactly what you're about to say. But I didn't know that. But I didn't know that. Okay, so now we're talking about a different issue. Okay, that's fair, what they're doing for black people. Because I could go. I could go to SBA loans and coming in and making sure. I could go to criminal justice. I could go through all the issues that I know my community cares about and often feels like no one else does.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And I can. And I can. And I can point the finger right back to you about your contemporaries on the left and say it would have been nice to hear about those things while they were campaigning for the presidency.

[Cory Booker]

Let me tell you a job I took on, okay? I was through a big group of people, about 2, 300 people. And I said, everybody here was born. It was March. I said, everybody here is born in March. Yell as loud as you can, yell, truth, Truth. Truth. And they started yelling. I go, stop. I said, rest of the audience, everybody here that was not born in March, yell lie loud as you can. They chanted lies. And I go, now we're doing the experiment. Everybody do it at once. Yell it. Everybody did. And I said, okay, stop. Now let's find out about this experiment. How many people heard the word truth? Nobody shook your head? And I pointed to somebody that was born in March. Did you hear the word truth even though you were chanting it? They said I couldn't hear it. Did you know the Democratic Party? I went to my Chuck Schumer and I said, most voters now get their news here, especially low information voters, which I don't blame. You got so many other things to do in life, you don't have time to watch the news 24 7. And I said, most voters get their news here on digital platforms, podcasts like this one and others. How many more times were Republicans on these platforms and Democrats about 12 to 1.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay.

[Cory Booker]

Donald Trump had about 14 times that that podcast downloads and Kamala.

[Stephen A. Smith]

And why was that?

[Cory Booker]

Why was that showing up where the voters.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Thank you.

[Cory Booker]

Back in the day, Nixon made the mistake. Nixon versus Kennedy. You remember those debates? I think we got it too young. But one person knew where the future was. Television. I could not believe. I went to Chuck before the last election and said our caucus compared to their caucus on just the social media engagement, they're crushing us by orders of magnitude. So since I've been to work, it's only been eight weeks now with my own caucus. We've quadrupled the amount of impressions we're getting on these things. I've been literally doing classes, bringing people in to talk to them about, show you up on these platforms. Show your authentic self. Don't have somebody polish it and do all that. Just talk to people, look them in the eye, direct the cameras. You know this. And say what you do. Because I see your videos. Yes. And be mad, be angry. Be yourself. One of my friends here, Mark Kelly, this amazing guy, he's a bald brother from New Jersey, but he's a senator from Arizona. He's in the New Jersey hall of Fame because he was an astronaut out of this world. He started his TikTok account within two days, had millions of views. So I'm just telling you, a lot of people didn't hear this because we weren't in communicating effectively. Communication is three things real quick. Communication is the message, the medium, and the messenger. You got to do well on all three. And, sir, the reason why you probably make a lot more money than I do, because you've got the message. People want to hear what you have to say. You're on the right mediums. People are listening to you where you are, and you're a damn good messenger. And the Democratic Party, all right, leaders in general, this is why. This is why Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King and the man that was at the center of my speech, John Lewis, were so good. They had the right message. They created a way to capture the moral imagination of the country because they found ways to make the media pay attention.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Son, I know you, only I got you for less than. Don't worry about it.

[Cory Booker]

It's cool.

[Stephen A. Smith]

It's cool. I like it. But you the one living. I got time. You don't want to. Got to leave in a few minutes. That's why. So I got your point. Let me get. Let me get to some points, quick, before I let you get on out of here. You brought up. You brought up Joe Biden, and you talked about what legislation he obviously. He obviously signed off on. I asked this question, what about people that look at the Democratic Party right now and said, you know, this man was debilitating. And you have the Republicans leaning on the fact that you hid that from the American people. And they think that that plays a role in things that are being held against you right now as a party. To that, you say what?

[Cory Booker]

Well, I don't even know why that's an issue I talked to, by the way. Joe Biden called me today. He sounded very copious. Mentis got very argumentative. Not argumentative with me, but very fired up when he was talking to me. I don't know, man. And I never saw it. And he would call. This man would literally call me up to discuss politics. I've met no president like him.

