← Straight Shooter with Stephen A.
Straight Shooter with Stephen A.
THE GOP IN FLUX, MIDTERM ELECTIONS, GERRYMANDERING; INFLUENCER NICK SHIRLEY
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Stephen A. Smith
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Stephen A. Smith
Straight Shooter with Stephen A. What's up everybody? Welcome to the latest edition of Straight Shooter with yours truly, the one and only Stephen A. Smith. Coming at you as I love to every Wednesday night From sick to 8pm Eastern Standard Time over the airwaves of SiriusXM POTUS radio channel 124. Number to call up as always is 86696 POTUS. That's 86696 POTUS. That's 866-967-6887. Lines are open. I'm with you for the next two hours and I can't wait to get into some of this stuff because I want you to understand that this channel titled potus, it doesn't stand for President of the United States. It stands for People of the United States. And a lot of times over the last few months there have been some serious questions as to whether or not the people were being taken into consideration when some of the things that have been transpiring have been transpiring. So I thought it was appropriate to put out a poll because we're about six months away from the midterms. We're about six months away from the Democratic Party potentially regaining power, at least in one house of Congress. And who know, who knows, it could be both in the midterms. Anything to assuage the concerns of the American people. To walk away from having an unbalanced government, to refrain from giving all the power to one side is something that I think is good for America. So I'm not going to sit up here and lie to you and tell you that I'm wishing and hoping that the president gets what he wants. With all these Matt redistricting stuff and everything that's been going on with his recent wins in Indiana where he supported one candidate, he supported a few candidates, you know, because he didn't like the folks in Indiana voting against him last December when he wanted them to. You redistrict the maps and all of this other stuff back then. I love the Fact that right now it looks up in flux for the GOP and a Republican Party when it pertains to Trump, because you don't get to do just what you want to do, when you want to do it, how you want to do it, without being answerable to anybody. I don't believe in the United States of America, you should be an individual or an administration in power, and you should get to act with impunity. I believe there should be consequences. And who knows? For all we know, that's exactly what's transpiring. I know the reports emanating out of Indiana gives the impression that Donald Trump is indeed winning more than he's losing. And there's a lot of people that feel exactly that way, whether it's the situation with Iran that hasn't been resolved yet. He's sitting up there saying things are going well. Vice President Vance is busy out there asking farmers to be patient. Meanwhile, the American people have their reservations over Iran and the Strait of Hormuze, where you've got, what is it, 20% of the world's total petroleum liquids consumption, roughly 20 million barrels per day passing through it. And yet that's been halted by the Iranian regime, courtesy of drones and speedboats and all of this other stuff. People scared to move. And it's compromised a lot of stuff, whether it's that, whether it's what I just finished speaking of, the consolidation plus the maps and all of that stuff, whether it's economic friction because of impending inflation, whether it's that or a host of other things you can point to. If you listen to Trump and his people, they're playing the inside game right now and they're winning. And that's the way it looks, to be quite honest with you. But we keep forgetting something that the polls that I'm about to show you are going to remind you about. And somebody wrote this to me earlier today. They said the question for 2026 is whether voters are grading President Trump on the map or at the grocery store, meaning those grocery receipts. Receipts. And we all know what the answer to that is. They judge it by the receipts. If the Democratic Party had paid more attention to that, instead of woke and cancel culture leading up to the 2024 election, Trump might not be in office right now, but that was not what they did. And Trump was talking, even though he's the supposed billionaire, and you find yourself impossible, impossibly imagining how he could relate to the common man and woman out there, they felt he was more normal than what they were hearing from the Democratic Party, that's how they felt about him. But now he's in office and we get to judge his actions. And whether it's the Epstein files or it's the one Gaza or it's the war with Iran, him to saying it wasn't a war, but it really is a war. And it's something he didn't go to a Congress to authorize and instead sentence sent the secretary of state to speak to the Gang of Eight. Like that was supposed to be enough. Now we've got a situation here where Americans are getting tired of it because there's a new poll out, in case you missed it, where it's talking about a few things that's been going on and it's talking about Donald Trump and it's looking at certain things and it's, quite frankly, it's uncomfortable with it. And I want to point this out to you because I want to make sure that you see this kind of stuff, that you know what the hell is going on. Because right now, according to the polls, Donald Trump said about 37% horrible ratings. It's not looking good right now. And this is a poll that I personally put out. Over 19,000 people answered this polling question. Top 20, 26 midterm issues heading into the polls. The White House ballroom, which obviously is very, very important to Donald Trump, particularly considering the White House Correspondents Dinner and what happened there a couple of weeks ago. That issue to the American citizen is at about 3%. The gerrymandering issue, the whole redistricting thing that's been going on from state to state. Texas, soon to be Florida already, California, because Gavin Newsom certainly is not going to sit idly by and do nothing while Trump does his thing. Because that's what Gavin Newsom wants to live on. He wants to live on the fact that nobody's going to fight Trump harder and better and more effectively than he will as a governor of California who's leaving office at the end of this year. He doesn't want to come out like that. But nevertheless, the 20, the gerrymandering issue, 28. The two top issues is the Iranian war at 31% and gas prices, which is at 38. I got news for you, ladies and gentlemen, they're pretty much one and the same. They're pretty much one in the same. Because when you look at it for what it is right now, the reality of the situation is that when you pay attention to these issues and you understand what's going on, you kind of know stuff ain't Right. And something's got to give. And we got to look at it from the standpoint that what's been happening and what the American people are concerned about is something that they're going to have to deal with as it pertains to these gas prices and beyond. Look at the polls. Six months ahead of the midterm elections, the Washington Post slash ABC News Ipsis poll shows Trump's overall approval rating at 37%. What's the number one reason for that? National average gas Prices rose to $4,004.53 on Wednesday. Just a day earlier, it was $4.48. It's still below California. That's the bad news if you're a Democrat, because we all know Democrats run the state of California. So if you got the highest gas prices, you ain't in a position to talk. But California is not the country, just like New York is not the country. It's 50 states in this union. And the reality is that you got a lot of people that ain't too damn happy with some of the things that they're seeing and some of the things that's going on. It's just that simple. It's going to come down to the price. It's going to come down to the price of the grocery store. It's going to come down to the price of the gas pump. It's going to come down to these kind of things that Trump doesn't have to worry about. Not just because he was a billionaire coming into office, at least reportedly, but also because he's generated billions of revenue for himself and his family and his and his. And his flunkies since he's been in office, and he hasn't even been there for two full years. So you got to look at it from that standpoint. That's what we're talking about here. Donald Trump is in a situation right now where he doesn't relate to the American people. And if he is alive and living and thriving, it's because of the loyalty from his base of MAGA Republicans. If you are a Republican leaning towards the center, you don't relate to Donald Trump. Governor Massey out of Kentucky will tell you that he votes with Republicans 90% of the time. Trump wants him out of there because of the 10%. He speaks on behalf of his constituents and not on behalf of Donald Trump. That's why Trump has asked the Governor Massey. I'm sorry, Senator Massey. So that's a situation right there that we have to pay attention to moving forward. No doubt about it. But When I look at it, I say to myself, excuse me. They say anywhere from 45 to 60% of the population, American population, the voting electorate that is, is now independent. Now, we know we only go on one way. We're going one or two ways. Going we're going to gop. Are we going to the left? Well, so why do people call themselves Independence? Because they don't trust either damn party. Because both parties come across as either sleazy, duplicitous, or just not on their game and more interested in keeping their seats than they are in working while they're in those seats. That is what we're looking at as American people as we sit up here right now and we contemplate the election in six months from now. Me, personally, call it what you will, it's not even about Trump. I'm hoping the Democrats win. Because as far as I'm concerned, I want to be very, very clear when I say this. When you have one party ruling, there's enemies at every gate, of course, but here you have people wanting to keep their job and far more interested in that than anything else. But most importantly, I'm not thinking about that. I'm thinking about how you scare the living hell out of the American people. Because unless you're somebody who is doggedly supporting the incumbent and his administration, you want to know that the decisions that are being made involves checks and balances and that a government has come together and said this is what's in the best interest of the comp of the country. And that's why decisions are being made. And because that's the case, whatever decision that is made, there's a level of comfort, even in a face of disapproving that you can live with. And you can live with it because, you know, no matter what side you looked, each of them had an argument favoring that position that was put out there by our government to represent us as American citizens. That is what you're looking for. That is what we're lacking on Capitol Hill. That is the problem. That's the level of divisiveness that we're trying to eradicate. And so Trump can be out here bloviating all he wants about what he wants, and people could be out here complaining about Trump. Me personally, I'm sick and tired of it. I just want people to stop, because to me, it's not about him. I understand he's the President of the United States. I understand he wields a level of influence and power that has stripped a lot of our Representatives in Congress and in the Senate of any kind of spine whatsoever, I get it. But that doesn't mean it's right. That doesn't mean that he's to blame. They're supposed to be strong enough to handle it. I don't give a damn what the President wants to do or what he can do with a few executive orders, because Lord knows he's tried and he's been taken to court and he's lost many of those cases. What I care about is when our representatives in the nation's capital, when both houses of Congress capitulate like wusses just because they're scared of him. He can't do a damn thing without their support. If they did their job, we don't have much to worry about. But when they're willing to capitulate to whatever he wants, when he wants to go on his vengeance tour, when he wants to sit up there and go against, whether it's Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whether it's his Vice President J.D. vance, or whether his security folks, whether it's the CIA, FBI, anybody else, when he's receiving advice, whether that be allegedly reportedly from Benjamin Netanyahu or anyone else, and he's doing the bidding of somebody else against the interest of the American people based on evidence that some would question, we've got ourselves a problem. And that's why this polling matters. Because this polling is the kind of stuff that reels you back in, that reminds you what the American people are really concerned about. The war with Iran. What's the. What's the biggest issue with that? You know what the biggest issue was? That it's not Israel. It's not nuclear weapons. It's not all of this. Know what it is? Is that you promised the people during the campaign, no new wars, and then you reneged. Plain and simple. Point two, you bombed in nuclear sites last June. You swore they were obliterated. That turned out not to be true. Point number three, you attacked them again. You said, this is not a war. But suddenly we in a war. 20 of the world's oil supply strolling through the Strait of abuse, compromised. You say that we're close to an agreement. We don't see it. We hear lip service. It gets resolved in the next few weeks. Trump doesn't look that bad. It doesn't. He looks disastrous. And the GOP will pay the price just because people will want his power. Trump's power reeled in. Well, guess what? You should have wanted it real. Didn't begin with, this is a democracy. We want politicians to get it done. We don't want one individual ruling us. We don't want an authoritarian regime. We want a democracy. We just want our democracy to run efficiently and effectively. This Iran conflict is entering its 10th week. Week 10. Week 10. And remember, ladies and gentlemen, week 10, when it wasn't supposed to exist at all. Week 10 when a month was spent where TSA workers and others couldn't be paid $2 billion, but somehow, some way, we had the 2 billion per day for war. These are the kind of things that have to be addressed, which is, once again, put up that poll for me. Well, I want you to see what America's saying. Gas prices are the number one issue. The Iran war is issue number two. The Iran war and gas prices to me, are one and the same, regardless of how you look at it. Because if we weren't involved in a war with Iran, we wouldn't have gas prices being up as high as $4 and 53 cents, which means 38% of the American population wouldn't have that as his number one concern. But that's what's going on right now. And the issue ain't gonna go away. It's only going to foment, grow and proliferate in the mind's eye of the American people the longer this goes on. Because eventually, how long is it going to be before American soldiers, American troops, even more of them are there? How much more money are we going to spend? How much more debt are we going to build? Our Debt is at 39 trillion. Is that $39 trillion? $39 trillion inflation knocking that door. So I want to show y' all that poll, want y' all to see for yourselves what the American people are saying. And while all of that is going on, I want you to listen to Vice President Vance at a rally in Iowa talking about farmers and their suffering. I want you to listen to what the Vice President said to these folks in Iowa today. Listen to this. We also know. We also know that a lot of our farmers are struggling with high fertilizer prices. I'm aware of that. As the President, United States has said, we got a little. A little blip in the Middle East. We've got to take care of some business on the foreign policy side. But you know what we're doing? Simultaneously, we're working with the congressmen and we're finding ways every single day to make sure that you guys and the farmers of this great state get access
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Nick Shirley
to the products that they need.
