← Straight Shooter with Stephen A.
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- [00:02]
Angie.com Advertiser
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- [00:17]
Angie.com Narrator
Uh, no, sorry. I do basements connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust. Define the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com
- [00:30]
Angie.com Advertiser
this is a Monday.com ad, the same Monday.com helping people worldwide, getting work done faster and better. The samemonday.com designed for every team and every industry. The same Monday.com with built in AI, scaling your work from day one. The same Monday.com that your team will actually love using the same Monday.com with an easy and intuitive setup. Go to Monday.com and try it for free. Yes, the same Monday.com straight shooter with Stephen A.
- [01:12]
Stephen A. Smith
How are you feeling about your decision at the voting booth back in November of 2024? Inquiring minds want to know. Inquiring minds want to know. Welcome to the latest edition of Straight Shooter with yours truly, Stephen A. Smith coming at you as I love to do every Wednesday night from 6 to 8pm over the airwaves of Sirius XM, POTUS radio, channel 1 24. That's 86696 POTUS. That's the number to call in. That's 86696 POTUS. I'm asking that question, one would say facetiously. I'm saying both literally and facetiously because of what's been transpiring right now. There's a lot that we could get into today. We could talk about the SAVE act, we could talk about the SAFE Act. I'm sorry, we could talk about what's going on with our United States government. We could talk about legislation that's being attempted to be pushed through, you know, as. And how it affects American citizens, how the Democrats are against something, how the Republicans are for another, each trying to secure their voting block as best as they possibly can. We can get into all of that, there's no question about it. But that ain't the story percolating right now. That's not the story percolating. The story percolating more than anything else right now as we speak, okay, is the war with Iran. Now, I know we don't want to call it that because it's not a full fledged war because we all know that the United States Congress, who hasn't declared war since 1942, if I remember correctly. They certainly haven't done that. So we can't say that officially that that's really is the case. But what we can say is, is that there's no question that right now it's permeating our minds, our hearts and our thoughts. And a lot of times people are thinking about certain things, like, for example, it's the United States collaborating with Israel. So you have folks out there that are obviously in full support of Israel, and you have people that are diametrically opposed to anything associated with Israel. When it comes to Iran and military action, we're looking at the United States and we're wondering how President Trump could go from saying, we've obliterated them, we bond them, they have very little minimal capable nuclear capability to feeling the need to all of a sudden join Israel and going after them again. As of today, a few hours ago, as many as 140 US service members have been wounded so far. The conflict is believed to have disrupted global oil markets and gas prices have surged nationally. Congress debated and rejected a measure to force Trump, as in President Trump, to get authorization before continuing the war, which means that essentially he can still operate with relative impunity because he has the support of both the House and the Senate, because the GOP has those folks, even though you have some people who've been resistant to him, some to some degree. But when push comes to shove and really the rubber meets the road, we all know that in all likelihood, in most situations, when it comes to the gop, he's going to get what he wants. It's dominating social media right now. War on economic consequences. Of course, there's an ongoing debate over presidential war powers because people don't want him nor anybody operating unilaterally and devoid of impunity or with impunity rather. And there is some split because you have MAGA members of the party who are reminding him that he said America first. What happened to that? If it's America first, why are we engaging in this kind of stuff? So, as you see right there on the screen, Iran strike approval. One in four Americans say they back US strikes on Iran. That means three out of four said hell to the no. It's 75% of the American population that are being polled that is that saying, hell no.
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Caller/Listener
We're.
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Stephen A. Smith
We don't like this one bit. We get that part. Here's my point. We recently heard. That gas prices have gone up because of these actions. Obviously, we've heard news about a school being bombed and how America denied that it was them, it was Iran, and Iran's ambassador was saying Trump is lying about Iran being responsible for that. And Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat out of Connecticut, saying he believes it was the US to hit the school and it's awful that we did, et cetera, et cetera. Here's my thing. Is it good for elected officials to be over the national airwaves blaming our administration for a military act in action against a foreign nation? How does that help us? I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. I'm simply saying to ask the question, because these are the kind of times that we're living in and we got to wonder about the die, you know, the collateral damage that it causes us as American citizens. That's one way to look at it. Another way to do it is to focus on home and ask ourselves what's going on here? And you know what conclusion I came to? The big political risk for President Trump is the economic fallout that exists here. The minute you go to the gas pump and, and the price of gas is $4 a gallon, you got a problem. We can sit up there and strike it any way. 1. So this is a big, big risk. And the reason why it's a big, big risk is because you might contribute to helping destabilize Iran, who won't be able to finance their proxies in the region. Whether it's the Houthis in Yemen, whether it's Hamas, Hezbollah, which has been virtually destroyed in some people's eyes already, you're not gonna be able to finance them. But what did Iran do? They bomb Dubai, a five star hotel. We don't have a military base there. Why would they do that? Because what you wanna do is send a message that chaos will reign in the Middle east and beyond towards anyone remotely associated with America and real in any kind of positive way whatsoever. In other words, we gonna burn the damn house down. We going down, you coming down with us. We ain't going out that way. And obviously there's a reluctance on the part of American citizens to embrace that, knowing that Iran is responsible for killing hundreds of American soldiers dating back to the 80s. And some of the attacks that have taken place on American soil or on foreign soil against Americans, they've had a heavy hand in contributing to that. Because it's death to America, it's death to Israel. It's Israel needing to be wiped off the face of the map. It's all of these different things. I'm not taking sides because damn It. I'm not an aficionado. That's why I got Fareed Sakaria from CNN coming on in just the next few minutes. I'm going to the expert right there. I'm gonna find out what's real and what's fake and what's, what's authentic and what's manufactured, if it's the last damn thing that I do. But I gotta tell you something right now, it did get my blood boiling when I thought about. The politicians on Capitol Hill and the power that they wield and how what's at the real core of our problems as Americans right now is the fact that we can't trust a single damn decision that's made because it's too tilted to one side of the aisle over the other. See, if you have bipartisanship and you had an abundance of Democrats voted with the Republicans and a bunch of Republicans voted with the Democrats, we could at least say we're unified as a government, as a nation, and we're comfortable with whatever decision they make because we know that whether we agree or disagree, they're making decisions that are in the best interest of America as opposed to their party. And we'd be cool with that because we'd be more self assured. But we can't say that because that's the last thing that exists in our country. The polarization is so bad, we can't trust a single damn thing that comes out of their mouth. I'm reading from some story right now where it says Senator John Cornyn out of Texas in need of President Trump's endorsement ahead of a tough primary runoff, reversed himself on Wednesday and said he would support changes to the long standing Senate filibuster rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation. Why is that something that should concern you? Because if you eradicate the filibuster, that means there's only about a majority within the Senate. That's all that's required, 51 votes. That's all you need to push legislation through, no matter what the other side of the aisle thinks about what your decisions are. Don't we have enough of that? Isn't that enough of a problem as exists right now? Don't you hate when you see, as American citizen, when the Democrats in lockstep vote on one side and a GOP in lockstep vote on another? I'm in a room with six people. Six, I can assure you, without asking them a single damn question. We don't agree on everything, but we agree on something. But the Democrats and the Republicans Will act like that doesn't exist. There's no possible way we could possibly agree. No possible. We could agree on stuff like the Epstein files. Oh, we could cross the island to find out who was screwing around with who. Who was molesting a sexually assaulting. Minus. Oh, we could come to an agreement on that. But nothing else. You got to be kidding me. And then I started reading about something else other than the Senate filibuster issue. And you know what that something else was? That's something else was the SAFE Act. Specifically speaking, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. And to appease my communications director, because she wants to make sure I have all my facts in order, because she gets very, very nervous, even though she knows I'm on top of my game because I'm Stephen A. And you know, and make sure she's feeling good. Not only do I know what I'm saying, I'm looking up the definition to read it to y'.
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Fareed Zakaria
All.
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Stephen A. Smith
Just so we're clear, even my technician is listening. And he usually doesn't, because he knows every damn thing. Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. We require Americans to provide documentary proof of United States citizenship, such as a passport, a birth certificate, or naturalization papers when registering to vote in federal elections. Seems very simple to me, ladies and gentlemen. Let me say this to show you how pathetic we are. And we've become as a nation rife with Americans who don't trust one another as far as we can throw one another. I'm sitting upstairs debating and arguing, and I want to put this on front street with people I employ, okay? I cut the checks, not just cash them. And they're arguing with me. Why? And I said. I said, explain to me. Last time I checked, I don't recall a single incident in my adult life where I did not need an ID to do something. Gotta have a driver's license, you understand? If you want to get tickets on Ticketmaster, you got to have some form of id. You want to go up and pick up tickets at a game, you got to have an id. You want to pay for something at the supermarket and it ain't cash, or the order or the department store and it ain't cash, you got to show ID Even while you're giving them a credit card to charge your stuff to your credit card, you're literally paying and giving them money. And they're saying, show me some id. And then my staff, being as adroit and as thorough as they are, took the liberty of reminding me that Stephen, my man Rashawn, said This. Most Americans, I mean, they're not cut. You're different because you're going for your college education. Most Americans don't do that. Most Americans, they're not. They can't afford to try and go to college. And then my assistant Sumatra showed me that 62% of Americans go through college are in pursuit of college education. Then I looked at Rashan and I said, the 62% qualify as most. Last time I checked, that's a majority of a number. 62% would leave 38% on the other side. Is my math wrong? All right, big dog. All right, big dog. That's what he said. Most people require id. So when we have the Democratic Party out there saying, oh, my God, this is wrong, you know what? We shouldn't be having to go through that. Don't say don't. Don't go for the SAFE act. Don't do it at all. A matter of fact, refusing to do a deal where we've got a. What was it, a partial shutdown still taking place. Oh, refusing to do a deal until that is. That is. That is handled. And I said to myself, and I said to them, I said, come on now. What's wrong with an id? And then I was enlightened. Got this dude that worked for me is going. The brother. Yeah. I don't mess with him too much. He's a big boy. It's a big boy. Okay, Big boy.
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Angie.com Narrator
All right.
