Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Stephen A. Smith Hangs Up On Caller Who Smears All Republicans As Racist

Screenshot/YouTube/ Stephen A. Smith

SiriusXM host Stephen A. Smith hung up on and rebuked a caller on “Straight Shooter with Stephen A.” on Wednesday for claiming every Republican is racist.

The caller appeared to argue on Smith’s show that it was racist for President Donald Trump to crack down on Third World migration after the November National Guard shooting, which was allegedly perpetrated by an Afghan national. After Smith clarified that the caller was blanketly condemning Republicans, he ended the call and told him it was wrong to generalize an entire political party.

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“Goodbye, man. Have a nice day. We’re not doing that … I’m not letting anybody on either side of the aisle castigate an entire party of people like that. I’m not doing that. That gets us nowhere. Malik, you can call back any other show,” Smith said. “But if you have points, make your point. What if you ran across somebody who voted Republican and all they cared about was the economy? What if you ran across a Republican that didn’t know a damn thing about any of those other issues you brought up, but all they cared about was safety in the streets?”

“What if you ran across a Republican and all they cared about was being pro-life and didn’t know two cents about the economy, affordability, immigration, safety in the streets, our education system, tariffs, whatever?” he added. “You can’t do that, bro … You know why I hung up … why I felt compelled to shut you down? Because what if white folks turned around and said all black dudes are criminals? … If you don’t want to be castigated and stigmatized and labeled, the first order of business to insulate yourself from stuff like that is to make sure you don’t do it to other people. Don’t do it.”

Smith also said that criticizing an entire group of people prevents the possibility of productive discourse about important topics.

“You better than that, Malik. You smarter than that. Be better. Be smarter. When you call back up, have salient points to make, which we both know you’re capable of, instead of going to some weak ass position that they can plausibly deny any day of the week,” Smith said. “What Republican do you think is going to listen to you if you say they’re racist? So every Republican’s racist?”

“So you know what that means? That if you got a job, which we know you do, and you work for a Republican, which you probably do and don’t even know, you think they’re racist too. Where that gonna get you?” he asked. “Come on, bro. You’re better than that.”

Moreover, Democratic Washington Rep. Adam Smith argued on MS Now’s “The Beat” in October that not all Trump supporters are racist and that his party needed to cater to their interests rather than treat them like bigots.

“We have to understand that all whatever 80 million, I think, is the number that voted for Trump, something like that. They’re not all racist, bigoted morons. They’re not,” he said. “And we need to stop treating them like that and say, ‘OK, you’ve got concerns. We’re going to address them.'”

Trump made gains among Latinos, blacks, Asians and youth voters during the 2024 election, according to data Pew Research Center published in June.