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Stephen A. Smith
We're working on it. We're working on it every single day, really. And we're just. They're just supposed to believe. Vice President Vance, huh? Well, somebody one upped them. And that's the President, who also spoke earlier today, and he spoke about this war with Iran. Listen to what the President had to say. I built the military in my first term with the help of a lot of great admirals, generals and everybody else, and I didn't know we'd be using it quite so much. But that's okay, whatever it is, because in the case of Iran, we're not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon, and we're not going to let that happen. And we. We won't let that happen. And so we're. We're dealing with people that want to make a deal very much, and we'll see whether or not they can make a deal that's satisfactory to us. We have it very much under control. The blockade is unbelievable. The Navy has been incredible. The job they did is like a. It's like a wall of steel. Nobody goes through in particular. The Iranians, they're not getting anything through one way or the other. So they're out of business. And we'll see whether or not they are agreeing. And if they don't agree, they'll end up agreeing shortly thereafter. Ain't that what he said about eight, nine weeks ago? I think it is. I'm pretty sure it was what he just said was at the White House today at the military Mother's Day event. But I believe he echoed those words just weeks ago, like eight, nine weeks ago. For he said, they're going to agree no matter what. Don't you worry. And there's nothing getting through and everything's fine. Then why isn't it over? This is why he's slipping in the polls, ladies and gentlemen. This is why his poll numbers are awful. This is why the GOP is in trouble, because they've capitulated too much and now they're gonna have to live with their unwillingness to push back against him. And some of the things that he's wanted to do out of sheer petulance, it just never, ever stops until it does. Usually when an incumbent loses an election, if not for himself, certainly for the candidates in both houses of Congress he's rooting for. But in this case, there is no doubt the President would have brought it on himself. Would have brought it on himself. 866-967. 6887 is the number to call up. That's 86696. POTUS you're listening live to Straight Shooter with yours truly, Stephen A. Your calls and more before Mr. Nick Shirley comes on to start off our number two. Stick around. You're listening live to Straight Shooter with your boy. Be back with more in a minute. Game time is creeping up and you're still sitting there trying to figure out how you're going to watch. The last thing you need is to sign up for yet another streaming service you don't even want just to watch one game. That's where Sling steps in. With Sling, you call the shots. Want to watch that one big NBA matchup on ESPN? Get a one day pass starting at just 499. Want to catch an entire series of the NHL playoffs on TNT? Check out a seven day pass. And if you just can't get enough Slings, monthly packages give you even more options. We're at that point in the season where every game, every moment matters. Sling can make sure you're locked in for all of it without paying for a bunch of channels you don't care about. Watch the games you want, when you want, with no long term commitments. Sling lets you do that. Visit sling.com to learn more. That's sling.com out on the road, it's
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Nick Shirley
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Stephen A. Smith
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Nick Shirley
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Stephen A. Smith
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Nick Shirley
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Caller
I guess for your colleagues in the Senate who are gonna face those tough votes, right?
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Stephen A. Smith
And you know, you have faced so
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Nick Shirley
many tough over the years and some
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Stephen A. Smith
of them, you know, results in mix. Do what your constituents want you to do. Just let the chips fall where they make. That's what I did. Over 3,000 phone calls, 90% of which said do not go for redistricting.
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Nick Shirley
That's why I didn't do it.
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Stephen A. Smith
We weren't privileged to see the maps until House had the maps the weekend
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Caller
before they went into session.
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Stephen A. Smith
Even though I was promised we would see the maps on October 11th because
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Caller
the Vice President told me we would
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Stephen A. Smith
have the maps the next day. When I started asking the question then
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Caller
when we have the maps and he
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Stephen A. Smith
said you'll have them the next day. I didn't see him until December 1st. Vote for the maps. Don't ask any questions. That was state. Indiana State Senator Travis Holdeman. Believe it or not, he was the highest ranking Indiana state senator on President Donald Trump's target list. He lost his Republican primary race. He was seeking reelection to his northeastern Indiana seat. But fellowship to Bluffton City Councilman Blake Feichter. Feichter. I believe that's how you pronounce it. The Associated Press called Feister's victory as he had received 60% of the vote in preliminary tallies. Holman was looking to retain the Senate District 19 seat he's held since 2008. He had considerable state House clout as Senate Majority Caucus Chair and leader of the chamber's Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee. He was also the highest ranking member of the Senate's GOP leadership to face a Trump endorsed challenger after voting against the congressional redistricting bill in December. That made him something of a proxy for the IRA of Trump directed at Senate Republican leader Roderick Bray, who isn't up for reelection until 2028. So listen, this is what Trump does. You don't do what he wants you to do. He's coming for you. It's just that simple. Triple eight mad. I'm sorry. 866-967. Six eight, eight, seven. That's 86696 POTUS. At some point in time, folks got to have a backbone. He's got his MAGA base, but that's not going to be enough to help the GOP in the midterms as far as I'm concerned. And I don't know if it's going to be enough to help the GOP nominee for 2028. Now, to me personally, I'm on the record, I'm not a JD Vance fan. I'm just not. I'm just not. I think that he's tried too hard to be like Trump, you know, appeasing and acquiescing to him. I think he was, you know, negotiating for the, for peace with Iran. I think he got in the middle of that because he asked for it, not because Trump appointed him to it. I don't think. I don't think that Trump voluntarily thought about him. I think he asked for it because he's trying to be relevant, because he wants to make build his name and his cachet, because he knows that his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has been doing just that. I believe Marco Rubio to be the adult in the room. I believe him to be somebody that comports and composes himself the way a high ranking official should, whether you agree or disagree with him. Smart as a whip, very articulate, knows the issues backwards and forwards, you know, and he's not about things the way that J.D. vance is, in my opinion. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, who's leaving office end of this year, I think he's another viable candidate. I don't think he's got that scissor, that pizzazz that he needs, but I think he could get it because he certainly is proven that he knows how to lead. And I disagree with some of the things that he has said and done, but there is no doubt that he lets you know he's running Florida. There's no confusion as who the leader is. Okay. And in the interest of full disclosure, I actually had the pleasure of meeting Governor Ron DeSantis earlier this week and it was a nice brief conversation to say the least. And again, I'm no Republican, but I'm fair, you know. And I know the man is hella, he's hella fat, smart. He's smart as a whip, no doubt about it. So GOP got a couple of challenges to 2028, but if riding with Trump is the way to go, I think only Trump can ride with Trump and get away with it. I think anybody else that tries to do that, no matter how these primaries go and all of that stuff I think is fool's gold. I think it will end in disaster for the GOP. But that's just my opinion. 866-967-6887. That's 86696 POTUS, you're listening live. The straight shooter with yours truly. Let's go to the phones. Let's go to Remy in Canada. You're live with Stephen A. How are you, Remy?