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Stephen A. Smith
And smart as hell, too. And I like him. But here's the deal. He's saying, hey, man. He said, but you need a couple ideas. And it's really not that it's about the price. And then I said, hold up. What about this idea? How about erasing the issue of the price? If Pete Hag Seth could spend millions of dollars on crabs, on crab meat, and whatever else he was spending money on. If Kristi Noem, the now former secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, could spend up to $300 million on private jets, if you got that much money to blow, why don't you just make sure that every United States American citizen has a form of government ID that is freely distributed. That way we make sure true legalized American citizens are the ones with id and you eliminate those who are here illegally. How come we can't just do that? Know why we can't do that? Because both sides of the aisle can't agree how much you want to make a bet? And I'd bet my check that the Democrats would have a problem with that idea and the Republicans would have A problem with that idea, because the notion of fixing and resolving the immigration issue doesn't benefit either side, because it would eliminate the argument that they could make for a midterm election or a general election. Why am I bringing all of that up as we're talking about the issues with Iran and what have you? Because while we are engaging in acts of war, even if war has not been declared, it's based on the decision of an administration and a side of the aisle that's going to march lockstep with him in all likelihood no matter what. Because it's politically expedient for them to do so, and the other side ain't gonna do it because it's politically expedient for them not to do so. That's what we're living in. You see why I say all the asses make me sick. You see why I say that? Because I'm sitting here over the airwaves talking to you and informing you that while there are answers and there are solutions everywhere, the issue is not in our inability to discover and notice and highlight what the issue is and what the resolution could be. It's in our refusal and our inability, as elected representatives in this country to prioritize reaching enough of a consensus so the American people that they collect billions from in tax dollars and beyond can find a way to live in peace, knowing that our government, as one collective unit, got our backs. Even with Trump. I'm one. I'm the only one. I'm the one that can come to the rescue, but I'm. This is a beautiful thing to. Don't even worry about it, really. That's why I do this, ladies and gentlemen, because I have to tell you, I actually enjoy telling you that as a collective body, they ain't worth a. Not individually, because a lot of individuals come on the show, and a lot of individuals are gonna come on the show, and I'm gonna always be fear. But collectively, in terms of efficiency. Come on now, with $38.4 trillion in debt, minimum, what kind of money management is that? Depending on what state you in, you raising our taxes. We got mayors in cities like New York talking about saving us money. But if the governor doesn't sit up there and provide the necessary assistance, I'm gonna raise your property taxes. That's a relief. It just doesn't stop. And that's why, with all due respect, we can't either. 86696, Porters is the number to call up. That's 86696 bodies. You're listening live to Straight Shooter with Stephen A. Got a lot coming your way. A lot of stuff to talk about. Again, the SAFE act. Again, the war in Iran. That's what I'm calling it, even if it's not officially declared by the United States Congress. Trump. By the way, who's the Democrat that's going to oppose Marco Rubio, J.D. vance or somebody? Midterms coming up. I just need to see a figure, somebody that's interested in incapable of it on the Democratic side. It's a lot of stuff to get into, but Iran is the most important thing to touch on and there's no way in hell that we can have this conversation without listening to one of the best in the business when it comes to foreign affairs. He's got his own show every Sunday morning. If I'm near tv, that's what I'm watching on Sunday mornings. It's cnn. It's the one and only Fareed Sakaria. I am a huge fan of this man and you should be as well because when he speaks, he we should all listen. He's here. Next in the house on Straight Shooter with yours truly, Stephen A. Fareed Zakaria up next in a minute. Why have I asked my electrician I
- [21:48]
Caller/Listener
found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster?
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Stephen A. Smith
I was so moved by how carefully
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Caller/Listener
he buried my electrical wires, I knew
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Stephen A. Smith
I could trust him to bury my
- [21:54]
Caller/Listener
sweet nibbles after his untimely end.
- [21:56]
Angie.com Narrator
This is very strange, Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com
- [22:01]
Angie.com Advertiser
this is a Monday.com ad, the same Monday.com designed for every team. The same Monday.com with built in AI scaling your work from day one the same Monday.com with an easy and intuitive setup. Go to Monday.com and try it for free.
- [22:33]
Stephen A. Smith
27 minutes past hour number one back here on Straight Shooter with yours truly Stephen A. Coming at you as I love to do every Wednesday night from 6 to 8pm Eastern Standard Time. I got a little secret to tell America everybody while I'm on the show right now. You know, I'm asked to come on a lot of shows. There's very few shows I desire to come on because I'm just busy and all of this other stuff. But there's only one show in America that I'm actually scared to go on and I've never volunteered. It's because I'm scared of what I don't know because I consider this man that brilliant and I don't Want to bring down his damn program by showing my ignorance. And that is Viride Sicaria on cnn. He is the man and he is here with Straight Shooter with George Truly right now. It is an honor and a privilege to have you on the show, sir. I watch it every week. And thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to come on the show. How you doing?
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Fareed Zakaria
I'm doing great. You? I've been doing a lot better now. You made my day. It's a huge pleasure to be here.
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Stephen A. Smith
Thank you so much. Break it down for us, sir, please. The state of affairs with the United States, with Israel and Iran right now, how would you encapsulate it? What would you say it is?
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Fareed Zakaria
Well, it is the most haphazardly conceived war that I can remember. I mean, somebody once said this is like going to war as jazz improvisation. I think now it's looking like going to going to war like the band that doesn't know how to play music because the United States and Israel went to war. And on the United States side, it does not appear that we have figured out the simple question of why were we going to war? What was the objective? The President first said it was to get rid of the regime.
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Stephen A. Smith
Yes.
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Fareed Zakaria
He called on the Iranian people to rise up. Then a couple of days later, when I guess he saw the regime hadn't collapsed, he said, well, we can deal with these guys. It'll be just like Venezuela. Remember in Venezuela, we just got rid of one person. The entire regime was kept in place. Then he said, no, it's gonna be unconditional surrender. Then he said, you know, when markets went down, he said, oh, it's short. We're almost done. Then he said, we've got four or five weeks to go. So look, the US military is unbelievable. It can do extraordinary things. But all the tactical success in the world doesn't make up for strategic incoherence. What is your goal? What is your objective? When will you know? You've gotten there. So that's where we are. Side note, the Israelis know what they want. They're trying to destroy this regime. They're going at it. They have a long term plan, we don't.
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Stephen A. Smith
Mr. Zakaria, I gotta ask you this. When I think about Fareed. I'm sorry, Fareed, let me ask you this. You said the US and Israel don't necessarily have the same agenda here. What does Israel want that we shouldn't want?
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Fareed Zakaria
So the Israelis really are trying to destroy the Islamic Republic wholesale. From their point of view, they're Attacking not just the military, but police headquarters, administrative headquarters. They're attacking things like desalination plants. You know, they're making Iran ungovernable, which will probably produce, if they're successful, a level of chaos, which means Iran, maybe for the next five, six years, maybe 10 years, will be mired in a kind of dysfunctional, chaotic state, maybe civil war. That's their goal. And frankly it makes sense. I understand where they're going, which is you take this adversary and they're all caught up in their own problems. They're no longer a threat to you. But for the United States, our key interest in that part of the world is we want to make sure that oil gets out safe and sound, that the region is economically a hub. It's home to many of our allies, many of our bases. All those people, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Qataris, they want peace, stability, economic integration, free flow of goods, commerce, people. None of that is helped by having a chaotic civil war in Iran. So, you know, and we've actually, the administration, every time one of those things has happened where the Israelis have bombed something like a desalination plant or a police headquarters, they have apparently told the Israelis, cut it out because it's not good for us. So there is this kind of, there are two agendas going on. Except as I say, our problem is we're not sure what ours is.
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Stephen A. Smith
And I'm interested in knowing what your answer to this question is, because I don't know, cuz I'm not nearly as informed as you, sir, what connection there is, if any at all. When you think about Venezuela and Maduro and grabbing him and bringing him back to the States, what Trump has said about Cuba and how they're the next to fall and what that would have to do with somebody like Iran, who does business, some would say with Russia, with, with China, et cetera, et cetera. Are any of those things connected? And if so, how so, sir?
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Fareed Zakaria
Very good question. So there is no alliance between these countries. There's, there are some very tenuous links. The Cubans and the Venezuelans, certainly the Cubans were providing Venezuela with all kinds of stuff. The Venezuelans were giving the Cubans cheap oil. But this is not kind of like some kind of access of the three countries working together, what you do have going on, Stephen, which is a very important thing when understanding human psychology. I think Trump did the Venezuela operation and the military part of it worked brilliantly, right? We extracted these two people, Maduro and his wife, with almost no problems. But the reason is Maduro's deputy turned out to basically have turned. She gave us all the information, she helped tell us where he was, all that kind of thing. So you got a kind of the most high profile and expensive arrest in human history. It's probably cost billions of dollars to arrest that one guy. That made Trump think, hey, this is a very good, effective kind of antiseptic use of military power. I'm gonna try it again and I'm gonna do it in Iran. And in Iran things are gonna go well. This often happens. People often forget about the Iraq war. One of the reasons the Bush administration was so confident about the Iraq war is the Afghanistan operation had gone very well with a small number of people. The US Toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan and that emboldened the hardliners in the Bush administration. Similarly, Venezuela went very well and it emboldened Trump to say, hey, this is a very cool way I can use force. And I think you're right. He's been thinking maybe there's a way I can do all three of these and my name goes down in history. I really do think Trump is. Look, at the end of the day, Donald Trump has been somebody who has been about branding, who has been about putting his name up in lights, and he has been convinced that this is the way to do it. You annex territory, you get Greenland, you make Canada the 51st state, you take over Venezuela, you topple the government in Iran. He suddenly got the history bug and decided this is the way to put his name down in the history books.
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Stephen A. Smith
Supporters of Donald Trump, at least some of them, say that practically every Arab nation agrees with him as it pertains to Iran. Is that true?