[Stephen A. Smith]

The reason why. The reason why I bring stuff like that up is for this reason, like, for example, I love talking to you. You know, there's one person that I don't ever want to interview. I've never said this about any other human Being, and I respect her. She's a senator. I'm sure she works very diligently. She has, she has passion in her heart. But Elizabeth Warren, I can't talk to her. You know why? Because every time I see her, it comes across as, if you don't agree with her, you're going to hell. You're going to hell. You're destined for hell just because you don't agree with her. And it's like, wait a minute. Everything has to be an emotional tug of war. Sometimes it's got to be about bare bones and facts. When you, when you were complaining about Elon Musk, what was your primary complaint as it pertained to him specifically is this. I know there's a multitude of things that you could provide, but a lot of Americans were looking at him and saying, wait a minute, waste, fraud. I saw Nancy Pelosi on video back in 2010 talking about how Medicare needed to be cut. I saw Charles Chuck Schumer saying the same thing. But suddenly, you know, he's saying stuff like that. And I don't, I wasn't in support of him being in that position either. Please don't get me wrong. But I'm like, do we not know that folks are going to see those videos and they're going to point to what appears to be a level of hypocrisy on the part of the left with that stuff?

[Cory Booker]

Well, I want to make two points. I hope I can make a vote.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Sure.

[Cory Booker]

The first point is there's a guy influencer I love. He's a doctor and challenges the science of our now HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy. And so he kept challenging him, bringing up the scientific research, taking him down, taking him down. And then one day he did a video that blew me away. He did a video where he said, I'm reading my comments and people are attacking Robert F. Kennedy because of his voice. They're attacking his very per. And he went off on his own people. He said we should attack him on his science and where he's wrong. Do not demean and degrade him as his character. And so I will tell you, I've met Elon Musk. I met the man. I'm sure he did not have the kind of success he had. I don't want to demean his character at all, but I'm telling you this, what he's doing, he's even said it. They've had to pull down things off his thing. He is ready, fire, aim. As a guy who played football, we prepared, we thought out our game plan. We did the strategy with the research, then we made our execution on the football field. He is not doing that. He's firing people from the FAA that we desperately need for our security and then trying to call and get them back.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Slash and burn ain't the way to go.

[Cory Booker]

What's that?

[Stephen A. Smith]

Slash and burn ain't the way to go completely.

[Cory Booker]

But more than that.

[Stephen A. Smith]

But signing off on everything ain't good either.

[Cory Booker]

Government. What's really important is you need to have transparency. This man was being investigated by multiple government agencies that then he gets in there and he tears down the very people that were investigating his companies. And he's not coming before Congress to be transparent about it.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Okay, that's fair. But to get on him about the cuts when even, even though Clinton was an elected official, there was an abundance of cuts that he put forth towards the federal government when he was in office.

[Cory Booker]

He didn't balance budgets. Obama reduced the deficit.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Yes, he did.

[Cory Booker]

The biggest person who has blown holes in our budgets. The biggest deficits have been accrued under Donald Trump's first term. And he's now putting a budget before this Congress that we're going to be voting on soon that's going to bust another $3 trillion annually or more in our budgets. There's no fiscal responsibility in this man. So you don't think his whole plan is, is to cut and gut Medicaid in order to give more tax cuts to people in the highest income brackets disproportionately and blow a hole in the deficit. That's a pretty incredible feat to be able to do all three at the same time.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Well, somebody on the right would ask what's wrong with. For example, let's touch on the issue of terrorists real, real quickly. What's wrong with being reciprocal in that regard? In terms of other countries are putting tariffs on you, why can't you put it on them? What do you say to that?

[Cory Booker]

Because this is not the playground. It's not the playground, my friend. This is a sophisticated, complicated economy. We're the biggest economy on the planet Earth. And we don't need somebody that if you mess with me or talk about me, I'm coming after you. We need somebody that says, what is the best? Using a surgical, like precision and strategy. What is the best way to go about utilizing tariffs to ensure that we do what everybody wants to do, make America more affordable and create more jobs? Look at the stock market right now. The average family, because of the way he's going about tariffs, is going to pay 3 to $4,000 more. This is not a precision tuning of our economy for the outcomes that we all want. This is a guy that has just taken a sledgehammer to our economy and the global economy. And people all over the planet, especially the folks I care about in New Jersey, are going to be hurting because of of these incredible trade wars he's starting out. He's starting.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Chuck Schumer obviously went against you guys with the spending bill and what have you, because obviously, you know, they didn't want the federal government to shut down. And then you had a whole bunch of Democrats speaking out against him, folks wanting him going. What's your position about him still maintaining a leadership role within the Democratic Party, number one? And number two, how are you feeling about the Democratic Party right now moving forward? Forward in light of some of the things that we've been seeing not from the right, but from your own party in terms of how they choose to conduct themselves? I asked Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries the same thing, and I'm asking it to you because looking at that full screen right there, voters views of the Democratic party only a 27% positive. It's pretty bad for the Democratic Party right now. Your thoughts, sir?