- [29:48]
Caller
Hey, what's going on? Stephen A.
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Stephen A. Smith
Speak up. What's going on?
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Caller
Hey man, I'm a big fan. Glad you're doing this, man. And I hope to see you on the stage in 2028 because you're going to be fireworks up there. So my comment or question to you is about this Iran war and everything going on. And I just wonder in your take, in 2016, Obama signed a deal with Iran and everything. And we're about up there right now, 2026. So I was wondering, do you think that played an effector with Trump going into war right now with Iran?
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Stephen A. Smith
No, I doubt that. I doubt that. I mean, I'm going to take the reports on its value and trust the reporters that are out there on the scene and not engage in, you know, conspiracy theories and all of this other stuff, have no doubt that Trump is fixated on usurping Obama or at least achieving all that Obama has achieved and then some. You know, Trump wants a Nobel Peace. He wants a Nobel Peace Prize badly. I don't think he's getting that now. But I definitely think that he wants that he wants to be beloved, he wants to be revered. No question about it. I think those things are incredibly important to him. But I'm not going to insult him by saying that's the reason this is happening. My personal opinion, albeit with no definitive proof, I can only go by what I've read, what I've heard, and me believing some of the pundits out there and what they've had to say. I just interviewed Megyn Kelly, for example, on Straight Shooter yesterday, and I asked her about Trump and why she thinks that he's entered this fray with Iran. And she absolutely believes that it was because of Benjamin Netanyahu. But she also pointed to reports in the Wash, in the Wall Street Journal, in the New York Times, and how Netanyahu was in, you know, in, in the Situation Room and given a PowerPoint presentation and Trump went to his security folks and was asking questions and they all said it was not, it wasn't much about anything. And Trump sided with Netanyahu and that's why he's in this. That's what she says. I respect the hell out of Megyn Kelly in terms of her knowledge and what she brings to the table, not to mention her sources and her connection. Cuz she's been a journalist for years. I'm not here to question her. And I don't think it's beyond the pale of reasonability or it's beyond the pale of comprehension that Trump would make that decision on his own to decide to vibe with Netanyahu rather than his own folks from his own administration. But I don't know that definitively. I just know that I believe others and what they've had to say in their reporting on this issue. And if that's the case, then that opens up a bigger can of worms because we know what a war hawk Benjamin Netanyahu is and we know that in his world he would prefer to decimate and obliterate, of course, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran being the number one sponsor for terrorism with these folks as their proxies and all of this. I know he wants to eradicate them. He wants to wipe them off the earth because he knows they want to wipe Israel off the face of this earth. But the bottom line is, does that mean his information was false? I don't know the answer to that question. Some people in the Trump administration believe it was. Trump clearly believed it was not, and as a result, he decided to take this action. What I try to do when it comes to Trump is follow the money. Anything that leads to any kind of profitability for him, his name, his brand, his family, I 1000% do not trust. I don't trust it. And no, no matter how much he supposedly doesn't want wars or anything like that, do I put anything past Trump when it comes to padding his own coffers or that of his family and his alkalites, do I think, do I put anything past him? No, I do not. I'm sorry, I don't. I'm not saying he did anything like that. I don't know. I'm saying I don't put it past him because I do think to some degree he's proven that he can't be trusted. Now, that doesn't mean Democrats could be trusted. It doesn't mean pundits can be trusted either. It doesn't mean other people in the administration can be trusted. It doesn't mean senators and congressional figures can be trusted. It's all, It's a cesspool, people. That's why America is in so much trouble, because the, the good has been squashed into oblivion and irrelevance. Everything's about dancing with the devil. It's the damn problem, yet one we must overcome if we're going to live in the same world. Plain and simple. Plain and simple. 866-969-67-6887 is 86696, POTUS 9. Let me go to a call again before I go to break. Let's go to Aaron in New Jersey. You're live with Stephen A. Aaron, what's up, man? Turn off the radio. Aaron, you live on air, my brother, Turn off your radio. Let's go.
- [35:18]
Caller
Hey, Stephen, great show, man. I gotta ask you, it ties into the fraud question up in Minnesota, you know, Democrats, somebody was just indicted down in Virginia as well. How are they going to reconcile with all this fraud? And after all the denialism that they had these.
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Stephen A. Smith
They're not going to try to. Aaron, don't you know that by now? They're not going to try it. They're not going to try to reconcile it. You know what they're going to do? They're going to point the finger at Trump and they're going to tell you that it's a threat to democracy, and it's a threat to this, and it's a threat to that. And that's why you got to make a decision. This is one of the reasons I'm in the Urban Registered Independent, because both things could be true. The fact of the matter is that you could say every heinous thing you want to say as a Democrat about Trump, and you may be 1000% right in what you're articulating at that particular moment, but it doesn't absolve you from the trifling stuff you've done as a party or as a Democrat. All right, so two things could be true. But unfortunately, in the system that we live in, it forces you and compels you to make a choice, doesn't it? You can either choose one side or the other, meaning the lesser of two evils, or you could choose not to participate at all. And unfortunately, far more often than not, we're seeing people do just that, not participating, which is one of the concerns that we have, because the greatest conduit of change in a democracy, as far as I'm concerned, is actually voting, because you could always change the personnel, and maybe that gives you a better chance at changing some of the things that are transpiring, but in the same breath, sometimes it may not. So it's a pain in the ass, Aaron. It's a pain in the ass,
- [36:56]
Caller
first and foremost. Also, just, hey, thanks. Thanks for your honesty. You know, I talked to Chris Cuomo this morning. Kind of gave him the whole spiel about that, and he had a much different response. So I appreciate your candid honesty there, Stephen.
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Stephen A. Smith
Well, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. But I love my man Chris Cuomo. And, you know, I mean, when it comes to. The brother's brilliant, and he's been doing this for years, and he knows far more than me, so I wouldn't encourage you to ignore anything that's coming out of his mouth. You should be very, very proud to be listening to Chris Cuomo and every weekday morning. That man knows his stuff. That man knows his stuff. I'm telling you, he knows his stuff. I'm learning. He knows. You know, he's a master at this. Make no mistake about it. Respect that man. POTUS radio, SiriusXM, channel 124, is very, very, very lucky to have that man on its airwaves. I'm telling. I'll vouch for Chris Cuomo all day, every day. I'm here to tell you. Let me go to Greg in Michigan, you're live with Stephen A. What's up,
- [37:55]
Caller
Stephen a. Boom shakalaka. Mr.
- [37:57]
Stephen A. Smith
Positive Lock. What's going on, man?
- [38:00]
Caller
Oh, my God. Way to talk about our buddy Chris Cuomo. I love him. I'm texting him right now what you just said. Algorithms. Because radicalization.
- [38:11]
Stephen A. Smith
Yeah.
- [38:12]
Caller
How do we change these cultural memes that people are propagating for profit to cause such division the world?
- [38:23]
Stephen A. Smith
How do we stop it? Congress has to get on top of it. They have to sit up there and they can't give these AI companies and beyond carte blanche, and they can't condone people putting out bots, using bots and putting out false images and all of this other stuff, because it's creating chaos in our country and it's going to do far more harm than good. And when you talk, particularly in the age that we're living in, where mental health has just bumped to the forefront of our mind's eye because of the inordinate amount of cases that we've seen where people just can't take stuff anymore, I don't believe our government should ignore the importance of bringing a heavy hand down. I'm not one. Listen, I believe in free market capitalism, you know, for the most part, but I don't like something devoid of any kind of safety nets whatsoever. I think safety nets are always important when you're dealing with humans, because humans can be corrupt on far more occasions than we would like, and I don't like that. And I think when you see the advent of AI following the advent of social media and streaming and all of that, and I think that you see the, the power to reach people and to influence their minds, particularly when you're able to catch folks at a very young age. You know, I know plenty of kids. You know, my daughter, I got a big time problem with her and this addiction she has to being on social media, but I can't watch it. F24.7, Greg. But this addiction to social media and how everybody's got their Instagram pages, everybody's on Tik Tok and all of this other stuff, and the kind of imagery that they can throw in a kid's direction, it should be very, very concerning for us, whether it's Rona, whether it's former Senator Joe Manchin who spoke on this issue, and, and he, he, he's been a guest on this show speaking about how we need to pay rapt attention to what needs to be done on Capitol Hill to reel all of this stuff in. I think, Craig, that's the direction that we have to go in. That's the answer to your question.
- [40:22]
Caller
Are you saying that arguably the arbiter of free speech should be dictated by maybe the government or.
- [40:31]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm not the free speech. I'm saying, I'm saying when it's known lies, when it's fabrications, when you can take an imagery of me and, and pretend that it's me that's saying something in 2026 when that's not true, that does damage to me. That's like somebody like, you know what, for example, free speech doesn't mean you can scream fire in. In a crowded movie theater because that can lead to harm and that can get you arrested, could it not? So my point to you is that even though we have free speech in the same breath, we have common sense restrictions because we recognize that it doesn't. Free speech doesn't give you the right to implement harm to innocent human beings in our country and in our society. Not just here, but abroad and throughout the world. You shouldn't have a license to do something like that. So if you want to communicate, be an honest broker while you're doing so. If it's you, make sure they know it's you. If it's a. If it's fake, make sure they know it's fake. Let's not engage in deception. When I'm seeing stuff online and in social media and beyond, Greg, and I'm like, is this true? And I got my team saying, nope, fake account, no fake image, nope, fake information. That kind of stuff has to be reeled in. That's all I'm saying.