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Fareed Zakaria
Most Arab nations don't like Iran. And by the way, Iran is a bad, nasty regime that has been a troublemaker. It's terrible to its own people. That does not, however, mean that they wanted this kind of a war which is destabilizing the whole region, making the economics of the region very difficult. I've talked to many of these people and they all feel like keeping a pressure on Iran, containment strategy, keeping it in a box, all that made sense. But this kind of an open ended war without a clear goal. No, I have not talked to a lot of people who thought this was a good idea. In fact, many of them feel like they have been. Their region has been plunged into a level of chaos they were not expecting and they're wondering why. What was the goal here? Remember, it is Donald Trump who told us just a few weeks ago that Iran's Nuclear program had been completely obliterated. Remember, they bombed Iran last June, the US and Israel for 12 days.
- [31:30]
Stephen A. Smith
Absolutely.
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Fareed Zakaria
Including the use of stealth bombers. First time ever that bombed deep into the bowels of those underground facilities. So Iran really had been neutered on the nuclear front. So then you ask yourself, why did. So now President Trump says this is a imminent danger and they're saying frankly, things that are not true, like the Iranians were about to attack, that they would have 30 nuclear bombs. Steve Witkoff, his negotiator, said they would have 30 nuclear bombs in a few months if we hadn't done this. I mean, this is like there's a, you know, when you are in government, it's incumbent on you for there to be some level of truth and credibility and fact based statements. And what you're getting now is frankly, it's the worst kind of propaganda, very little of which is true.
- [32:25]
Stephen A. Smith
Are we sure. And forgive me for asking this question, but you know what you say, propaganda to us, to normal citizens out here that don't know nearly as much as you, we call it flat out lies. Is that what we're saying here, that members of the Trump administration are just fabricating stories and stuff like that? Because I've spoken to people on the right that they're saying, they listen, they were gonna, they were in the process of developing nuclear weapons. This is what they were trying to do. And I was saying to myself, Trump did say we obliterated them, there's nothing to worry about, months ago. And then they said, excuse me, we still had enough uranium and all of this other stuff, there's a lot of damage that we could do. And once Trump realized that, that's when he gave the okay to go after them. Are you saying that's just propaganda? That's just propaganda that that wasn't true at all?
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Fareed Zakaria
Yes. If you look at every independent, credible analysis of what those bombing strikes achieved, US Intelligence, Israeli intelligence, the International Atomic Energy Agency, all of those people said Iran's program has been devastated by those bombings in June. You know, they've stopped doing any enrichment of uranium whatsoever. Those facilities have been set back years in terms of it would take years to repair them, all of that. And by the way, this is all stuff that the Trump administration was saying. So the people who believe him now have to ask themselves, well, in that case, was he lying then when he said that it had all been destroyed? You can't have it both ways. It either had been totally destroyed, it totally and completely obliterated. Those were Donald Trump's words, either that was true then and what he's saying now is not true, or it's the other way around.
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Stephen A. Smith
Both statements can't be true if Iran doesn't surrender. What does the off ramp look like? Fareed Zakaria, what does it look like?
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Fareed Zakaria
Well, here we have, you know, I think there's good news, which is the thing about Donald Trump is I don't think he's a man of deep conviction about any of these things. He's very flexible, he's very pragmatic, and he has laid out like six different rationales for this war, which means that one of them is going to be, you know, you can grab onto one of them and say, well, this is what we were trying to do. And Trump does have that flexibility to reverse himself, to back off, to backpedal, and frankly, his base will accept anything they agree. You know, I mean, he has a connection with his base, Stephen, that is amazing. That is. You got to respect it. I don't completely understand it, but he. So what I'm saying is he could declare victory, reverse himself, say the war is over, and with his core support base, I don't think they would care. They would believe him. They'd say, yeah, he succeeded.
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Stephen A. Smith
CNN host Faree Zakaria. Right here with Stephen A Straight Shooter with Stephen A. Honored to have you on the show, sir. I gotta ask you this as well. I mean, obviously Trump didn't go to Congress. You know, he sent Marco Rubio, his Secretary of State, to talk to the Gang of Eight. We know that part. But nevertheless, the Democrats were saying that he really didn't go through Congress for make this happen. How big of a deal is it that he didn't necessarily go through? Particularly when we consider the fact that Congress hasn't declared war since 1942. I mean, how big of a deal is that?
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Fareed Zakaria
It's not as big a deal as the Democrats are making it out to be. They sound like whiners. They shouldn't focus so much on the process issue. Here's a news flash. Obama did not ask Congress for a declaration of war when he essentially went to war against Libya. The guy who did, in a sense, was Bush with Iraq. He didn't quite get asked for a declaration, but he asked for congressional resolution. But you're right, Stephen. Most of the time, Congress doesn't do it. Now, there is a broader issue which is, I think it's a very bad thing that the president has essentially usurped the power that is clearly written into the Constitution that Congress has to declare war. I think it's a bad thing in a democracy, because I think you want the body that is elected by the people to be making that decision. They're the guys who have to fund the war. But it is not true that Trump is unique in this regard. He's just like every other president.
- [36:39]
Stephen A. Smith
But you just said that Obama did it with Libya. So what was worse, in your estimation, What Trump is doing now or what Obama did then?
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Fareed Zakaria
It's basically the same, honestly, and very famously. Lyndon Johnson did it in Vietnam. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think Reagan didn't ask for it in Grenada. I don't think Bush asked for it in Panama. The presidents have basically taken the view that as commander in chief, they get to do this whenever they want, and they just have to inform Congress, which is what Marco Rubio was doing. So Trump followed the procedure every other modern president has done. I do wish we could go back to the pre, you know, the older sort of arrangement in what is meant to be a constitutional republic, which is clearly laid out in the Constitution, which is that Congress declares war.
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Stephen A. Smith
Specifically alluding to this particular strike. If a Democratic president had launched this strike on Iran without, you know, Congress voting on it, do you think the reaction in Washington would be the same?
- [37:49]
Fareed Zakaria
I think the Republicans would make the same arguments the Democrats are making now. I think that's a partisan game. I think the truth is presidents of both parties have tended to do this, and I think that sort of gets into a kind of procedural issue. What Democrats should face up to is like, is this a good idea or is it a bad idea? And focus on that and explain to the American people that this was an unprovoked war against an enemy that we claimed we had defanged just a few months ago. And it's not clear what our goal is and that those are all the reasons to be very worried about where we're going here, the issue of congressional authorization. As I say, unfortunately, Democratic presidents have done just the same thing.
- [38:38]
Stephen A. Smith
You're a worldly individual, to say the least. Farice Zakaria. How concerned are you, knowing the world the way that you do about fomenting, or shall I say, growing anti Semitism, things that the Jewish community has alluded to even before all of this has happened. But since, certainly since all of this has happened, how much of a concern should that be in the United States of America and particularly in the Middle East?
- [39:04]
Fareed Zakaria
I'm very worried about antisemitism, particularly in the Western world. Honestly, that's where you're seeing a lot of it. I think it's totally unjustifiable. Stephen, whatever your views on Israel, whatever your views on what Israel did in Gaza, for that to then morph into antisemitism, which is against Jews, if you're protesting against what Israel is doing in Gaza, go protest at the Israeli embassy. Don't deface a synagogue, don't go to a Jewish community center. That is a perfect example of how you're basically allowing some issue in geopolitics to morph into a hatred of a particular religious, ethnic community. And I think in America we should be above that. I think. I'm very worried about the degree to which it's happening. And it's been going up a lot in the last five or seven years. And it's, I think, incumbent on all of us to be careful whenever we talk about these things. To be clear, you may like or dislike what the government of Israel is doing that should not in any way get transferred or transformed into antisemitism.
- [40:22]
Stephen A. Smith
I completely, 1000% agree with you. But with that being said, how should folks feel about Benjamin Netanyahu as opposed to the Jewish community?
- [40:32]
Fareed Zakaria
Look, I think, you know, if you look at how Israelis feel, he's one of the most divisive figures in Israel. Before these wars began, half the country was out, literally half the country is out protesting against him because of what he's been doing domestically in Israel. I think that, you know, a lot of the things he's done internationally, I think have not been. They're not, in my opinion, great for Israel in terms of its fundamental dilemma, which is what do you do about 5 million Palestinians who live in territories controlled by Israel and who live like second class citizens? He just never wants to solve that problem. He punts on it. Even while all this stuff is going on, Stephen, with the war with Iran, meanwhile, settlers in the west bank have been shooting Palestinians. The Israeli army in Gaza is shooting civilians. Why? This is the fundamental issue that Israel has that it needs to grapple with. What does it do with the 5 million Palestinians who live on its territory? I'm a supporter of Israel. I want Israel to be strong and secure. But this is an albatross around Israel's neck. It's gotta deal with it. And Benjamin Netanyahu's attitude is, I'll just keep punting. I'll just keep kicking this can down the road and deal with everything else. Well, it's not gonna go away.
- [42:02]
Stephen A. Smith
Going back to Obama and Libya, comparing that to Trump and what's Transpiring with the United States under his leadership at this particular moment in time. Could you decipher the difference to explain to my listeners between Obama and Libya and Trump and Iran?
- [42:20]
Fareed Zakaria
Oh, sure. Look, I was just making a point about the lack of congressional involvement in both cases, but I think the understood the Libya operation.
- [42:29]
Stephen A. Smith
I just want the education. I just want the education. Go ahead.
- [42:32]
Fareed Zakaria
Very different Obama with the case of Libya. So let's remember what happens in Libya. Gaddafi is murdering his own people. He's about to do a mass slaughter of insurgent group that's trying to get rid of him and the Arab League. All the Arab states come to Obama and say, you got to do something, you got to stop this. So Obama gets them to pass a resolution asking for help. He then gets NATO to get involved. He then gets the whole of NATO involved. And as a collective alliance, NATO basically does some bombing and some air support so that Gaddafi doesn't do that. In the course of that, the Gaddafi regime was toppled. So to my mind, it was much more multilateral. It had legitimacy in that there was an ask from the Arabs. It was done collectively with other NATO countries. It was a limited mission. We knew when we could stop, we knew when we could get out. In this case, it's totally unilateral. The only ally we have in the world is Israel helping us. It was a surprise to everybody, including our Arab allies. It seems completely open ended with shifting goals every day and we still don't know when will we know we've won, when will we know we've achieved what we're trying to achieve. So I think this one is much more haphazard, unplanned, unstrategic and unilateral, how
- [44:03]
Stephen A. Smith
worried are you that the United States, this issue is gonna go off the rails for us as American citizens Here in this country, people are looking at gas prices and so hoping that they don't continue to escalate. But nevertheless, that's not the only thing one would have to worry about. Oil prices Right now at $3.3, the national average for gas price right now and up from 320 a week ago. That's the statistic right there. People could say they're worried about the gas price, but that's not the only thing to be worried about. Unless you say otherwise, sir.