[Cory Booker]

Mike Farts is like, if you get up every day thinking about what can I do to help the Democratic Party, you're thinking about the wrong thing. You need to get up every day and thinking about what you're doing for the American people. I'm sorry. New Jersey did not send me here to try to repair the Democratic Party. They sent me to Washington, D.C. to fight for them. When I go home to Newark this weekend, people are not going to say, what are you doing for the Democratic Party? They're saying, hey, what are you doing? To fight for my health care, to fight for my veterans benefits, to fight for my Social Security. I'm sorry, I'm just not getting up every day and going to bed every night worrying about the Democratic Party. I'm worried about the Americans that are suffering and hurting. And by the way, that's probably the best thing we could do as Democrats is to be focused on people and concerned with people.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Fair enough. But Senator Booker, you just told me you were a competitor. I know you play football at Stanford. I know you know your sports. I know you like competition, which means you like to win. So what I'm asking. So what I'm asking you is based on what you've seen, you see what he's doing? You see, I saw the man get convicted of 34 felony counts and his campaign dollars rose. That's what I saw. I saw the man impeach twice and the popularity didn't dissipate. I am asking you, sir, do you believe that? What's transpiring right now in terms of how y'all are going after him because of tariffs, because of Doge, because of whatever, do you believe it is a winning formula, particularly and specifically for the midterm elections?

[Cory Booker]

I believe Donald Trump got elected because a whole bunch of swing voters heard him say, I'm going to lower your grocery bills. I'm going to lower your costs. The number one thing people were talking to me about was ends aren't meeting. And this man was going on and on about that. That's the reason why, not because he was a Republican, but because people trusted and believed in him, that he would do better for his family. Now, most Americans are not better off than they were 72 days ago. They're worse off. And again, that's how he won. And if I want to win, if our party wants to win, stop talking about parties and start talking about people, about purpose, about possibilities. Get back in the streets and help some folk before you ask for their vote. And that's why I stood up on the Senate floor, to center folks in the conversation and to try to inspire some people to understand that we can do better than we're doing now.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Senator, hold on for one second. Hold on for one second because I gotta take a commercial break, but I definitely want to come back and ask you about a particular build that you've introduced. It's very, very important for everybody to know. Please don't go away. Back with more of yours truly, Senator Booker, to close out the show in a minute.

[Cory Booker]

Welcome to AutoZone. What are you working on today?

[Stephen A. Smith]

My car is making this noise. Sometimes it's like. And sometimes it's like.

[Cory Booker]

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[Stephen A. Smith]

So you don't need to hear the grr.

[Cory Booker]

Not with Fix Finder free at every AutoZone. Get in the zone.

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[Stephen A. Smith]

Welcome back. Back here with Senator Cory Book. I have one last question to get to before I let you get on out of here for the day. All right, Senator, but I'd be remiss and neglecting to ask you about a bill, you know, you introduce you establishing due process protections for college athletes during the ncaa. You know, with these NCAA investigations, I just want to read from this article here yourself, along with Marsha Blackburn, introduced the NCAA Accountability act, which would establish due process protections for college athletes, coaches and universities that are under investigation by the ncaa. Talk about that before I let you go, please, because I want everybody to know about that.

[Cory Booker]

I wish we started the conversation here because I got a lot to say.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Please take it away.