- [41:50]
Caller
Very good, my friend. And real quick, when you talk about free speech and you talk about screaming fire in a theater, I believe that you probably could. But here's the thing. The justification is that there is none, but you get the consequence of the law and you get, you get thrown in jail and you pay a fine. So the free speech, I think might be augmented or be able to be articulated when there's a fire in a theater, but you have to pay the consequences.
- [42:18]
Stephen A. Smith
That's the whole point. Then it ain't that free. I understand. Some would argue that what I'm saying is it's free them. It's freedom with. In reason. It's almost the equivalent. It's an. On a totally different subject, when Ronald Reagan in the 80s said trust but verify. Yes, there's something along those lines. It's something along those lines. In other words, go ahead, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll move forward but we need to verify first because, I mean, we ain't gonna just take your word. We want to take your word. We'll listen, but damn it, we gonna double check. Same.
- [42:47]
Caller
Stephen, a real quick David shepherd would love to be on with you. He loves you. He's really wants to talk basketball with you.
- [42:56]
Stephen A. Smith
Who's that?
- [42:57]
Caller
And you were right about LeBron going to the New York Knicks. Oh, my God. Can you imagine that? Oh, my God. When you said that today, I went, wow.
- [43:06]
Stephen A. Smith
This is a political show, though. It's not a sports show. But I got you and I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. 866-967-6887. That's 86696, POTUS. You're listening live with Stephen, a straight shooter with yours truly. More of your calls to close out hour number one before we go to Mr. Nick Shirley in our number two. Stick around, don't go away. I got more to say. I'm not finished. I'm just getting started. Straight shooter with yours truly. Back with more in a.
- [43:34]
Nick Shirley
A vacation rental should come with support, not surprises.
- [43:37]
Stephen A. Smith
That's why VRBO comes with a VRBoCare guarantee and 24. 7 life support from real people. So if something goes sideways, VRBoCare can help. If the host cancels. Verbocare if the listing says heated pool,
- [43:48]
Nick Shirley
but there's actually no pool to heat. Definitely a verbo care thing.
- [43:51]
Stephen A. Smith
If my teenager starts calling me Leslie instead of mom, that's a family thing.
- [43:54]
Nick Shirley
Leslie.
- [43:55]
Stephen A. Smith
That makes sense. Sorry. Book with support, not surprises. Verbocare and 24. 7 life support if you know you VRBO terms apply. See vrbo.com trust for details.
- [44:05]
Nick Shirley
Out on the road, it's nice to have a partner who can help you make the most of your journey. A partner like the Love's Rewards app. With Love's Rewards along for the ride, you can earn points and get great deals like a free coffee or fountain drink. Just buy any four, any size and get the fifth one free. How refreshing is that? Download the app today and let the points roll in mile after mile. Love's Rewards Save and earn at every turn. Terms apply. See website for details. Speaker Revis how you doing? What do you think about the Stop Nick Shirley Act AB 2624?
- [44:49]
Stephen A. Smith
I don't know anything about it.
- [44:50]
Nick Shirley
And do you think there's any conflict of interest there with Mia Bonta and her husband being the ag? That just shows you everything you need to know. These people won't even answer the questions. You're a co author of the Stop Nick Shirley Act. Oh, you know who I am? My name is Nick Shirley.
- [45:06]
Stephen A. Smith
Ma', am.
- [45:06]
Nick Shirley
You signed off on the AB 2624 Act. Can you tell us about what you did on that?
- [45:12]
Stephen A. Smith
I don't even know who you are.
- [45:13]
Nick Shirley
Well, my name is Nick Shirley, but could you please just answer any question about the AB 2624 bill? A lot of people are worried about that. It's going to stop fraud investigations. But you're the one who signed off and you're a co author of it. These people are crazy. They can't even answer your questions about the bills that they're co authoring.
- [45:32]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm looking forward to talking to our next guest at the top of the hour. That was Nick Shirley, conservative online influencer known for his controversial political videos. Looking forward to talking to him. The only thing that I would tend to disagree with him with, with what he was saying there with his videos is this. People have the right to be quiet if they want to. They don't have to talk to you. They don't have to answer your questions. You're saying you can't believe. You can't believe. You can't believe. People can talk to you when they want to. People can choose not to talk to you when they don't want to. Even elected officials. Yeah, it actually exists. They can refrain. 866-967-6887. That's 8669-6-POTUS. Let's go back to the phones. Let's go to Scott in Texas. You're live with Stephen A. Scott. How are you?
- [46:25]
Caller
I'm doing great. Nice to talk to you, Stephen A.
- [46:28]
Stephen A. Smith
Thank you, sir. Go ahead.
- [46:30]
Caller
There's astounding biblical evidence that Donald Trump is the Antichrist. Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been sounding the alarms. Obviously, Carlson is trying to walk that back. I'm interested in this subject. I've written a comprehensive blog, a young adult thriller based on this information. And it's astounding. And I think your listeners and the entire world need to know.
- [46:54]
Stephen A. Smith
I don't. I don't. Do you know why, Scott? Do you know why?
- [47:00]
Caller
I don't know.
- [47:01]
Stephen A. Smith
Because it's too late. I would have liked to have seen that before the damn election in 2016 and in 2020 and in 2024. The man has been the face of the Republican Party for the last 11 years. Where you been?
- [47:23]
Caller
I want to tell you the key piece. I mean, I've been holding.
- [47:26]
Stephen A. Smith
Hold it, hold it. Don't talk to me about what you want to tell me before answering my Question. Where have you been? It's been 11 years.
- [47:36]
Caller
The key piece happened in 2025.
- [47:40]
Stephen A. Smith
So another. Hold on. So in other words, until 2020 for the first 10 years. Okay. Not. I'm just entertaining it because I think that's hyperbolic for you to say. Me personally, and I don't know if you're qualified to be calling another human being the Antichrist, but I'm gonna put play along just for a second. You're telling me that it wasn't until 2025 that you believed he was the Antichrist?
- [48:08]
Caller
It was a final piece from Revelations that came to fruition that solidified the deal. Yes, it was that Butler Penns assassination attempt.
- [48:17]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay. Why the Butler PA Assassination? Why? What happened? What was it? What was the Antichrist moment? What was it?
- [48:25]
Caller
Revelations 13:3. I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery, but the fatal wound was healed. The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast.
- [48:39]
Stephen A. Smith
The whole world Marvel. And that's what the thing is. The whole world marveled and gave allegiance to the beast? Is that what you just said?
- [48:47]
Caller
Absolutely.
- [48:48]
Stephen A. Smith
Didn't 75 million people vote against him?
- [48:52]
Caller
Well, when you say whole world, I
- [48:53]
Stephen A. Smith
mean what, what you see, you got to be careful. You got to be careful because you said the whole world, and now you're trying to interpret what the whole world is. See, it goes right out the window. 70, nearly 75 million people voted against them. Millions more. You got that 37% approval rating right now, which means 63% are against them. You got the Republicans in danger of losing the midterms. You've got people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson and others and Megyn Kelly and them speaking out against them, even though Megyn Kelly said she'd still vote for him ahead of any of the Democrats. So the point is, that's not the whole world. A matter of fact, half the world's against them. So you see how that doesn't work.
- [49:47]
Caller
Oh, Stephen A. That if the entire world, every single human being, was following the Antichrist, there would be no point in warning those against him. So it depends on your definition. The whole world.
- [49:59]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, I'm just quote you now because when you. Again, what I'm saying to you is this. Let me, let me, let me, Let me. Let me put it where the goats can get it. Scott, do you want to be listened to or do you want to be heard? What I mean by that is that you're not understanding that the minute you come out and you say antichrist you're dismissed. Because there are those who hate him, they think about him that way anyway. And then there are those who don't hate him that think you're crazy. So it defeats the per. There's what I'm trying to say is the same things that you're trying to say without bringing up the book of Revelations, without bringing up the Antichrist, without saying that you could actually find a more effective way and a more effective audience if you didn't engage in something that someone in opposition could immediately label as, you know, just being out there. You're defeating your own argument is what I'm saying. Because you're whistling into the wind. Because you've chosen to go to hyperbolic route, which is the mistake Trump coaxes his enemies into so they could be summarily dismissed. Our number two up next. I'm really trying to help, ladies and gentlemen. I'm really trying to help. But you got to listen and you got to want to be heard. Our number two up next, Straight Shooter with Stephen A. Nick Shirley's video about the Minneapolis fraud schemes to active, you know, judges issuing warrants for this investigation. In a matter of three months, we've got 280 law enforcement officers working on this problem. We really have the most accelerated, aggressive anti fraud operation that we've ever seen from the federal government. And again, it's because the president United States empowered his team to go after this. That's what we're doing. And this is just a very, very good next step. That was the vice president just about a week or two ago, if I remember correctly. Speaking about my next guest. He's 24 years old. He's a conservative online influencer known for controversial political videos that have garnered millions of views across his social media platforms. Please welcome for the first time to the Straight Shooter with Stephen a Mr. Nick Shirley to the show. Nick, how are you, sir? How's everything?
- [52:30]
Nick Shirley
Amazing. Happy to be talking with you today, my man.
- [52:33]
Stephen A. Smith
I appreciate it. Thanks so much. Didn't know much about you until recently. I'm getting to know a lot about you and I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to be on the show. So you heard what the vice president had said about you. Speak about that for a second. How did you feel when you saw that the vice president spoke about you in such glowing fashion?