- [44:31]
Fareed Zakaria
Oh, no, you're exactly right. First of all, remember when you block 20% of the world's petroleum supply, as has effectively happened, because it can move through the Straits of Hormuz and there's mines now and things like that. So this seems like it's going to continue. It's not just oil because petroleum is used for everything. Farmers are finding fertilizer prices are up 75%. Why? Because petroleum is the base ingredient in it. Anything that involves plastics, you want to build a data center, you want to build these AI facilities. All the copper that you lay has petroleum components as part of the wiring. All the plastics we use, there's a huge number of follow on effects here. And then when you start to look at this continuing, here's what happens. So let's say you're the government of Iraq or Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, you need to pump the oil and get it out on the onto tankers because if you don't, you've got to store it and you have limited storage facility. So what's happening in Iraq right now is because they can't get the oil out, the storage facilities are full, which means that now what they're going to have to do is stop production. And when you stop production, it takes a while to get it back going. We saw this during COVID Stephen, which is when supply chains get tangled up, it causes a lot of problems for ordinary people because the price of everything goes up and it takes a while for them to untangle. Now, we're only 10 or 15 days into this war, but if this goes on another four or five weeks, as the President has said, you could have some serious supply chain problems which will cause serious pain for ordinary Americans. The price of food will go up, the price of gas will go up, the price of everything will go up.
- [46:27]
Stephen A. Smith
Last question. I don't need to get into Trump and 2028 because he's not running for reelection unless he's going to circumvent the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution. We can't see that happening. So that could be a Marco Rubio, JD Vance or somebody else. But there's a midterm to be concerned about with the gop. And considering what's transpiring right now, is it the GOP because of Trump's decisions that have something to be worried about, or the Democrats who have gone against Trump on this issue along with the myriad of others who need to be concerned as the midterms approach?
- [47:00]
Fareed Zakaria
Look, I think foreign policy rarely is the core determinant of elections fair. And remember, we're so powerful, we're pummeling the Iranians. So it's not like us is not gonna lose this. But I think it does add to the feeling that people have had that Donald Trump is not fulfilling the promises he made to them about bringing prices of things down, about focusing on their concerns, their core concerns, and is instead off on what he himself called an excursion. Right. I mean, that excursion sounds like a foreign adventure. And I think this is the part that is most puzzling for I'm sure the people who supported him. You know, there was nothing Trump was more clear about than that he did not want to start new wars. He wasn't going to start new wars. He was going to get out of wars. J.D. vance wrote an op ed saying the number one foreign policy reason to support Donald Trump is he won't get us into a war. And then he elaborated on that point and said we will not get into a war in Iran. So it's the contradiction. Trump is going against Trumpism.
- [48:12]
Stephen A. Smith
Yes. Farisa Caria, honored to have you anytime. I really, really appreciate you taking time out of your business because you. Thank you so much. I'm a huge fan. Feel free to reach out anytime you need me, my man. I watch your show as religiously. Religiously. I just love the show and I appreciate you. Thank you for coming on the show and taking time out of your busy schedule. Really appreciate it. Thank you.
- [48:30]
Fareed Zakaria
Thank you, Stephen. Thank you.
- [48:33]
Stephen A. Smith
Take care. The one and only Farice Akari for cnn right here with Stephen, a straight shooter with yours truly. 86696 POTUS is the number to call up. That's 86696 POTUS. Back with your calls and our number two up next. Don't go away. You're listening live to your boy. Straight shoot in the house.
- [48:50]
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Angie.com Narrator
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- [49:55]
Stephen A. Smith
So a short time ago under a man named Sleepy Joe Biden. Has anyone heard of him? Has anyone heard of him? How about Barack Hussein Obama? He went to Jesse Jackson's funeral. He spoke and it was like a political hit job. And the family of Jesse Jackson got angry as hell at him because they understand, they hate, hated each other.
- [50:23]
Angie.com Narrator
You know, he was there.
- [50:24]
Stephen A. Smith
But I loved watching that.
- [50:27]
Angie.com Narrator
That was.
- [50:28]
Fareed Zakaria
So the family goes outside and they start screaming at him.
- [50:32]
Stephen A. Smith
We can insult the president all we want to and he certainly gives us plenty of ammunition to do so. But it doesn't mean he's wrong about everything. It was a political statement that former President Obama gave at Jesse Jackson memorial service even after the Jackson family asked them not to do so. And on top of it all, Trump spoke highly of Jesse Jackson. And if you remember in the 80s when Jesse Jackson was going to run for president, people were talking about Trump should run back then. And it is true that Trump backed out because he said Jesse's my friend and I want to throw my support behind him. But folks don't mention that. See, I'm going to insult the president or criticize him rather all day, every day when he deserves it. But I'm not going to be one sided and act like he's never done any damn thing right or that he never had anybody black who liked him and he got along with. That's simply not true. A lot of folks got along with Trump before he decided to run for president, including myself. That's just keeping it a buck. That's just being 100 with it. That don't absolve him from the trifling stuff he's done. But it is the truth. 86696 POTUS. That is the number to call and I got lines. I'm gonna talk to you next hour. Number two coming at you.
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Angie.com Narrator
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Caller/Listener
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- [52:21]
Stephen A. Smith
I think we should call a doctor.
- [52:24]
Angie.com Narrator
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- [52:48]
Stephen A. Smith
Straight Shooter with Stephen A. To our Arab friends. I've tried to help you construct a new Mid East. You need to up your game here. I can't go to South Carolina and say we're fighting and you won't publicly.
- [53:06]
Caller/Listener
What you're doing behind the scenes, that has to stop.
- [53:08]
Stephen A. Smith
The double dealing of the Arab world when it comes to this stuff needs to end. I go back to South Carolina, I'm
- [53:13]
Caller/Listener
asking them to send their sons and
- [53:15]
Stephen A. Smith
daughters over to the Mid East. Oh, my God. That is Senator Lindsey Graham from the great state of South Carolina. Keep in mind, ladies and gentlemen, he is neither married nor does he have any kids, but he's going to the state of South Carolina to tell kids, parents and kids to, to, to, to go and to join the war. You got to be, you got, you got to be kidding me. You can't make this up. And I like, hey, listen, Lindsey Graham has been a guest on this show, and he's welcome back. He's a guest, very. One of the very first guests. A guest on this show September 17th. You understand there's a lot of, you know, there's some things about Lindsey Graham that I don't agree with and there's some things that I do. I'm just talking about that particular statement. Come on, man. Come on, bro. Talk about excessive. You could do better than that. Welcome to album number two, A Straight Shooter with Stephen A. Coming at you as I love to do every Wednesday night from 6 to 8pm Eastern Standard Time over the airways of SiriusXM POTUS radio, 86696. POTUS is the number of coldest 86696, POTUS we got phone calls to get to at least for the next 20 minutes or so. Before I go to Mr. Luke Campbell, Uncle Luke, remember 2 Live Crew. You know, everybody in the rap game knows him, stuff like that. But he's trying to run for office. He's trying to be a politician. Damn, I got to talk to him about that brother Wild. Got love for him, though. Always got love for him. Looking forward to talking to him. Let's get to the phones. Let's go to Greg in Michigan. You're live with Stephen A. Boom shakalaka. What's going on, my man?
- [54:48]
Caller/Listener
President Smith. How are you, sir?
- [54:50]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm all right. Talk to you.
- [54:51]
Caller/Listener
Oh, my God. Fantastic interview with Fareed real quick. Sending positive vibes to Chris Cuomo and Israel and everybody that's out there. I want everyone to come home safe. Is it unreasonable for us to think that this war has a time limit when we're dealing with religious zealots that will die at any cost? They don't care about life.
- [55:17]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, they're pointing to the obliteration of their weaponry, the dis. You know, the dismantle, the dismantling of Hamas and Hezbollah proxies serving under their regime, along with the Houthis in Yemen. And they're looking at stuff from that standpoint, and they're questioning what their capabilities are. You're talking about a folk of folks that's willing to lose their lives, that's willing to sacrifice their lives to defend themselves or to get exact vengeance. The United States and Israel, whatever way you want to term it. Um, but I think people who are alluding to there being a period to the end of that sentence are simply looking at Iran's capability now compared to what it used to be, and saying, you know what? They've been pretty much obliterated. And as a result, they're not going to be able to do so much. We don't know whether that's true or not. We got to hope that it's true. We got to hope that the Trump administration, the GOP and. And legislative figures on Capitol Hill, period, have come together as American citizens and to make sure to ensure the safety of Americ, not just here, but. But also abroad and making sure that, you know, people can't do irreparable harm to us. So we hope that they're right. We hope that they're accurate with their intel information. We're hoping that people like to see in the CIA, the FBI and all of the tentacles both. Both entities have that they're giving us the accurate intel necessary in order for us to defend ourselves. It's all we can rely on, Greg. We don't have a choice.
- [56:48]
Caller/Listener
Hey, Mr. Positive loves you. Keep being, you go. Dreams, everybody.
- [56:52]
Stephen A. Smith
Appreciate it, my man. Thank you so much. Dario in North Carolina, you're live with Stephen A. Talk to me, my man. How are you?
- [56:58]
Caller/Listener
How you doing, sir? Big fan.
- [56:59]
Stephen A. Smith
Thank you. Go ahead.
