Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Right After Interviewing Hakeem Jeffries, Stephen A. Smith Says Dems Have ‘Nonexistent’ National Leader

Screenshot/YouTube/Stephen A. Smith

Just after finishing his interview with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith asserted the Democratic Party currently lacks a strong national leader.

Since President Donald Trump’s November election win, Democrats have struggled to coalesce on a strategy to counter his agenda. While Smith, on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” said he “was impressed with” Jeffries following the interview, he also suggested that the leading Democrat is not resonating enough with the American people to serve as his party’s “national voice.” (Reince Priebus Tells Dem Panelists Their Party Is On ‘Wrong Side Of Normal’)

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“What are you going to do, and how are you going to convince us to believe you? You first got to find somebody that’s worth believing,” Smith said. “And I’m not denigrating Leader Jeffries in any way, but when you think about a national voice for the party, who is that person?”

“It’s nonexistent right now. Mr. [Democratic strategist James] Carville, I said it again — it’s nonexistent right now,” he continued. “Not the talent — you might have talent — but who’s going to resonate? You better find somebody. You better find somebody soon.”

Smith received 2% backing in a January poll by McLaughlin & Associates that asked participants to pick their preferred candidate for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary. He said the lack of strong Democratic candidates is to blame for people weighing him as a contender, prompting Carville to rebuke him in his own YouTube video.

“Y’all don’t have anybody. You don’t have anybody. Who you got? Who you got? [Former Vice President] Kamala Harris better not run,” Smith said on his show on Feb. 17. “She better not run. She’s not going to win a presidency in 2028.”

“When it comes to politics, he don’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. He’s on that, running his Goddamn mouth about how he may have to run as a Democrat because there’s nothing left of the Democratic Party and there’s no talent,” Carville said about Smith. “Stephen A, are you shitting me? … Before you start running your fucking mouth off about politics, a topic of which you really don’t know anything about, you ought to sit back and think about it and call some people and run it by them.”

During his interview with Jeffries, Smith asked the House minority leader when the Democratic Party will “let go of” the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Jeffries responded with a rant about the topic.