- [52:52]
Nick Shirley
It's great to know that right now they are trying to crack down on this fraud and they are cracking down on the fraud. And so I think for me, the coolest thing has been to see like the ripple effect it's created across the nation. From my work alone exposing the fraud to now the fraud being, now the fraud being solidified, that the fraud is real. Because a lot, for a long time people didn't think the fraud was real. But now everyone knows that the fraud is real. So that's been good to see.
- [53:19]
Stephen A. Smith
Now when you say the fraud is real, speak specifically to where you are talking about. Because I know you're not speaking in generalities, you're not just saying of course, I mean, of course we all know fraud exists across the nation no matter what, but it sounds like you're speaking about somewhere specifically when you talk about Minnesota, when you talk about California. What are you talking about when you're saying now that they know the fraud is real?
- [53:39]
Nick Shirley
Yeah, specifically the fraud in Minnesota with the childcare and then also like all the welfare programs they had there. And same with California. I mean, so much fraud took place inside of California. Hundreds of billions of dollars just from their Medicare alone, their Medicaid system there.
- [53:55]
Stephen A. Smith
We're talking to Nick Shirley right here with Stephen, a straight shooter with Stephen A. I mean he's a 24 year old conservative online influencer. It's California Democrats, they call it AB 2624, but a lot of folks out there are calling it the Stop Nick Shirley act. It's about protecting people from harassment and doxing. You say it's an attack on journalism. Is the state trying to stop intimidation or stop reporters like yourself in your
- [54:24]
Nick Shirley
mind, Nick, they're trying to stop people from investigating fraud, specifically in immigration support providers. So for instance, an NGO that receives our tax dollars for illegal migrants or for just migrants in general, that money is our money that's public, that's money from our taxes. They're trying to make that money confidential. And so it would be a crime to go and expose an NGO that is committing fraud or just to investigate it would become a crime. And for instance, if I were to go expose the leering center in Minnesota, if that learning center was in California, it would be a crime because they provide services to migrants.
- [55:07]
Stephen A. Smith
Nick, you know what, going back to that and let's talk about Minnesota, It's December of 2025. You gained attention, national attention for videos you had posted online touring supposedly abandoned Somali run daycares in Minnesota that you claimed were fraudulently receiving public funding and confronting workers. By the way, this led to federal investigation. CBS News reported that although some locations had safety and cleaning violations, they remained operational, licensed and inspected by state regulators shortly before the video ultimately Finding the allegations to be unsubstantiated. This is what they were saying about your video. In fact, the woman, I forgot her name, was found to be the program's ringleader, not Somali citizens. So one would ask, knowing that, how do you make sure you don't spread. I want to make sure. How do you make sure you don't spread misinformation or what some would label extreme, extreme viewpoint? Talk to me about the process that you go through to ensure that folks wouldn't be able to say that kind of stuff about you.
- [56:04]
Nick Shirley
Yeah, it's super important that people can trust me as a source to go out and show them what's actually happening inside our country. So, for instance, with the min. With the Minnesota fraud that took place, the man inside that video, David, he had been investigating this fraud for years upon years. And then he had the physical amount of money that these daycares received. And so when I go unannounced to these daycares, for instance, and there's not a single child at any of these daycares in Minnesota, it's very. It's not even. That is just straight up fraud. And obviously these daycares will have children in it. When they announce that they're going to go visit one of these daycares, you'd be very stupid not to. And you just saw that the learning center has been raided. They just raided 22 other locations. And so for all the locations that are where I went inside that video, those places even at times have been reported by local news stations for fraud. But it just took. It took me to get national attention on this issue in a lot of
- [57:06]
Stephen A. Smith
these cases, on a Minnesota daycare fraud story that we're talking about here. Well, politicians, activists, or dare I say advocates, advocacy groups staring you towards those specific targets behind the scenes?
- [57:18]
Nick Shirley
No, not at all. Actually, I had learned about that fraud back in June because I had went to Minnesota to make a separate video, and the locals started telling me about this fraud that was taking place. And I said, well, what fraud are you talking about? And they're talking about the daycares, the adult home health cares, the assisted living centers, that they're. That they're popping up next to these homes where these real estate agents are trying to sell homes, but they can't tell their clients that there's this Somal Iran assisted living center where there's nothing going on. They can't tell their clients that that's happening next door. So that's how I heard about the front.
- [57:51]
Stephen A. Smith
If there's nothing going on. How are these people getting money from American citizens, stuff like that? How are you running a daycare center? And it's not a daycare center, but you get money from people. I mean, if it's a daycare center, you're bringing your kid there, ain't you? I mean, how are you. You're giving up money. You ain't. You're dropping your kid off to somebody, ain't you? I mean, how is. Is it that they're getting money and that con, that, that. That inordinate amount of fraud was taking place and folks in Minnesota were getting hoodwinked. Explain how that went down based on your reporting.
- [58:17]
Nick Shirley
So there's two ways it took place, Stephen. So you either have families who are getting kickbacks by enrolling their kids into these daycares, or what happened in a lot of cases is these people were able to get federal money without ever having to go through the proper vetting or through the state. So a lot of that money was federal and state money. The majority of it was federal money through CCAP funding. And so they were able to essentially get this money without any restrictions. In fact, underneath Biden, they lifted a lot of these restrictions that let fraud. Let fraud take place, and they made it easier for these companies, for these companies to get money from the government. Like the welfare programs have received like thousand percent increases in budgets in Minnesota.
- [59:05]
Stephen A. Smith
Have any of these stories that you've reported on turned out to be wrong, incomplete or overstated to this point?
- [59:12]
Nick Shirley
No. In fact, none.
- [59:18]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay. And where. And where have your stories been? The one in Minnesota? Sure, you talked about California. Where else have you done stories investigating fraud and stuff of this nature?
- [59:27]
Nick Shirley
So as far as the fraud goes, I've looked into it heavily inside Minnesota. Obviously in California right now, like in California, they shut down over 500 hospices. I exposed the hospice fraud. Not a single hospice has said, hey, let us open back our hospice since they were exposed for committing fraud.
- [59:44]
Stephen A. Smith
Wow.
- [59:44]
Nick Shirley
So this is a nationwide issue. And I just opened up the can of worms in Minnesota, in California, and now you're seeing it take place everywhere.
- [59:52]
Stephen A. Smith
And you've decided to do this on your own, or were you prodded to do it by others?
- [59:57]
Nick Shirley
Yeah, great question. So for the past two years, Stephen, I've been making YouTube videos every single week for the past two years. So this video, to me, it was just another weekly upload for my YouTube channel. And little did I know it was going to open up a nationwide fraud case.
- [60:13]
Stephen A. Smith
I understand that, but what I'm asking Is I want to know because the reason I'm asking is because you've confronted people on camera with videos. I, I mean, you look like a nice kid or whatever. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm surprised that these people haven't tried to do harm to you. I mean, who do you show up with? What kind of security, if any, do you have? How safe are you? Are you not safe? I'm asking those kind of questions right now because this is dangerous work that you're putting forth. You know that it is dangerous.
- [60:42]
Nick Shirley
Especially I busted $2 billion fraud scheme so far. So fraudsters aren't happy with me. And I do have to have security now when I do go to places. Because you do have radicalized individuals who are angry about the fraud being exposed. Especially after Minnesota, I got a plethora of death threats from people who said they wanted to kill me or they, they even gave me specific dates on the day that I would be dead inside of a ditch on the side of the highway. And so the threats are very real. And so when I do go film now, I have to have security with me, which is very unfortunate, but it's just the reality.
- [61:16]
Stephen A. Smith
It's unfortunate, but it's reality. How much security do you have with you?
- [61:19]
Nick Shirley
When I go travel, I at least bring one person with me. Like when I just went to Cuba, I brought two people with me. When I filmed in California, I had three people with me.
- [61:29]
Stephen A. Smith
Now, again, going back to it because you've accused organizations of massive fraud and videos now seen by millions, I'm just wondering about the responsibility you take of, um, for a part of a story. Like you said, nothing has been wrong or whatever the case may be. Uh, but you pride yourself in being a journalist. So that responsibility is something that I'm gonna, I'm gonna say obviously weighs heavy on you. What methods do you go through to ensure that you are as correct as you possibly can that people should believe in what you're saying? I know back right now where you're coming across. It's like you're batting 2 for 2 with Minnesota and California, but I'm still asking that question nevertheless.
- [62:10]
Nick Shirley
Yeah, so all the information I get is public information, that the daycare money from Minnesota, that's public information. As far as how much money they're getting, the money for the hospices in California, that was public information from cms, from HHS Health and Human Services. So I report on what's happening. And then sometimes, like in my California video, I was like, well, I Went to one of the locations like, well, I don't know if that's enough to say this is fraud, but it is strange. This location got $19 million and has 16,000 beneficiaries. So a lot of times it's providing the value for people to see it and then they make their own analysis as well. I'm not labeling every location as fraudulent. I'm showing people where our money's going.
- [62:54]
Stephen A. Smith
Understood. Supporters say you expose real corruption, but critics say you're reporting fuel suspicion toward immigrant communities. Do you worry there's a line between exposing fraud and creating fear?
- [63:10]
Nick Shirley
No, I think fraud's all of our dollars. I mean, when you pay taxes, it's just as much as a Republican dollar as a Democrat dollar. And I think these, these politicians need to stop using immigrant communities to commit fraud.
- [63:24]
Stephen A. Smith
And that's what you think this is about? They're using immigrants. They're using migrants and immigrants to, to commit fraud. That's what you believe this is all about?
- [63:32]
Nick Shirley
Yeah. In a lot of these cases, Minnesota, they use the Somalians. In California, they use the Armenians, and they let that happen for years upon years.
