Over the past several months, ESPN star Stephen A. Smith has become more vocal regarding politics than he ever has been in the past, but now he’s been forced to explain one of his opinions a bit more.
The ESPN star said earlier this year that he regretted casting his vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. During a recent podcast appearance, Smith expanded on that opinion a little bit.
Smith Regrets Voting for Kamala Harris
Since Harris lost the 2024 election to Trump, Smith has suggested on multiple occasions that he regretted casting his vote for her in the election.
During an interview with Bill Maher back in January of 2025, Smith said that he and others were “feeling like damn fools” for supporting Harris.
“Yes, I voted for her, a lot of people voted for her, but in the end, we end up feeling like damn fools, because we supported it. We fell for the okiedoke, as they say. If you had a primary, the likelihood is she would not have been the Democratic nominee,” Smith said at the time.
Then, during an interview with Sage Steele in April, Smith was asked about openly supporting Harris on Dave Rubin’s show.
“You went on his show, and you said that you voted for Kamala Harris?” Steele asked.
“Yes,” Smith responded.
“And that you regretted it,” Steal said
Smith answered: “Yeah.”
Smith went on to explain that he cast that vote because he believed Harris was capable of compromise and working with Republicans across the aisle, but he’s since lost hope in the Democratic Party.
“I also believed that she was the kind of person that… could work across the aisle,” Smith said. “And then when I saw how things were unfolding and how out in the clouds the Democratic Party was even after they lost the election, I just said, ‘There’s no hope.'”
Smith Explains His Comments
During an appearance on the “Flagrant and Funny” podcast with Cari Champion and Jemele Hill, Smith was asked about his comments indicating that he regretted voting for Harris. Smith claimed that it was the Democrats’ plan all along to install her as the replacement for former President Joe Biden in the presidential race.
As for why he regrets voting for her, Smith brought up a highly criticized moment from ABC’s “The View” on Oct. 8, 2024, when Harris appeared on the show and was asked how her plans would differ from Biden’s. Harris, however, said she couldn’t think of anything she’d do differently than Biden.
“Because when she went on ‘The View’ and she sat up there and said she couldn’t think of anything that she would do differently, something that Sunny Hostin threw up intentionally as a softball for her to knock out the park. I’m like, when she passed up on that opportunity, this is not a dumb woman. This is a former state attorney general. This is a former senator. This is a former vice president of the United States. She is not dumb. There’s only one reason she said that, because her loyalty to Joe Biden usurped everything else,” Smith said.
Smith called the moment “embarrassing.”
“And I’m like, ‘You trying to win a damn presidency? This is embarrassing. Do you want the presidency or don’t you?'” Smith said.
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