[Cory Booker]

The NCAA for decades has been allowing athletes to be exploited. It was, you remember when Shabazz Napier, they win the Final Four and they put a microphone in front of him. He says, I go to bed hungry because God forbid you accept some groceries from somebody or sell your jersey and they would kick you out of the sport. When they, the scholarships and the monies that they were making available, NCAA was below what they would need to survive on campus. And then they leave campus and then their jersey with their name on is still being sold. They're putting people in seats, making millions and millions of dollars. And yet I know guys who blew out their knees have spinal injuries and they're going in their own pockets right now to pay for their health care, for injuries they got back when they played ball. So I've been, I've been on this issue for a long time to make sure that we have college sports that make sense, but where the athletes who are through their struggle, their sweat, their grit, sometimes their blood, they're the wealth that is being generated, but they have not been taken care of. The concussion protocol, sexual assault, medical issues, academic issues, Lots of promises made, but not promises kept. And so there is a lot going on in college sports right now. And I'm working very, very hard in a bipartisan way to try to create some fair rules, some real fair rules about what's going on. And it's not just with partnering across the aisle with the good senator you were talking about in the Republican Party, but I'm working with Moran and some others, Blumenthal on my side, to try to make some progress where athletes get a fair shake and a more fair system. Because I know a lot of people are focused on the athletes that do all this. Nil. And the portals who are making lots of money and all that. I'm telling you, there are thousands of athletes. There should be a basic bill of rights. We put out an athletes bill of rights that athletes should be guaranteed to, Guaranteed if they're entering this, and helping universities and TV stations and all these people make a lot of money and long careers, but they wind up five years after they've played with medical bills, with an education that hasn't been completed and a lot of bruises, a lot of beatings, but not enough to show for it, for the wealth that they created.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Well, listen, I'm a moderate, obviously. And so when you talk about crossing the aisle and working in partnership with anybody, particularly for an issue like this, is near and dear to my heart. I cracked my kneecap when my first year in college. I know exactly the kind of stuff that you're talking about. I am here to help in any way that I can. Send her the book. I really appreciate your time. I really, really do. Thank you so much.

[Cory Booker]

No, I'm a fan of yours and appreciate your voice because you do talk about sports, but I like how you stand up. And when you say you're a moderate, that's really what I want to see more people say. Not that they're moderate. I don't care what your politics are. But the key point is people in this country that remind us that there's one American destiny, that we belong to each other, and that those words that are over the Senate, e pluribus unum, they mean something. And so I appreciate you, especially in the context of sports, which is a great part of American culture where we do all come together. I was in the locker room next to Republicans and Democrats, everybody else, and we found out that when we bled together, when we sweat together, we still get together and love on each other because we know that the bond is deeper than the political parties we have. We disagree, but we still know we belong to each other. We're brothers. And so I appreciate you, man. I've looked up to you for a long time. I hope we can get back on in the future and we can get into some of these issues. Because I like, I like sparring with you.

[Stephen A. Smith]

That's right. We definitely will, without question. And disseminating that kind of message to the masses, I think that's what could potentially win for the Democrats.

[Cory Booker]

Well, let me, let me just say this last thing to you because I've been saying this to my colleagues in caucus, ok. When we're driving down the field, I know I used to know when we were going to score a touchdown, when the other team started arguing in their huddle, sort of yelling and demeaning and degrading. I used to tell my guys in my huddle, we're going to score, we're going to score because that team is divided against itself. So I'm hoping that voices like yours are going to remind us we gotta, we may disagree with the play, you may have messed up on that play, but when we get back in that huddle, we gotta regroup, come together. Because it's a crazy world out there, a lot more competitive than people know. And our adversaries who have a different idea about freedom and liberty and justice or adversaries who want to see democracies die, they're coming after us. And our team needs to come together and be prepared to lead the world order and preserve the values that we fought in Normandy on we fought in the Pacific. We fought to say that freedom and democracy should be the best form of government. And that's something we have to get together and continue to affirm to each other.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Senator Cory Booker right here on the Stephen A. Smith Show. Really appreciate you, buddy. Thank you so much. We'll talk soon.

[Cory Booker]

Appreciate you. Thank you.

[Stephen A. Smith]

Interesting conversation. Obviously, we're going to have a lot more of it. I had a lot of stuff to get into it with them, but you know what? It's hard to interrupt politicians in sometimes, you know what I'm saying? But I tried. I tried and I'm going to try again. I'm going to try with a lot of them. Okay, so that's it for this edition of the Stephen A. Smith Show. Thanks again to Senator Cory Booker for being on the show. Needless to say, I think you can tell he'll be back along with various others. We're going to continue to have these conversations over the next several years because every week, every month, every year, stuff is happening and it's impossible to avoid those issues. We're not going to do that on this show, not by a long shot. So stick around, keep watching. Sports, pop culture, entertainment, politics, it don't matter. It's the Stephen A. Smith show where anything goes. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, I'm signing off. Peace and love.

[Cory Booker]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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