- [63:44]
Stephen A. Smith
Nick Shirley, right here with Straight Shooter with Stephen A. You know, as I sit here and think about what you're saying, when I noticed Minnesota, I noticed California. Are there any red states, Republican states that you've investigated?
- [63:59]
Nick Shirley
Yeah, I've looked into some of these states. When I do these videos, it takes a while for me to do so. I do, for instance, want to go to Texas and expose some of the H1B visa fraud that takes place there. You have a lot of these people who are coming over on these fake H1B visas and they're making in there and they're taking jobs from Americans. I know there's a lot of fraud here in Florida as well. In the state where I'm from in Utah, I've heard there's a lot to fraud as well. I don't know if I want to kick the bees nest where I live, but I also think it's the responsibility of these states to also go after this fraud.
- [64:34]
Stephen A. Smith
So you're not of the mindset. It's not a conservative or Democrat thing or liberal thing with you. It's crime. It's lawlessness versus lawfulness. That's what it is for you.
- [64:46]
Nick Shirley
100% in Minnesota and California just happen to have the most amount of fraud. That's why I went there. And those are the same states that are actively suing the government for investigating the fraud too.
- [64:58]
Stephen A. Smith
And how much are they suing the government? What's their case to the government as it pertains to AB 2624? I mean, when you say they're suing state, they're suing the government for investigating fraud, what exactly is their argument and what do you say to refute their argument?
- [65:13]
Nick Shirley
Yeah, for instance, in Minnesota, they, they're suing the government. They don't want to give them the numbers of people who are on SNAP benefits, for instance, on food stamps, when they, when they asked for, when they froze the funding to some of these states. The states then sued the federal government instead of cooperating. Like, if you don't have nothing to hide, Stephen, why not cooperating?
- [65:37]
Stephen A. Smith
Good question, good question. I, I, you know, I, I, I get you there. I would ask you this though. Why are you considering what you're doing and how if you're on your game and you make sure you dot your I's and you cross your T's and your information is correct and you're exposing fraud, which is our tax dollars. All right. And right now you deserve the benefit of the doubt based on what's transpired in Minnesota and California. No doubt about it. I'm not here to refute that. My question to you would be, you're identified as a 24 year old conservative online influencer. You didn't mind that introduction at all. Why is the word conservative in there? Why couldn't you just be an online influencer? Because it would give the impression that you know what, you're favoring one side over the other. And the Vice president, who happens to be a conservative, the vice President of the United States is speaking up for you. It would give the impression that you're partisan in what you're doing. What do you say to people who would have that suspicion?
- [66:35]
Nick Shirley
Well, I'm not the one who read that. That was you who read that. If you would have asked me, I know, to give an introduction, I would have said independent journalist Nick Shirley. I wouldn't have said conservative. That has nothing to do with it. Like, I, I look at, what I'm doing right now is a public service for everyone in America. And it is interesting how by doing this, people have labeled me as a conservative, which I, I am a conservative, but that's not what my journalism is like. I, I support Trump. I think Trump is a good president. I think he was the person who more than 50 of the country voted for. And so it is just funny that, like me exposing this, everyone wants to say you're conservative. Like, imagine if you Were like, oh, he's a left leaning sports talk show host.
- [67:20]
Stephen A. Smith
Right. I agree, I agree. I mean I read because I thought that's what I, I actually thought that's what happened. How you requested to be interviewed. So I'm glad I asked the question for clarification. I didn't know. Yeah, I'm just meeting you for the first time.
- [67:34]
Nick Shirley
It's funny because like the news, like cnn, they investigated me instead of investigating the frog and fraud and they said maga influencer when I had nothing to do with maga influence. I'm not a MAGA influencer. It's just funny how like people put those labels on you to try and decredit you.
- [67:51]
Stephen A. Smith
Understood. I get where you're coming from. Who pays for your trips or do you pay for it yourself?
- [67:56]
Nick Shirley
Me, Myself And I, I'm 100% independent.
- [67:59]
Stephen A. Smith
100% independent. You don't get any money from anybody now.
- [68:03]
Nick Shirley
I just have, I make money off of YouTube X, I have sponsorships in my YouTube videos and that's it.
- [68:12]
Stephen A. Smith
How long do you plan on doing this? Are you just getting started?
- [68:15]
Nick Shirley
Think I'm just getting started. I've been doing it for past two years. I've been, I grew up as a YouTube kid in high school. I was just making YouTube videos and now I've been taking it serious for the past two and a half years and we'll see how, we'll see how it goes. I'm excited to continue on this journey.
- [68:31]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm on Last question. I want to ask you about a recent trip you made to Cuba. You recently described it as a tense experience, to say the least. I watched the video which you're reporting in Cuba, including surveillance, how they confiscated your equipment, how you receive pressure from authorities, et cetera, et cetera. What did that trip reveal about life under authoritarian systems and did it change how you view political debates happening in the United States of America?
- [68:58]
Nick Shirley
It was a super sad trip, to be honest. Like when you think about Latinos, I've always thought of them as like very happy and uplifting. In Cuba, a lot of these people were very depressed and suppressed from their government. I mean, they don't have access to running electricity. They have blackouts every night. They've been suppressed for over 60 years. There's no freedom of speech. You mentioned the word communism and you asked for your opinion. The person shuts down because they know if they speak out against the current regime, they'll be imprisoned. Super sad. Super sad. What's going on?
- [69:32]
Stephen A. Smith
So what the hell made you go There. And how did you get out?
- [69:36]
Nick Shirley
Well, I think right now you're seeing this rise of communism and the ideas of socialism here inside the United States. So I really wanted to make a video showing life in communism for a very long time. And I didn't, I didn't really put two and two together that they wouldn't like somebody asking questions about communism inside their state. And then eventually I was followed by Cuban intelligence. They had spies at the hotel. And one thing people don't understand about communism is it turns the entire country against one another. Like a spy is just simply a civilian inside of that state that reports you to the government on for them to benefit themselves. So the entire country is essentially watching out to try and level up upon one another. And then we did have a two star general come to the hotel when we were trying to escape, the escape in the morning because I was originally supposed to be there for three days, but the trip turned in 24 hours after we had all these spies following us and we got interrogated and then we fled the hotel and made it to the airport and they let us, they let us go on our flight.
- [70:37]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm going to ask the question again. How the hell you get out of there? I imagine they wouldn't want you, they didn't want you there. And once you there reporting, like you, you, like you claim you're reporting, they wouldn't want you to leave and disseminate that information to the world. How'd you get out of there?
- [70:53]
Nick Shirley
I think they realized that it would have been worse for them to take me hostage than it would have been for them to let me go. Like right now Cuba is standing on nothing. Like they have no gas. Like they literally have. There's, Stephen, there's not a gas station open inside Cuba right now. They have no gas. To get gas, as a taxi driver, there's lines up to 12,000. Like you have to wait months to get gas. Like my taxi driver, his spot to get gas was 1200 in line. There's other people like 12,000 in line, ticket gas.
- [71:28]
Stephen A. Smith
Oh my goodness. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's you. I imagine that based on your experiences, you have absolutely no problem whatsoever with the Trump administration talking about how ultimately, you know, they may get involved and you know, Cuba might fall because it's a humanitarian crisis there. In other words, that's what we've been hearing here in the United States. Is that what your experience was, was, is it a humanitarian crisis in Cuba?
- [71:54]
Nick Shirley
Very much so. And I don't like the idea of the US going in, invading these countries, but this would be more of a liberation. And literally, Stephen, they would just have to do like a Baker Macefield and plant the flag like there's nothing in Cuba right now.
- [72:07]
Stephen A. Smith
Wow. Nick, Shirley, really appreciate your time, man. Great meeting you. Meet you. Talking to you for the first time. You know, anytime you expose in fraud, I'm for it. You know, just expose it. Just expose it everywhere. I don't want to just see it in blue states, you know, I want to just see it in blue state. It's. It's. If it's everywhere, go get it everywhere. That's all I ask. That's all I ask.
- [72:27]
Caller
Amen.
- [72:28]
Nick Shirley
I appreciate you. And you're one of the few people from the party who's actually congratulated me on the fraud. So that means a lot.
- [72:34]
Stephen A. Smith
Hey, listen, I'm not. I'm not a Democrat. I'm a registered independent. Maybe that's why I did it, because I don't consider myself a Democrat at all. All right, that's what's up. Take. Take it easy, my man. All the best. You be safe. One and only, Nick Shirley right here with Stephen A Straight shooter with Stephen a 866-967. 6887 is the number to call up. That's 86696. POTUS. You're listening live to Stephen a series XM straight shooter. POTUS radio channel 124. Breaking news coming up next. It's involving Jeffrey Epstein. You will not want to miss what I'm about to tell you next. Stay tuned. You're listening live. Straight sh. Shooter in the House with your boy. Back with more in a minute. It was just contortions and lies and no acknowledgement that he misled the American public. And if you saw the exchanges that my colleagues had with him, you would see he made a farce of the English language. I mean, he was trying to. Trying to define.
- [73:37]
Caller
I.
