Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
Stephen A.'s political recap. He discusses President-Elect Donald Trump’s new cabinet appointments.
I had to get into this, ladies and gentlemen, because as Zach Galifanakis in the movie The Campaign with Will Ferrell said, ladies and gentlemen, we're at Washington. We're bringing our brooms because it's a mess. And sure enough, this man, Donald Trump ain't even back in office yet, and Lord had mercy, it seems like it seems like a mess. We gotta get started with the political headlines as President elect has brought to the table as he continues to fill out his cabinet while we're heading towards his inauguration in January of twenty twenty five. One big appointment that's now raising eyebrowsers Trump naming SpaceX and Tesla's CEO Elon Musk and Bartech entrepreneur of avec Ramaswami the head up a new Department of Government Efficiency exactly. In other words, it's new. It didn't exist until now. I mean, if that isn't bad enough, ladies, man, I mean another appointment this Pete heg Seth for a now former Fox News host. I know they're gonna listen to these. A veteran of the Iraq in Afghanistan war. You know, I get all of that, I understand that I'm not throwing any shade on his service in our military. God bless him, appreciate and honor his service. And by the way, Trump just tapped Marco Rubio as a Secretary of State. I don't mind that. Marco Rubio is a highly respected senator out of Florida and he's been around for a while. Ran against Trump in twenty sixteen. Couldn't do anything with them. But Marco Rubio's respected, highly knowledgeable, very articulate. I have no problem with him being Secretary of State whatsoever. Just wanted to get that out there. But if you look at some of these appointments, could y'all just look on the screen, please, could just look on the screen for yourself. Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, Okay, that's fine. Ambassador Israel, CIA director John Radcliffe, it's got some experience now with the CIA, but you know, he was obviously a Trump supporter. You know, just threw away all of Russian disinformation they proclaim or was existing. I got that. I got that. Christy Noms, Secretary of Homeland Security. Okay. Stephen Whitkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East, William McGinley, White House Counsel. You just get the impression. No, I mean, I forget Lee's Elden, congressman from Long Island. He'll be the new EPA administrator administrator. So he go from a congressman to an administrator, even if it is for the EPA. Okay, okay, Environmental Protection Agency. For those of you doing don't know, it just seems to me that what Trump is determined to do is have people loyal to him as opposed to prioritizing their level of competency as politicians. I'm not questioning any of these individuals' capabilities. I'm not saying they can't do the job. I have no clue I know none of them. I'm not trying to cast any aspersions on them. I'm simply using this as evidence to highlight why you had so many people out there so damn nervous about Trump, because you see some of these folks, and you know, the first thing you hear is how loyal all of these people were. And then we also got to go to what's been reported, because it was also reported that former Vice President Mike Pence was quoted as saying this quote, I don't think the president should pardon anyone who assaulted the police officer at the United States Capitol on January sixth, twenty twenty one, and that he's literally quote praying that President elect Trump, the President elect Vance will stand on the commitments that they will make when they raise their right hands on that day. I read that quote from former Vice President Mike Pence, because ladies and gentlemen, he was the guy in twenty twenty one assigned to certify the election and the election assults that showed Joe Biden would be the new president of the United States of America. It was he whom Trump was speaking about when he spoke to that crowd outside near the US Capital at the Ellipses where Vice President Kamala Harris spoke right before the election, imploring them to save our country. We have to stop this, we have to protest peacefully, blah blah blah blah blah. And then they ultimately stormed in there and they were screaming, hang Mike Pence. They defecated, and the officers of elected officials they barricaded through the barricades, they killed that a police officer died, a woman was shot by Secret Service, and yet we're looking at a situation where Mike Pence doesn't want those folks pardoned. And meanwhile, Trump has been on the record guaranteeing that he would pardon all one thousand, five hundred folks who found themselves indicted and incarcerated because of their actions on that faithful day January sixth, twenty twenty one. So, ladies and gentlemen, all I got to say about this is welcome to the chaos. Welcome to the chaos. All I ask is that you consider this when the Democrats come and say, see see, see what you told, see what we told y'all tell them to kick rocks. Donald Trump strolled down the Golden escalators in twenty and fifteen. That's what he did. Y'all swore up and down he was going to lose. You made jokes about him, you laughed at them, commentators, elected officials, even former President Obama. And then he beat Hillary Clinton in an electoral college vote, and he lost the election in twenty twenty. But here he is the Republican nominee not once, not twice, but three straight elections, and the Democrats still don't have a definitive candidate they believe can beat them. So I don't want to hear what they have to say, because in the end you can't beat them. You were willing to rely on an eighty one year old man that was going to be eighty two by the time of the election to go up against them because you had no one definitively you could point to that could take him out fair and square. Now you can sit up there and debate all you want to tell the cows come home about law fair and all of this stuff. If you're someone on the right, and how they used law fair to get at Donald Trump. That's not to say they were wrong, that's not to say he didn't break any laws. Nobody cares. The American people spoke thirty four fella in the convictions to impeachments, civil suits for hundreds of millions, they said, kick rocks, we want him anyway. And they weren't the only ones. The Independents voted for him too, women voted for him. Minorities in the Latino and the Black community elevated in numbers. Is nothing anybody could say. The man won the election fair and square. So this chaos that is threatening to come about, even though we don't know for sure whether that or not, that's going to be the case. You brought it on yourself because you couldn't beat them, You didn't get enough people out of the polls to beat them, and he won fair square m M m m