- [57:00]
Caller/Listener
All right, now, here's an angle nobody hits you with, and it's very divisive because between the TDS and the maga, you know, they don't understand what's going on. And then they take their crowd with them and start misinforming them. Now, this war is. We are, like the gentleman said on your first segment, we're fighting a different war than Israel. If you're looking into the eyes of Israel, you got to look at people that, you know, went through genocide and other things. They're on the defensive. I understand their perspective in one way and another. I try not to get in their head. As far as our president, Our president is going after the globalist elites and the British institutions, if you notice, they wouldn't let us use the Chagos Islands, even though we have a base there. If you notice, they didn't want to get into the war until after they noticed that we said that we would keep the strait open. Why? Because that is. That chokes their insurance companies. Hamilton wanted an American system. That's why most of South America had the presidential system. Even China and Russia was on the way to becoming our kind of system. And then here comes UK with JP Morgan and those elites, and they turn around and say, you know what? We need to destabilize the American way because they're going to bankrupt.
- [58:10]
Stephen A. Smith
So, so, so, so, so, so. Because most people, you have to take into consideration the listener and what have you and how most people don't comprehend a damn sentence you just said. So to encapsulate what you're saying, what exactly are you talking about here? Whether it's a J.P. morgan Chase or anybody else, and you brought up elitist or whatever, what specifically are you trying to say? Bring it where the goats can get it.
- [58:33]
Caller/Listener
Okay, MI6, CIA, they put the Ayatollah in Iran. If you do, I can.
- [58:39]
Stephen A. Smith
If you go, I don't. I don't need all of that. Go ahead. Just keep making your point. Keep. Am. I am. I said MI6, CIA, put the Ayatollah Khomeini in office. Okay, go ahead, empower. What else?
- [58:51]
Caller/Listener
They put him in there so he can destabilize this.
- [58:54]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, so now what are you talking about? So now what? So you're talking about Ayatollah Khomeini's son that's in power right now.
- [59:02]
Caller/Listener
No, I'm talking about the original.
- [59:03]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, so this is. This is 1979. This is 1979 that you're talking about. Okay, so what are we talking about here? Nearly 50 years ago, 45 years ago. Okay, now what? Coming here, come now, tonight to 2026. Now what are you saying?
- [59:18]
Caller/Listener
Since then, they've had a stronghold on all energy, on transportation, everything. If you go to Promethean action, because I know that you like receipts and you like to do your homework and everything like that. So I would suggest you to go there to people that are very nonpartisan, that do not like war, that speak more about the research that's done on this and everything that's went on and how the shields of America, the world of peace with that, even him allowing Russia to give oil.
- [59:46]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, so what is the purpose of you? I'm getting ready to hang up on you because I got other callers to get to. And I appreciate you. I'm not trying to insult you, but I'm just, you know, when you call up to give a whole bunch of people research, I don't know if you notice, just in case you ever want to host a. Do you host a radio show? Are you in the media?
- [60:02]
Caller/Listener
I don't. I just do.
- [60:03]
Stephen A. Smith
Let me tell you why. Because you'd have lost. You'd have lost your audience in two seconds because you gave them research instead of giving them answers. You understand? So the point that I'm trying to make to you is that for future reference, you have to understand, you got to know what people don't know, and you got to know that you got the time other than two minutes to drop something on them. You got to need more than that with the stuff that you dropping, because you bringing up stuff from the 70s through this regime, and now he's gone and his son is in power, and you haven't made sense to the average American citizen listening to you right now. We can deduce that elitists have something to do with this. We can deduce that they've influenced Trump to some degree. We could. Just like people are deducing that Benjamin, that yahoo and Israel may have influenced Trump. You got a whole bunch of people, you know what they're going to say about that. That's a conspiracy theory. I'm not saying that it's true. I'm not saying that. That's right. I'm saying that's how it's going to be deduced because they don't understand the full concept and the full oomph of what you're giving us right now. So you got to take that into consideration before you call up here and try to give that information in two minutes. I gotta go. I appreciate the call. Thank you so much. Call back anytime, though, because I really like. I really like you because you sound informed, but you understand something. A lot of us don't comprehend that stuff. You damn right. I'm gonna go and look it up. I remember what you said. I'm gonna look it up because I don't know whether you telling the truth or not. That's why I couldn't Let you continue to go on. Let's go to Josh in Michigan. You're live with Stephen A. What's up, Josh? How are you?
- [61:22]
Caller/Listener
I'm good, my brother. How are you?
- [61:24]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm all right. Go ahead, my man.
- [61:27]
Caller/Listener
So I heard you say earlier, do people regret their voting decisions at the very beginning of the radio show? And I'm a three, I'm a three time Trump voter and the, the last time I voted for Trump, I 100%, 100% regret my vote because. Yep, the last time I voted for him.
- [61:50]
Stephen A. Smith
This is in 20, this is, this is in 2020 or 2024.
- [61:55]
Caller/Listener
2024.
- [61:56]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, so you regret your vote for him from last year?
- [61:59]
Caller/Listener
Yes, sir.
- [62:00]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, go ahead, go ahead.
- [62:03]
Caller/Listener
Mainly just because it's, you know, I didn't, I didn't vote for him to talk about going after corruption and then pardon a bunch of people that are guilty of corruption. I didn't vote for him to say that he wants to release the Epstein files and slow walk the release of the Epstein files and then allow insane redactions but then the victims names to be released. I didn't, I didn't vote for any of these things. I didn't vote for a new war. I didn't vote for anything. And he's doing all of the things that he promised not to do. And me and at least most of my friends are sitting here in awe because we thought that this, you know, we, what we were doing was voting for a man that wouldn't.
- [62:43]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, let me throw some, let me throw something at you. I'm interested in throwing this question at, at you. Is that fair? I'm not saying it's not or it is. I don't have an opinion yet. I'm asking you as a Trump voter, because I certainly was not, is that fair to regret your vote to have voters remorse with him off of that issue? When a commander in chief can easily make the argument that things develop once they're in office that they didn't anticipate coming their way and as a result this is a decision that they make.
- [63:18]
Caller/Listener
So because if you, if you look at his, and my rebuttal will be if you look at his posture post 20, like before 2024 and you look at his rhetoric before 2024, nothing really changed. He didn't change as a person. He's always been this person. It's just that we believed a lie and we, we were thinking that maybe this man was America first. After January 6th, we should have known that this man is in America first. But a lot of us just tried to overlook that. I don't know why, but that was something. That was a mistake. Well, at least as the Trump voter, I feel.
- [63:57]
Angie.com Narrator
But.
- [63:58]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, just do me a favor. Just don't sound like Kamala Harris when you do it, because I'm sick. I'm sick of her saying to people, particularly black people, I tried to tell y' all know, the hell you did it. You were busy not being aggressive, you were busy being passive, you were busy being loyal. And to Joe Biden, instead of being in tireless pursuit of the American electorate, that's what you were doing. You go on the View and you sit up there. Is there anything that you would do differently from what Joe Biden did? I can't really think of anything. You got to be kidding me. And then all of a sudden, you trying to sell a book and now you being candid. The time to be candid was when the presidency was on the line. So I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it from her. I have respect for I voted for her. But my God, I mean, do put forth your fervor then. Not with a bunch of I told you so and talking to people who voted for you. You're supposed to say I told you so to people who didn't vote for you, not the people who did because we voted for. So I just want to say that. I got to go. Josh, I appreciate the call. Thank you so much. Estelle, you're live with Stephen A. How are you, Estelle? How's everything?
- [65:12]
Caller/Listener
Hey, Stephen, thanks for taking the call.
- [65:14]
Stephen A. Smith
Thank you for calling. What's going on?
- [65:17]
Caller/Listener
Yeah, I want to talk about the SAVE Act.
- [65:19]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay.
- [65:20]
Caller/Listener
So I've been listening. I've been listening to a lot of the back and forth politically. I've heard some experts in the election field. So I decided to go read the bill and I've made up my mind about the SAVE Act. Now, while I think it's a great idea to have voter id, I think the SAVE act is a terrible bill. And where I think it really goes wrong is in. Well, there's a couple areas, but in particular to start with is in the requirement for citizenship ID in order to register to vote. The way the bill is written, it goes into effect the minute it is signed. That means that affects the upcoming elections in the fall, and that means everybody is going to have to re register and provide citizenship papers that.
- [66:11]
Angie.com Narrator
Go.
- [66:13]
Caller/Listener
Go ahead, Esther.
- [66:14]
Stephen A. Smith
Why you. Estelle, that's the correct pronunciation for your name.
- [66:17]
Caller/Listener
Yeah.
- [66:18]
Stephen A. Smith
Why would you explain to me why is that a problem for you? Considering the fact that as we get these new IDs, that has been imp. You know, we, we've learned about this for a couple of years now that we're going. We all have to get new IDs, okay. In the process of getting the government IDs, in process of getting that, we, we've got to reapply and, and we've got to do that. So what's the issue?
- [66:45]
Caller/Listener
Real ID doesn't prove citizenship.
- [66:48]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, so are you saying that you're in opposition to having approved real citizenship?
- [66:55]
Caller/Listener
I don't have a problem necessarily. I mean, right now it's illegal to vote if you're not a citizen. That is already true.
- [67:02]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay.
- [67:02]
Caller/Listener
And the fact is that non citizens actually having voted is vanishingly small.
- [67:12]
Stephen A. Smith
I have to interrupt. I have to interrupt. No matter how small it is, is it right for someone who is not here legally, who is not American, who is not an American citizen, to be voting in our elections? Yes or no?
- [67:28]
Caller/Listener
I agree with that.
- [67:30]
Stephen A. Smith
No, no, what you agree with? I'm asking which, which position do you take? Which position? Do you believe it's correct?
- [67:38]
Caller/Listener
No, it's not correct.
- [67:39]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay, so if it's not correct, Right. And then you have the SAFE act that's requiring, you know, it's basically an amendment to the National Voter Registration act of 1993 to require documentary proof of United States citizenship. If somebody is requiring that you show proof of United States citizenship and you are in support of migrants who are here legally, illegally, not being able to vote, then what's the problem?