- [73:37]
Stephen A. Smith
As if saying that what he really meant is that he would not see Epstein alone, but be totally fine with having his wife and kids. Kids. See Epstein. It made no sense. That was Representative, California Representative Ro Khanna speaking about Commerce Secretary. How he let. What? Lutnick, Trump's Secretary of Commerce. I was Congressman Ronna. I mean, listen, the Epstein file matters. Anytime you're talking about sexual abuse, sexual molestation and things of that nature, that is unacceptable. And anybody who's guilty of such a thing should be thrown under a damn jail, all right? Or should rot in hell like I have no doubt Jeffrey Epstein is doing right now. Um, headline just came across. The Guardian. Alleged suicide note written by Jeffrey Epstein unsealed by a federal judge. Epstein cellmate in New York City says he found note after convicted sexual offender attempted suicide in July of 2019. Federal judge unsealed an alleged suicide note written by Jeffrey Epps Epstein on Wednesday. Today, the first time the document has been made public, Epstein cellmate at the Metropolitan Correctional center in New York City. Nicholas Tartaglioni said he found a note after Epstein unsuccessfully attempted suicide in July of 2019, weeks before he was eventually found dead in his jail cell. They investigated me for months, found nothing, reads the note. It is a threat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye. What you want me to do? Bust out crying? No fun, not worth it. That is what the letter from Jeffrey Epstein said. Trump campaigned on it. Folks, we shouldn't have to go through all of this to see the files, but everybody that's up in arms that once it released, it's like it's driving me nuts, because it's not that hard to release the damn things. All right? And if Trump and his administration is nitpicking and piecemealing, what's to be released and what is not? I don't think for one second that this is to protect Trump, because I believe that if there was incriminating evidence against Donald Trump, that the Democratic Party would have found a way to release it before the 2024 election. That is just a personal belief. Belief. I'm not talking about laws. I'm not talking about what judges, the Supreme Court and anybody else can release. I'm not talking about none of that. I'm telling you right now the world that we were living in, the way these folks went after Trump. I don't believe for one second that if there was strong incriminating evidence of Trump doing anything illegal as it pertained to the Epstein files, that there's no way we would have heard about it before the 2024 election. I don't believe that. I don't. I. I don't believe it. I believe come hella high water, somebody from the Biden administration, somebody from the Democratic Party would have made sure it got out to the public. I don't. I don't want to be sacrilegious. Jesus couldn't convince me otherwise. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. 866-967-6887 is the number to call it. It's 86696 POTUS. Back to the phones we go. Let's go to Austin in Oklahoma. You're live with Stephen A. What's up? Austin, are you there? Going once, going twice. Austin, goodbye.
- [77:34]
Caller
Hello, can you hear me?
- [77:35]
Stephen A. Smith
Austin, are you there? You there now, Austin?
- [77:37]
Caller
Yes, this is Austin from OKC Championship
- [77:39]
Nick Shirley
City for the NBA.
- [77:41]
Stephen A. Smith
He was about to get hung up on, but go ahead.
- [77:44]
Caller
I think I just kind of want to get your opinion on this. I think the Department of Justice is really doing a disservice. I think they could very well be holding all, basically everybody in Congress accountable by just doing the state versus each representative individually and really get in on this insider trading and figure out what's going on. They just got a subpoena for the accounting records.
- [78:08]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, here's the problem with that. So the Department of Justice works under a particular administration, correct? Correct, Austin?
- [78:19]
Caller
Yes, sir.
- [78:21]
Stephen A. Smith
Because it works under a particular administration. Right. And you need that administration needs a majority of folks on Capitol Hill voting in its favor. Right. To call people out and to expose them is to ultimately get them removed. And if you get them removed, that means the support that you need in order to get policies implemented to your liking gets compromised. Who's going to do that to themselves? That's what I thought.
- [79:01]
Caller
I mean that would. That's what I thought on the American people.
- [79:06]
Stephen A. Smith
Wait a minute. No, it's not. No, it's not. You know why? Because you got to put somebody up in there and if it ain't them, it's going to be somebody else. And if somebody else comes up in there, they're going to be doing the same thing. I'm not trying to say they're going to be correct. Corrupt. What I'm saying is, is that if you need votes, okay, like for example, the Department of Justice does something to literally disrupt the entire fabric of the nation's capital. They're cutting off their own nose despite their face. Who do you know does that? That's like going to Wall street and saying I'm not here to make money. Who's going to do that? Who's going to do that? Nobody's going to do that.
- [79:43]
Caller
Want the result that they vote into office.
- [79:47]
Stephen A. Smith
What do you mean?
- [79:47]
Caller
Because that was cut off the head.
- [79:51]
Stephen A. Smith
I don't understand what you mean by that.
- [79:55]
Caller
The, this is just something that as the next administration is coming in or whoever is in office that would be willing to just hold them, hold everybody accountable. Because the non corrupt politicians that are already in office, they will shoot themselves.
- [80:12]
Stephen A. Smith
Did you listen to my show a couple of weeks ago when Tim Burchett, the representative out of Tennessee, if I remember correctly. Did you listen when he was on my show the other week, did you hear that?
- [80:22]
Caller
I did catch some of that, yes.
- [80:23]
Stephen A. Smith
Did you hear the part where he said, I'm not talking about myself, but the vast majority of us here are corrupt. We had to make more money. He said, stephen, the things that we do here would be absolutely, positively illegal if we did it in this building. All we have to do, Stephen, for it to be totally legal is to walk out of this building and walk across the street, and it's perfectly legal. Those were his words, not mine. And he said, don't think for one second that this knocks capitalized here on Capitol Hill. So the clean and purge, the swamp, you understand, it means practically everybody. And if you do that, you have nobody to co sign the system of policies and legislation that you want to put in play. Nobody's going to do that. That's the problem, Austin. That's the problem.
- [81:17]
Caller
Right, but you're going off of the assumption that there is a policy to put into play. After purging the swamp, the policy that gets put into play will be the new guard coming in and what their will is.
- [81:32]
Stephen A. Smith
The new guard coming in has to take one side or the other and they have to have a willingness to play ball in order to get what they want done for their constituency. Which is why the system is rigged to such a degree. Because the system is going to be uplifted. The system is going to be perpetual. The system is not going to go anywhere. There are individuals that could come along and can be, you know, earth shakers and can make things happen in a positive way. But in order to do that, it's called quid pro quo. You gonna have to do something. There ain't no saints on Capitol Hill. And if you think it is, my brother, I think that you should go talk to somebody because it's not going to change. Appreciate your call, though. Let's go to Adam in Georgia. You're live with Stephen A. What's up, Adam?
- [82:23]
Caller
Hey, Stephen A. I got a question about the Iran war. So I know everybody's opposing it, but when you look at it as far as worth $39 trillion in debt, if we are no longer the global currency, our country falls apart. That's the only reason we're able to stand $39 trillion in debt. Well, as of right now, since the Iran war, we've already had uae, Saudi Arabia has left opec, brics, is not standing strong. China's suffering right now. I mean, Trump's literally resetting the world economy to put us back to guarantee that we stay the global currency. Otherwise our $39 trillion in debt gets called in our country.
- [83:05]
Stephen A. Smith
So you're saying that because of that, you support what Trump is doing?
- [83:11]
Caller
Yes. I mean, you really have a state that the government. Cheers. Death to America.
- [83:20]
Stephen A. Smith
You don't have to go there with me. I totally understand that. I totally sided with it. That's why I understood. I'm like, if this is a state sponsor of terrorism and then number one in the world, world, and they wanted to death America and death to Israel, and they're trying to sit up there and take us out. Damn right. We need to handle our business. I get that. I think that you've seen even liberals acknowledging that other liberal administrations wanted to get Iran. Trump was just able to do it. So I get that part. But what you have critics lamenting is that there appeared to be no plan. And what are you going to do do now? Because they don't want to end up stuck there like they were stuck in Afghanistan and other places. That's what they're saying. You're talking about reshaping the world economy, you understand, because US Is the world's currency, the dollars, the world's currency and all that. I get that part. I understand it. If that is true. The problem is, what if it isn't, Adam. And what if we find out there was some other ulterior motive and it wasn't that? And what we expected and hoped would happen wouldn't? Because you do have people looking at Trump and feeling betrayed because they believe he's lied. They believe his. His actions are inconsiderate with the rhetoric that he was spewing during the campaign. What do you do then if you find. I totally with you, Adam. Don't give me if your scenario is true, because I understand that you would be right. But what if you're wrong
- [84:46]
Caller
Also, number one, as far as all the people talking about Trump betrayed them.
- [84:49]
Stephen A. Smith
Hold on, hold on. Are you going to answer my question? I asked you a question. I asked you a question.
- [84:56]
Caller
Okay.
- [84:56]
Stephen A. Smith
And what if you're wrong?
- [84:58]
Caller
Yes, that's what I'm. I mean, if I'm wrong, then, you know, I mean, the war still going on, but I mean, if there's positive outlook on the war. Trump has not changed. People are just putting words in Trump's mouth. Trump has not changed. Trump's been the exact same since the 80s. I mean, he's been in 89.
- [85:20]
Stephen A. Smith
I've heard him speak against Iran in the 80s, but I also heard him tell us that he had bombed Iran in June. Their nuclear sites, and there was no threat whatsoever of a nuclear weapon. And then the next thing you know, months later, here we come again. Because they were on the verge of making another nuclear weapon within a month. So I'm like, what the hell is it? So, again, I understand your point, but just because you support the man and you, and you obviously voted for him or whatever, doesn't mean that the man has been 100% on the up and up with you and that he's 100% correct. It is possible that he lied to you and that he's wrong and that you might be wrong for having supported this particular act. I'm not talking about him. I'm just taking on a case by case basis. It's possible. And that's all I'm trying to say. Say you're, you know, you're not a stooge, you're not an idiot, you're not a robot. You're a human being with sense. You can look at something and you look at somebody and say, damn it, he didn't tell the truth there. I don't like that. I'd appreciate that you could at least do that, Adam, is all I'm saying.
