ESPN host Stephen A. Smith blasted Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for lecturing voters
During an interview with “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon on Monday, the twice-failed presidential candidate offered a blunt message for voters not happy about the forthcoming rematch between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump
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“Get over yourself! Those are the two choices,” Clinton scolded.
That attitude, Smith said on CNN, is the exact reason why Clinton never became president — and it’s an attitude that will send Trump back to the White House.
“I don’t think it was a very wise statement on her part. How did that work out for her in 2016?” Smith reacted.
The problem with Clinton’s attitude, Smith explained, is that it dismisses what voters actually care about — the economy, immigration, crime, etc. — while emphasizing what voters don’t care about, specifically Trump’s legal problems.
“What I’m saying is that at some point in time, you’ve got to take into account what the voters are thinking about. The voters, a lot of them out there — tens of millions of them out there, by the way — don’t care what [Trump’s] going through right now. They don’t care about his guilt or innocence, his perceived guilt or innocence. They don’t care about the 91 counts. They’re thinking about their lives,” Smith explained.
That’s why, in Smith’s eyes, Clinton’s remarks are “detached” from what voters are “actually feeling” and “actually thinking.”
“Nobody wants to hear that from Hillary Rodham Clinton at this particular moment in time because, especially if you’re Joe Biden, what are you really, really worried about right now? You’re worried about folks coming to the polls. You’re worried about them showing up to the polls to vote for you. You’re not worried even about them voting for Trump. You’re worried about them not showing up to vote for you,” Smith observed.
Later in the interview, CNN anchor Abby Phillip tried to bait Smith into criticizing Trump for his recent comments about immigration.
But Smith surprised Phillip with his perspective about Trump’s immigration rhetoric.
Trump’s rhetoric, according to Smith, resonates with Americans because they’re “literally scared” about the border crisis and the millions of unvetted migrants who have entered the U.S. under Biden.
In fact, Smith said he knows countless black Americans and Hispanic Americans who are especially concerned about the border crisis, which shocked Phillip.
“There’s a whole bunch of people out there in the streets of America that’s hardworking, that’s going to work every day, that’s trying to make ends meet, pay their bills and what have you — [Trump’s rhetoric] resonates with them, and they don’t want to see anything distracting anybody from their problems,” Smith explained.
“And when you go to the polls, what do you think about? You think about what affects you,” he added.