- [68:08]
Caller/Listener
Let me continue. Let me continue, please. The problem is not in that we shouldn't require it. The problem is in the implementation and that everyone will have to re. Register for the upcoming election.
- [68:24]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay?
- [68:25]
Caller/Listener
The number of people that will have to provide that documentation immediately. Number of people that will have trouble providing.
- [68:37]
Stephen A. Smith
I got it.
- [68:37]
Caller/Listener
Original birth certificate.
- [68:41]
Stephen A. Smith
Estelle, I got it. Let me, let me throw something by you. Okay, So I was born in the Bronx, New York. I was raised in Hollis, Queens. I'm 58 years old. I've had a passport for many years. Do you know I have to reapply for my passport? I have to go and get another one. It expired and I let it run out. So I have to go. I forgot about. I gotta go get it. And I'm going to have to show proof of citizenship in order to get another passport. I have to go through that. And I've been an American Citizen My entire 58 years on this planet Earth, I have to do that. What's wrong? When you talk about the process, I understand the process might be arduous. If you're saying monetarily because it may cost too much, which is an argument that my staff has made, I totally support that. Because Everybody don't have $150 or whatever it's going to cost to do all of these. These things. I got that part. I think the government should make it feasible for you to do that. As far as I'm concerned, with the money that Hegseth and Kristi Noman spent alone, you should be able to give every American citizen free access to a government id. You understand? To a real id, it should. It shouldn't even be a problem. But if we're arguing that we shouldn't have to go through the process of acquiring a real id, that's where I jump off the rails. I gotta go through it. Why shouldn't somebody else?
- [70:08]
Caller/Listener
Okay, how many voters are there in the United States? How many registered voters?
- [70:12]
Stephen A. Smith
I don't know how many registered voters. I notice over 350 million American citizens, and I'm guesstimating that the approximate number is anywhere from 200 to 225 million.
- [70:24]
Caller/Listener
Imagine of all those people having to go to their election office or voter re register and imagine how the beleaguered offices are going to happen.
- [70:36]
Stephen A. Smith
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Estelle. There are people that are waiting five hours in line to get on a plane. They still at the airport buying plane tickets. There are people that go to the supermarkets and have to wait in line, go to the department stores that have to wait online, go to an event and have to wait a line, get stuck in the bumper to bumper traffic. Listen, America. America's got to stop being so damn spoiled. Estelle. You can't have everything. I mean, it's going to be an inconvenience, and I understand that. Monetarily speaking, I have no problem with somebody making the argument that, look, everybody can't afford to endure the process. They don't have that kind of money. I got it. I think it should be free to every American citizen. You got an id. You need a real id. We shouldn't be charged for that. I got that money part. But if you're sitting here telling me because the process is so arduous and it's such an inconvenience and that usurps the importance of identifying poor folks who are legally and legitimized to be voters, and differentiating them from migrants who are here illegally. Estelle, I can't side with you on that because the process is difficult. That's not good enough. We got elections, we got elected officials, got people running this country making important decisions that govern our lives. Health care, the economy, safety in the streets, immigration, education, welfare, entitlement programs. I can't be having people that are not American citizens and are not here legally. If they're not here legally. And you shouldn't be allowed to vote.
- [72:25]
Caller/Listener
I agree.
- [72:27]
Stephen A. Smith
Since you agree with that, it seems to me the only thing you're complaining about is the process and how arduous it is and how much of an inconvenience it is. That's tough.
- [72:38]
Caller/Listener
I'm complaining about. What I'm saying is that the bill is written. It's too soon and not funded. It cannot be done in three months. And there is no.
- [72:52]
Stephen A. Smith
I disagree. I don't disagree with you there. It needs. It needs. It doesn't need to be expedited that quickly because it's not going to be efficient, and we need to ensure efficiency. I side with you a thousand percent on that, Estelle. But. But in the end. But in the end. Understand, in the. Listen, Estelle, you know what I tell people when I think about, you know, being in politics? You know what my theme would be? Not officially, but unofficially, Nobody gets everything they want. That's not the real world. The real world is that when. When you have something that's great, it usually comes with a price. It usually involves sacrifice. There are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interest, as the late, great black eagle Joe Madison, God rest his soul, would say. And we have to understand that. And in the interest of serving the best interests of America as a nation, whatever side of the aisle you on, we can at least come to the conclusion that you don't get to have everything. And inconvenience sometimes comes with the best things that life have to offer to get it. There's a price that has to be paid, and it's just that simple. Appreciate your call, Estelle. Thank you so much. And feel free to call back anytime. Mary in Louisiana, you're live with Straight On, Straight Shooter with Stephen A. How you doing, Mary?
- [74:18]
Caller/Listener
Yeah, hi, Stephen A. I'm doing well, and yourself.
- [74:22]
Stephen A. Smith
Thank you for calling. How are you?
- [74:24]
Caller/Listener
Yes, I can't wait to listen to you on my drive home on Wednesdays today, I heard your lead in talking about the Save America Act. I agree with Estelle and I need you to listen to me here because that Save America act is not just a show your ID at the poll hell. I've been showing my ID to vote since I don't know when. It's not a problem for me. But what is a problem for me with this Save America act is that's not just it. So I've been registered to vote since before I turned 18 because I was going to be 18 when the election came around. So I've got an ID. What I have to go then go back down to the registrar voters office and re register because they have to verify now that I am an American citizen.
- [75:25]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay.
- [75:25]
Caller/Listener
Not just a matter of having an id.
- [75:29]
Stephen A. Smith
Mary, first of all, I wasn't. Respectfully, ma', am, I wasn't saying that. That was just that. I was only arguing point that she brought up. I'm. I'm fully aware that there's far more to it than that. I'm a voter. So I get you where you're coming from and I know that you're absolutely correct in what you're saying and I appreciate your call. But I'll say this to you, Mary, and I'm going to ask you a very, very tough question, ma'. Am. And I want you to think about this. I only got a minute or so left, but I want you to think about this hard before you answer. No matter what it entails outside of the money issue, because everybody don't have the money. I'm talking about inconvenience here. Is that more important than making sure that the representatives that we send to Capitol Hill are sent there legitimately because the American people have voted? As opposed to what? Some would argue that folks on the left don't mind illegals having a license to vote because what they care about is getting in office at all cost. As opposed to serving the best interest of the American people. Meaning that those who are legitimately authorized to be voters in the United States of America are the ones actually doing the voting?
- [76:55]
Caller/Listener
Okay, I'll say that the system that we had, it may not be a perfect system, but it has worked. And I say that to say that doing it.
- [77:10]
Stephen A. Smith
Mary, you say it works. 77 million voters believe that it hasn't.
- [77:17]
Caller/Listener
Well, that's on them.
- [77:22]
Stephen A. Smith
You know, I love you already. I love you already.
- [77:24]
Caller/Listener
Eligible number.
- [77:25]
Stephen A. Smith
Numbers.
- [77:26]
Caller/Listener
Very negligible numbers.
- [77:28]
Stephen A. Smith
Hold on, hold on, hold on. I love you already. I am not. I am not mad at you at all. Yes, because I, Mary, I was raised by five women. Raised by five women. Five strong black women. And I gotta tell you, Mary, I love you already. Because I just said to you, 77 million people said otherwise. And you said, that's their problem. I mean, I got it. I got it. Mary, I ain't mad at you. I meant, I don't even know if I disagree with you. I don't even know if I disagree with you. I'm just saying to say that over the national airwaves, Mary, that's their problem. Mary, you can't. As much as I adore you as a caller and please call back anytime. As much as I adore you as a caller. Don't hang up on Mary. Leave on. As much as I adore you as a caller, Mary, you can't just say that's their problem. The 77 million voters and win elections.
- [78:25]
Caller/Listener
I understand that. I understand that. But the bigger picture here is, yeah, there may need to be some tweaking done to this system.
- [78:35]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay?
- [78:35]
Caller/Listener
But from here to election, there's not enough time. And we need to ensure that we get this thing right.
- [78:44]
Stephen A. Smith
Not enough time.
- [78:44]
Caller/Listener
It doesn't just affect blacks. It doesn't just affect the land. It's going to affect all of us.
- [78:51]
Stephen A. Smith
That's fair, Mary. I would. I would end by saying this. That's fair. But that's one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is that the Democrats have been in office on several occasions. The Clinton administration, the Obama administration and the Biden administration. That's 20 of the last 35 years. The Democrats had plenty of times to resolve this issue. So to say that it's not enough time might fall on deaf ears. I appreciate the call, though, Mary. I thank you so much. Wonderful caller. Love the fact that you called in. You and Estelle, Feel free to call back anytime. You know, I'm here every Wednesday night from 6 to 8pm over the airwaves of Sirius XM POTUS radio, channel 124. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed that call. Marry something else. That's that. That's their problem. Oh, my God. That was so hilarious. That's so hilarious. Another brother's coming on. He's funny, but he's smart as hell. Incredibly accomplished. It's my brother. I got mad love for him. Uncle Luke's in the house. I usually don't try to get too excited, but I'm always excited to. To see my brother. He running for office, y'. All. Two Live Crew. To a politician, what the hell is this world coming to? I'm about to find out. Straight shooting with yours truly, Stephen A. In the House. Back with more in a minute. 34 minutes past hour number two back here. A straight shooter with yours truly. Uncle Luke's in the house. The one and only Luke Campbell. Rapper, activist, congressional candidate. What's going on, my man?
- [80:33]
Angie.com Narrator
You feeling my brother, man, how you doing?
- [80:34]
Stephen A. Smith
It's good to see you again, man. What's going on with you, my brother? What you been up to? I need. I need to ask that first. What's going on?
- [80:42]
Angie.com Narrator
L. Outside of watching BAM hit 83.83.3. I know you wasn't quite.
- [80:50]
Stephen A. Smith
It wasn't quite Kobe, like, but it was still a damn good performance. Top three all time, no doubt.
- [80:54]
Angie.com Narrator
Why did I know you was going to say that?
- [80:56]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, because everybody's saying that because it's obvious, you know what I'm saying? When you shoot 43 free throws, I mean, that's how they look at it.