- [86:30]
Caller
Well, yes, I completely get that. But, you know, the one way I look at it is, you know, Trump the President of the United States, even if it was Obama, he can't come out and, and say we have to reset the world economy to guarantee that we stay on top.
- [86:43]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, I see what you're saying. In other words, he can't admit that. He can't. If that's his goal and that's his agenda, he can't admit that. I understand that part. I actually agree with you on that, Adam. My flip. My, my, my, my, my retort to that, rather, would be this. Maybe he didn't say it because that's not his goal and that's not his agenda and that's not what he's thinking about, and that's not what we should expect to happen, which would make Adam and his assertion or his prognostication a bit wrong. And you have to leave yourself open to that possibility.
- [87:18]
Caller
I 100% leave myself open.
- [87:22]
Stephen A. Smith
And if it happens, you got a man up at him and call back and say, yo, Stephen A. I was wrong. You got a man up. Now, see, that's what I want from the American citizen. If you voted for him, if you voted against him, damn it, if you voted for him and he's let you down and he ain't right, say so. You understand? If you're a Democrat and you voted against him, but he does something right and beneficial to America, say so. That's what we have to get back to. That's what this channel is about. This is about the people of the United States. It's not about him. It's not about his proclivities. It's not about what he wants. It's not about his narcissism. It's about us. And in order for us to get back to things being about us, we got to be willing to be straight shooters and honest brokers about what we're hearing, about what we're seeing. That's all I'm saying.
- [88:18]
Caller
I completely agree. And that brings me to. I wanted to ask you about one more point. You're the only one who can do this. So Trump right now, you know, he's attacking Thomas Massey. And that's the number one thing I'm against Trump on, because I believe Thomas Massey is one of the greatest people we have in Congress. One of the biggest things Thomas Massey has always pushed, you know, we keep going into all of these government shutdowns. Congress's only job is purse string. They are supposed to manage our money. We are supposed to have 12 separate bills that they spend debating leveling everything out. Release them so our government doesn't get shut down. All we're doing now is going to continuing resolution. Even Trump, Mike Johnson, all of them are part of it.
- [88:56]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay.
- [88:56]
Caller
Thomas Massie and the only one fighting against that. And, you know, next time you have any of these Democrats on, I would love to hear one of them justify why they don't join Thomas Massey.
- [89:10]
Stephen A. Smith
Got it. No problem. No problem. I got to go to another caller because I have you on for a while, Adam. I got to go to another caller, but I get where you're coming from, and I appreciate that. Thank you very much, and I will do that. I will do that. I have no problem with that whatsoever. Joe in New York, you're live with Stephen A. What's up, Joe? Yes, you're live on the air, Joe. Straight Shooter with Stephen A. You live on air?
- [89:35]
Caller
Yeah, thank you. Hey, I want to bring up a study that was done in 2020. This was a study done by ABC News. It was a nationwide review that identified at least 54 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts of violence or allegations of assault. Do you Recall that?
- [90:06]
Stephen A. Smith
I don't. I'm not saying you're false. I haven't been thinking about it. I don't recall that. But can I tell you what I'm inclined to push back on and what I don't like about this? Can I tell you what that is?
- [90:18]
Caller
Yeah, okay.
- [90:19]
Stephen A. Smith
He's the president. He won, bro. You're not doing anything to him. You're not doing anything to him about that stuff. This is what drives me crazy. I'm not trying to absolve him from anything. There's nothing you can do. They had. Do you realize. Let me ask you a question. Why, as an. Why, as American citizens, are we not disgusted by. Have us having a Constitution and laws in this country that allows you to be a convicted felon but still run for the presidency of the United States? If. If. If him being a convicted felon with those 34 counts and those 34 convictions, for example, didn't prevent him from running for the presidency, then why the hell bother? It's the stupidest thing. This is the kind of stuff that drives me crazy. It's like, stop exercising in futility. If you came out. Joe. If you came out tomorrow, Joe. And they found Trump to be guilty of. Of. Of more felonies. Do you know he can pardon himself practically? He ain't going nowhere until 2028. There's nothing you can do.
- [91:31]
Caller
But let me say. Let me say something. They're going after. His administration is going after only Democrats for stuff that is so speculative, so weak and speculative.
- [91:44]
Stephen A. Smith
He's petty. He is petty. He is vindictive. He is. It's got thin skin. Weak as hell when it comes to that stuff. And I think it drags the office of the presidency down. It is unbecoming of the presidency what this man has been doing in terms of his behavior in that damn office. What you gonna do about it?
- [92:07]
Caller
Even Stephen, the reason why he got away with that back in 2020 and the reason why no one remembered it, no one remembers it, you know, to bring it up whenever they accuse, you know, Democrats of, you know, causing all the violence, you know?
- [92:24]
Stephen A. Smith
Right.
- [92:24]
Caller
Because of your attitude. Because of people like you.
- [92:27]
Stephen A. Smith
No, no. Is because of people like you. It's because of people like you. There ain't a goddamn thing that you can do to him about that. But you still want to focus on it. I'm focusing on getting his ass out of office. I'm focusing on him getting his power diminished so Democrats could win the midterms and him walking out in 2028. Without circumventing the 22nd Amendment or the Constitution. Constitution. And putting himself in for a third term. That's what the hell I'm focused on. Your ass is focused on futile stuff that ain't gonna do a damn thing to him. Nothing but a bunch of lip service. That's my disgust with people like you. And so a bunch of those Democrats going after him. How come you couldn't keep him out of office? He won, damn it. He's the 45th president and the 47th president. You can't do a damn thing about it. But you bringing up stuff you can't do anything about. You can kiss off with that. Get the hell out of here with that. I don't want to hear it. This man, you're coming at him with stuff that will make him laugh at you because there's nothing you could do about it, even if it is true. You focused on stuff. I'm focused on trying to win elections to make sure that this man doesn't elevate in power, doesn't end up circumventing the Constitution of the United States, doesn't end up doing something that ultimately is going to be exponentially and perpetually detrimental to this country, worse than what he's already done in some people's eyes. That's what I'm focused on. What you focused on the crimes. I mean, what he's done, what he did years ago in 2020. Look at this. He's the president again. It didn't work. Get over it. Back with your calls to close out the show in a minute. 8669-676887-86696. POTUS. Back to the phones we go. Andrew in San Diego, your live is the. What's up?
- [94:47]
Caller
Hey, I'm curious. I have a couple comments about the.
- [94:55]
Stephen A. Smith
Just making comments. Go ahead.
- [94:57]
Caller
Yeah. The suicide note strikes me as comical. Trump. Not knowing that what was going on with a friend of many, many years is comical. And it's. It's very sad. What? It speaks to the moral, spiritual values of our time.
- [95:14]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay.
- [95:14]
Caller
The idea of manhood in our. In our culture.
- [95:18]
Stephen A. Smith
All right, I agree. What's your second point?
- [95:20]
Caller
Yes, those are my three points.
- [95:24]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay.
- [95:24]
Caller
Suicide is comical. Trump not knowing is comical. And that the victim can't file charges is just, you know.
- [95:33]
Stephen A. Smith
Yeah, I don't understand how the victim can't file charges. I don't understand that one. All right.
- [95:40]
Caller
I guess they're afraid they're gonna get shot.
- [95:43]
Stephen A. Smith
I got you. I'm saying can't file charge like like they were saying, I don't. I got it. Appreciate the call. Charlie in Illinois, you're live with Stephen A. What's up Charlie? Charlie, are you there?
- [95:56]
Caller
Hello?
- [95:57]
Stephen A. Smith
Charlie, you're live on the air, my brother. Go ahead.
- [96:00]
Caller
Hey, what's up Stephen A.
- [96:01]
Stephen A. Smith
What's up?
- [96:02]
Caller
Hey, look, look. Right man, I hear people talking about like the gas and stuff like that, but I think when people talk about the gas, they need to be, you know, really talk about diesel fuel. Like I'm a small business owner. I got a car hauling business. I'm a one man team and I got like a, I got a dually truck. And like for example, the day the war started, man, diesel was 3.29 in the Chicagoland area. Now it's $6 and 49 cents. So basically if I had to fill up, so basically if I got to fill up my truck before it was like $160 I just filled on my truck just now it was like $320 and everything moved by trucks and diesel and everything. So everything gonna eventually like start coming down the pipeline.
- [96:48]
Stephen A. Smith
Yeah. And like for what reason is we even doing this?
- [96:51]
Caller
Like this is just unnecessary. And so I just wanted to just
- [96:56]
Stephen A. Smith
say that it's bad, it's bad. And I think that along the way the Trump administration is basically saying be, be patient, bear with us, bear with us, bear with us. Bump all that. Not after what you campaigned on. I mean the way the Biden administration was crucified because of, you know, the accusations of inflation and you know, all of this other stuff and the cost of living and affordability issues not being addressed and relatively ignored and all of this other stuff. And then you get into office and you know, the kind of stuff that you sort of prioritize doesn't appear to be the case now. We ain't crashing and burning, you know, we're not in an ever depression era. But still in all there is no question that everything but stuff that's supposed to be a priority has been a priority. It appears I got to get on out of here. That's it for this edition of Straight Shooter. Hope you all enjoyed the show. I'll be back next week. Next Wednesday night, 6 to 8pm Eastern Standard Time as usual over the airways of SiriusXM POTUS Radio Channel 124. Until then, peace of love everybody. God bless.
- [98:08]
Nick Shirley
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Stephen A. Smith
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Nick Shirley
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Stephen A. Smith
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Caller
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Stephen A. Smith
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Nick Shirley
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Stephen A. Smith
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