- [81:00]
Angie.com Narrator
But.
- [81:01]
Stephen A. Smith
But anyway, talk to me about you. What's been going on with you, my man?
- [81:04]
Angie.com Narrator
Man, I'm running for Congress. I think it's. I think it's the right time. I mean, you know, the district that I'm running, CD20, okay. And it's the blackest district in the state of Florida, one of the blackest districts in the. In the nation. And. And it's underserved. I mean, we got a congresswoman that's been indicted and has a whole lot of ethics violations. But even before that, I was getting ready to run the first. The last cycle I was going to run. But again, when you. Obviously, when. You know, when you're running these things, you got to have your affairs in order.
- [81:37]
Stephen A. Smith
Yes, yes.
- [81:37]
Angie.com Narrator
And then you got to look at it, and they say, okay, well, you're gonna make $160,000.
- [81:42]
Stephen A. Smith
And that's not the kind of money you used to. No, that's not the money you used to. You know what I'm saying? But. But one would ask, when you think about what's required in order to be a successful elected official, what makes you think that you could pull it off like. Like in this area? I know you're very popular. I have no doubt that you're going to get a lot of voters that's going to come out to support you. But what are you going to be able to do in your estimation as one of 435 elected U.S. representatives?
- [82:13]
Angie.com Narrator
I know. I think, you know, the most important thing is, is to bring back money to your community. You know, I was pretty much raised in the political landscape by a young lady named Carrie Meek, God bless her.
- [82:28]
Stephen A. Smith
So.
- [82:29]
Angie.com Narrator
Former congresswoman. And one thing she did for her district, which is what we lived in, is she consistently brought back money. You know what I'm saying? They call it pork. The Democratic Party has a tendency of wanting to run away from that and more. So the Republican Party, they'll go bring the money back. And so my thing is, you know, I think I can get those things done. I mean, you know, the way the federal government is set up right now, you know, yeah, they gutted Department of Education, they gutted a whole lot of departments, but it's just a matter of working around those things because those same dollars are going back to those departments, but people are working in other places.
- [83:07]
Stephen A. Smith
Talk to me about Representative McCormick. She's the incumbent. She was federally indicted in the case of. Case involving alleged misuse of COVID relief funds. She denies any wrongdoing. However, you know, your platform focuses on workforce housing, affordable rent, protecting Medicare, of course, and revitalizing trade schools. I mean, those are. That. That's a pretty broad agenda. I love it. I love it. Please don't get me wrong, but do you feel. Do you get the sense being down here, or rather, should I ask how vulnerable do you feel she is? In light of what I just.
- [83:39]
Angie.com Narrator
I think she's very vulnerable. I wish she didn't have all those things hanging over her head so I could really run against her on the things that she has not done, which is, you know, underserved, that community. You know, when you look at Belglaze and Pohoki in South Bay, where Ricky Jackson resided, and he's over there every day, you know what I'm saying? And having those conversations with him, you know, you know that that place is underserved. You know, the sugar cane business over there, you know, stories of the young fellas running through. Through the sugarcane fields, chasing rabbits, that ain't happening that much anymore. Because the sugarcane plant, which was the main resource of the town, it was. The sugarcane plant was the prison. They closed down the prison and sugarcane went automated. So that just decimated the entire community. And so with, you know, with the things that I could do and bring over to that community, bring back affordable housing. I mean, we look at river beach, it's no different than, you know, river beach is pro. Arguably, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful, not known black communities is sitting right there on the ocean. If you. I mean, Kennedy had a house in River Beach. You know what I'm saying? The President.
- [84:55]
Stephen A. Smith
All right, so when you look at
- [84:57]
Angie.com Narrator
that area, I mean, they're trying to gentrify it, obviously, because it sits right down the ocean, you know. But Again, in District 20, you have two ports, and Rivera beach has a port. But the biggest problem that they're having is a water issue. It's no different than Michigan. And so those are things that as a congressman or congressperson has to get done. You should not have a water issue in Lauder Hill and Lauder Hill Lakes, you know, in those areas of Tamarack, I mean, they have. Each area has different issues. But when you look at it, when you look at kids, everybody is not going to college, you know, and today's world in schools, these kids are depressed. The fact that they don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. So by giving them trade schools and allowing them to get a trade, learn a trade, be able to go be a, you know, be a plumber, you know, work on cars, whatever it may be, that'll give them opportunity to be able to, you know, live a decent life and be able to afford living. And when you look at my platform, it's talked about, you know, giving back business and that. Lauder Hill, Lauder Hill Lakes, that's a heavy, you know, affluent place. When you look at the state of Florida, Broward county is Democrat. It will never change. Everybody migrated from Miami. All the blacks migrated from Miami and moved to Broward. And that's why Broward stays blue no matter who, you know, and so those people think business wise, but at the same time, they don't want to be priced out of houses by insurance.
- [86:33]
Stephen A. Smith
The man, the man affectionately known as Uncle Luke, Luke Campbell, candidate for Florida's 20th congressional district, right here with yours truly, straight shooter Stephen A. You know, I'm looking at you right now, and obviously your heart's in the right place and you're talking about what you want to do and. And you could pull it off. There's no doubt in my mind that you could. I'm wondering, however, as you talk about these issues and how do you feel about the Democratic Party? You say they're blue. You know, there's your Broward county is blue. It ain't changing, et cetera, et cetera, right? You're gonna run as a Democrat, you're gonna be there, right? That's what you told me. I mean, how are you feeling about the modern day Democratic Party compared to what the Democratic Party used to be in some people's eyes?
- [87:14]
Angie.com Narrator
Well, I mean, as a person who always been involved in politics, you know, nobody gets elected to be the mayor of Miami without me endorsing them because I'M so heavily involved in politics. The Democratic Party, for the way in my lens, is not the party that it was before. In my opinion, it needs a lot of work. You know, I hope Hakeem is not there because, you know, it's almost like the interim coach, you know, I hope he's not the interim coach, you know. You know, they give us the job when tanking the team, you know, and now we. Once we control the house, then at the end of the day, the question becomes whether or not he's still the. But when I look at the party, to answer the question, when I look at the party, it's not the party that I grew up on. It's not the party that I grew up in. You know, it's a lot of infighting, it's a lot of out fighting, you know, it's not a lot of support. When you look at the state of Florida, we have never had a black, a black Democratic head of the party, which is crazy. I mean, Manny Diaz, the father of the football coach, you know, Cuban guy, love Cuban people. But how did he become the head of the Democratic Party for the state of Florida, you know, and you couldn't find a black person, you know, because
- [88:36]
Stephen A. Smith
you got a lot of Hispanics here.
- [88:39]
Angie.com Narrator
State of Florida, I mean, that cuts off when you get a little pass, you know, when you get, you know, even, I mean, man, Diaz pull it off. He lost his accent.
- [88:48]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay?
- [88:52]
Angie.com Narrator
So, I mean, I mean, you talk country when you, you know, they don't look at you like that. But I mean, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the party, what it was before is not what it is now. Can it change? I think people like myself, people like you, you know, I love what you do. I love the fact. And I'm not just sitting there saying this because I'm here, You know, you push the envelope and you make them be better at what they do. Because the bottom line is we are losing as African Americans. When you look at the party, when most all the African American men I know, they're turned off, right? That's why a lot of majority of them went out. A lot of them went and voted for Trump, even though the mass majority. But, you know, for him to just get a few votes, that is a problem, you know what I'm saying? And sitting down with my brothers at the barbershop, sitting down at the park with the coaches and all that, I mean, they don't look at the party the same way they look at the party as being One way and more pro women, which is a great thing, you know what I'm saying? And, you know, a lot of the other issues within the party, they. They don't agree with. And so I think people like myself and other. Other folks, you know, I'm 65 years old.
- [90:09]
Stephen A. Smith
You don't look it, though, bro. Congrats. You don't look it, bro.
- [90:11]
Angie.com Narrator
I'm a scene.
- [90:12]
Stephen A. Smith
Miami's been very, very good to you.
- [90:14]
Angie.com Narrator
It's been very good. I mean, and a lot of the things that I talked about, I've already done. I mean, when you look at my youth program, you know, I started that and only way I was able to start that 35, 40 years ago. I mean, people like Lavonte Davis, Duke Johnson, Freedman, you name it, McGahey, all those kids came out of our program. Our program was built on education first, you know, not necessarily sports. And so the things that we did in the community, we had to work with the city officials, we had to work across party lines. That's why a lot of people trying to push me off to being some kind of moderate, because I say that. I mean, Miami Dade county, you don't get anything done without working with Republicans and Democrats. Right? I've never gotten a no vote from the school board. I've never gotten a no vote from the county. I've never gotten no vote from the city. You know, and where we're at right now today, Miami beach, when I did run for mayor 100 years ago, I got 100% of the vote over here, maybe because I'm just real about it and come from this area here. But at the same time, they know, I think what qualifies a person to run for office, I think they need to put it on the checkbook. What have you done for your community? What have you done?
- [91:31]
Stephen A. Smith
What did you strive to do?
- [91:32]
Angie.com Narrator
Exactly. Exactly. Obama won because he was a community servant. That's right. You know what I'm saying? A lot of other people, you know, I think it's important to be able to do that. And if you're able to do that and make some changes like I have in my community, which is what I'm going to do in District 20, you know, I think we can, you know.
- [91:50]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, I'm glad that you. You brought that up when you. You brought me up, because I take a lot of hits, and I don't give a damn. I'm gonna keep taking them because my position is, is that, listen, you know, I'm not trying to. Trying to. I'm not going off about the Democratic Party because I want them to lose. I'm going off on the Democratic Party because I'm saying you changing. And because of that, you lose it and you forgot about us. You paying attention. Listen, ain't nothing wrong with paying attention to women. Women deserve it.
- [92:13]
Angie.com Narrator
Correct.
- [92:13]
Stephen A. Smith
Ain't nothing wrong with paying attention to the LGBTQ community. They deserve it. But when you sitting up there and engaging in woke culture, cancer culture, identity politics, and that's at the expense of what you're supposed to be doing for a community that's been supporting you Die hard since. Since the 60s, I have a problem with you. And to me, calling that out. Ain't nothing wrong with it. So I'm wondering if you have that kind of message, how do you think you're going to reach the modern day Democratic establishment? Particularly that and it being in the state of Florida, and we know who the governor here is, who's Ron DeSantis, who ain't no Democrat.
- [92:47]
Angie.com Narrator
Right. I mean, he. He's termed out, so he'll be gone. I mean, you got just, you know, you got to, you know, Byron and you got, you know, Demings running in the state of Florida. But again, you know, the people that I talk to, the constituents in, in the district, the brothers that I know, the sisters that I know, they're tired of the gridlock. They're tired of the grandstanding.
- [93:09]
Stephen A. Smith
Yeah.
- [93:09]
Angie.com Narrator
I mean, a lot. Yeah, you take hits. But at the end of the day, the average person understands the things that you're trying to convey. You know, maybe the establishment, because the establishment has a tendency to don't want change.
- [93:22]
Stephen A. Smith
And they got their surrogates that they target. They use to target you when they want to take you down. Because they don't like what you're saying.
- [93:27]
Angie.com Narrator
Exactly. Exactly. And so the thing is, you know, when I look at it, it's like, it's common sense. Here's the party that we have been supporting for 100 years. And in this party, what have we got? We're still. We're getting gentrified, Our kids still. You know, we still got gun violence in the neighborhood. We still have. We still live in an affordable housing situation, but who's really benefiting from the party, you know? And so I am a lot different. You know what I'm saying? I'm a lot different.
- [93:58]
Stephen A. Smith
It's a two Live Crew. You got, you got a lot of you different in a lot of ways, my brother. You don't live.
- [94:03]
Angie.com Narrator
Yeah.
- [94:03]
Stephen A. Smith
You don't live.
- [94:04]
Angie.com Narrator
Yeah. No.
- [94:04]
Stephen A. Smith
Question in a way that makes most of us jealous, just to let y' all know. But that's a different story for another day. All right, last thing before we let you get on out of here, because we gotta go. What message do you want to send to the voter out there?
- [94:15]
Angie.com Narrator
Man, the message I want to send is if you embrace change, if you want better for CD20, hey, look, vote for me at the end of the day, because I'm going to work. I've always fought for anything that I wanted. I never took no. I mean, from starting hip hop in the south to going to the Supreme Court and winning, you know, that's what I'm all about. I wasn't going to jail when I went to the Supreme Court. It wasn't a thing of. It was just a matter of fact. It was just a matter of principles. Exactly. And so that is what I am. I am a fighter, and I will be fighting for that district and all the projects that I work on. People get jealous of the projects and how they got this and how they got. And that's what I want CD20 to be, the district that everybody else in America could look at it and say, how did he get this done? Just like you asked earlier, through all the gridlock and all the chaos in Washington, which it can't be done.
- [95:10]
Stephen A. Smith
You need it.
- [95:10]
Angie.com Narrator
Thank you.
- [95:11]
Stephen A. Smith
You know, you got my support.
- [95:12]
Angie.com Narrator
Hey, I appreciate Automatic.
- [95:13]
Stephen A. Smith
Automatic.
- [95:14]
Angie.com Narrator
I appreciate it.
- [95:15]
Stephen A. Smith
Uncle Luke in the house. The one only, Luke Campbell, right here with Straight Shooter. Stephen A. Back with your calls and more to close out the show in a minute. That's album number two back here on Straight Shooter with yours truly. Got some get serious voicemail messages that were left for me. Let's go to Chris Carr in St. Petersburg, Florida. What did he have to say? My name is Christopher Carr, and I
- [95:41]
Caller/Listener
just want you to know that my wife and I watch you whenever we can and like your message.
- [95:48]
Stephen A. Smith
We think you would make a great
- [95:49]
Fareed Zakaria
candidate for president and you would have our votes.
- [95:54]
Caller/Listener
I'm a Republican and my wife's a
- [95:56]
Stephen A. Smith
Democrat, and we are frustrated with what's going on in D.C. thank you and regards, Chris. Appreciate that message. Chris. Means a lot. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not running for office, and I'm gonna tell you why I'm not running for office for one reason and one reason only. They trying to take my money. That's why. Now, I'm gonna say this one last time so everybody can understand. Did a podcast with Sean Hannity, Fox News. Got his own podcast on YouTube. Go check it out. And on that podcast, I tried to tell everybody. I've been saying the same thing since day one. I'll leave the door open to run for the presidency because I want to be on that debate stage against these folks. I think 100 million people will watch. Yeah. I mean, because. Because you wouldn't see me for two months. I'd be. I doing nothing but prepare, and I'd be so ready. But the point that I'm making to y' all is this. It's not that you lose your money. If you're winning, you're in office because Trump is showing us we'll get our money back. We'll get our money back. Okay? It's not that. It's that because of FCC rules and regulations towards the networks, which the cable news operators honor as well, the moment I announce I am willing to debate, to be on a debate stage, I'm automatically pulled off the air, which means I don't get my money. That ain't happening. It's that simple. Don't met. You want me on a debate stage running for the presidency of the United States of America? Put a movement together right now for them to shove aside that rule and let me be able to debate tonight. And then I could go do first take and SiriusXM tomorrow morning and afternoon. Stephen, they will show up for the debate, but you ain't taking my money. Not after I worked all of these years to get it. Oh, hell to the no. That ain't happening. I ain't giving up my money, y'. All. I just ain't giving up my money. I'm sorry. I worked too hard for that. I work too hard. You find a way for me not to have to give up my money. Doors open, I might run for the presidency, but you telling me I got to come off the airways and give up my money before we even know whether I could win or not? Oh, hell, no. Oh, no, no. That's not gonna happen. I'm not giving up my money. I like my money too much. I'm just gonna keep it a buck with you. Let's go to Chris in California. You're live with Stephen A. What's up, Chris? Hey, Stephen A.
- [98:32]
Caller/Listener
Thanks for taking my call. I know, right?
- [98:34]
Time is short, so a couple of
- [98:36]
things I want to talk about was
- [98:37]
Stephen A. Smith
obviously the Save act or Save America.
- [98:43]
Caller/Listener
And my point is that the devil is in the details.
- [98:46]
Stephen A. Smith
There's not enough time to do with this election cycle.
- [98:48]
Caller/Listener
I'm all for it.
- [98:49]
And in the next election cycle, and
- [98:52]
let me tell you. Why?
- [98:53]
Stephen A. Smith
First of all, if you want to
- [98:54]
Caller/Listener
get a great education on it, listen to Dan Abrams show from yesterday.
- [98:59]
I believe it was when he had
- [99:00]
the Hofstra professor talking about that.
- [99:03]
His point was that women's birth certificates don't match their driver's licenses.
- [99:08]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay. And that is a huge issue.
- [99:10]
Fareed Zakaria
Okay.
- [99:10]
Stephen A. Smith
And that's enough time.
- [99:12]
Caller/Listener
And then the second one is.
- [99:13]
Fareed Zakaria
That's fair.
- [99:13]
Caller/Listener
That's fair. He's allowed non citizens to, to vote if they want.
- [99:19]
Stephen A. Smith
Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that, Chris. Real IDs allowed non citizens to vote too. Chris. I didn't know that. I appreciate that. Education. I had no idea that was true, Chris. I did not know that.
- [99:32]
Caller/Listener
Real, like, I, I misspoke. Real IDs are issued to non citizens.
- [99:37]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay. Real IDs are issued. I got it. The same difference, though. Same difference. Because if real IDs are issued to non citizens. Right. Then that means non citizens would have a real id, which would give them the license to vote. No, that don't work. Chris. I appreciate the call. I appreciate that point. Chris, thank you so much for the education. That's a great, great fact to bring up, man. Thank you so much. Let's go to Will in Nevada. You're live with Stephen A. What's up, man?
- [100:01]
Caller/Listener
Stephen A. Nevada. First of all, shout out to Uncle Luke. I'm originally from the 305, so hope he's doing God's work down there, so wish him the best of luck in his race. As far as the SAVE act, just real quick clarification. Everybody who is registered to vote stays on the rolls. You're not going to have to re register. That is some misinformation out there.
- [100:24]
Stephen A. Smith
Okay?
- [100:25]
Caller/Listener
They will, they will check against Social Security IDs for citizenship and Chuck Schumer out there talking yesterday that millions of people are going to get kicked off the voter rolls. Well, why would millions of people get voted, get taken off the voter rolls if they're all US Citizens?
- [100:43]
Stephen A. Smith
That's true.
- [100:43]
Caller/Listener
That doesn't make sense.
- [100:44]
Stephen A. Smith
That's a damn good question.
- [100:45]
Caller/Listener
Well, he's saying the quiet, the quiet thing out loud. That means that there are concerns that they're going to be people. And this nonsense about like women's birth certificates not matching. Listen, my wife, we're married, she took a different name, she's registered to vote. She has all that information. It's not that hard, people. And like you said, it should take a process for you to be able to exercise your right to vote. Yeah, that's it.
- [101:10]
It should that simple.
- [101:11]
Stephen A. Smith
Will appreciate the call. That was a great call, my man. Thank you so much. Will just made a valid point. And Chuck Schumer. Listen, I'm not, I'm not a negative nelly when it comes to Chuck Schumer. You understand he's been around for a long time. A lot of people point to his age or whatever, but he's a savvy politician and sometimes that's what you need to get done when you're working across the aisle. No question about that. As opposed to being in somebody's face going to hell off and not getting anything done. We can't have that going on. So we understand that. But in the end, when it comes down to is this what Will just pointed out? You know what? If you're sitting up there and talking about you're concerned about millions being removed from the voter rolls and they can vote, why would you be concerned about that? If they're United States citizens or they're here legally, it's a damn good point. See? Talk enough, listen enough, and you'll find out how smart the average American citizen is and we all learn from one another. Back next week, 6pm Eastern Standard Time every Wednesday night straight shooting with Stephen A. In the house. Peace and love everybody. I'm out.
- [102:19]
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