Stephen A's Take: Stephen A concludes that the country is in a state of deep division, with no clear path to reconciliation in sight.

Published Jun 17, 2025, 8:00 PM

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown. 

Here’s a summary of the key themes and highlights:


🔫 Political Violence in Minnesota

  • A man named Vance Boelter, posing as a police officer, fatally shot State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and wounded State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife.
  • Boulter was arrested after what was described as the largest manhunt in Minnesota history.
  • He is charged with multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, stalking, and federal firearms offenses.
  • A manifesto found in his vehicle listed over 70 targets, including politicians and pro-abortion advocates.

🧨 Rhetoric and Extremism

  • The host condemns the violence and supports the death penalty in this case.
  • Emphasizes that extremism exists on both sides of the political spectrum.
  • Warns against normalizing political violence and calls for a reduction in incendiary rhetoric.
  • Draws parallels between passion in sports and politics, arguing that when people feel their lives are affected by policy, emotions run high.

🇺🇸 Trump’s Military Parade & “No Kings” Protests

  • Trump held a military parade in D.C. celebrating 250 years of the U.S. Army, coinciding with his 79th birthday.
  • Thousands protested across the country under the “No Kings” banner, opposing ICE raids and immigration policies.
  • The host questions the optics of the parade and whether it was more about Trump than the military.

🧊 ICE Raids and Immigration Policy

  • ICE raids targeting migrants sparked national protests.
  • California is suing the Trump administration over immigration enforcement.
  • Trump paused raids in sectors like agriculture and hospitality due to economic backlash.

🌍 Middle East Tensions

  • Israel and Iran are engaged in escalating conflict, with over 250 missiles exchanged.
  • The U.S. is caught in the middle, with critics and defenders on both sides.
  • The host notes that every action by one side is met with a counter-narrative by the other, making resolution difficult.

💬 Final Thoughts

  • The host expresses frustration at the lack of unity and the absence of peace in both domestic and international affairs.
  • Concludes that the country is in a state of deep division, with no clear path to reconciliation in sight.

 

Let's get started.

In Minnesota, where there were two shootings, both of which appeared to have been politically motivated by a man arrested late last night. Officials said the gunman, posing as a police officer, fatally shot State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband's Saturday at their home. That shooting came after he wounded State Senator John Hoffman and his wife at their home. After the first attack, police said they proactively checked on Representative Hortman's home, where they found a shooter posing as an.

Officer before he fled.

The suspect, Vance Bolter is his name, was arrested Sunday after what a local police chief called the largest manhunt in state's history. Bolter is charged with two counts each of second degree murder and second degree attempted murder, which are likely to be upgraded at first degree. Bolter is also being charged in federal court with one cat ount of stalking Representative Hortman, one count of stalking Senator Hoffman, two counts of murder through use of a firearm punishable up to death by the way, and two counts of firearms offenses for the shootings of the Hoffman's The shootings happened Saturday, in what turned out to be a tense day in national politics. Thousands of people across the country participated in No King's protest against the Trump administration. All this while the president himself hosted a military parade celebrating two hundred and fifty years of the army in Washington, d C. Couple of things to get out of the way. Number One, my condolences to loved ones of the Hortman's. Obviously, that is a tragedy and unspeakable tragedy, something none of us should condone. We should cheer, we should celebrate in any way. It's heinous as it comes. As far as I'm concerned, if this is indeed the assailant one who committed this crime, mister Bolter, I have no problem with him receiving the death penalty whatsoever.

Let's get that out of the way first.

I'm a believer in that under special circumstances, this is one of them, he should be put to death. As far as I'm cerned, I have no problem with that. That's number one. Number Two, obviously, to the Hoffman's. I hope that they end up recovering and they'll be well. They end up well and they'll recuperate as well. So my heart goes out to them and what they've had to endure and experience and the violence and the rhetoric. This is not isolated along party lines. Both sides of the political eye has engaged in rhetoric. I'm not gonna say stirring or inciting violence, but certainly the rhetoric has been harsh. And this is what I try to tell people in America all the time and beyond when we're talking about these issues. I cover sports for a living as my day job. Ladies and gentlemen, people get passionate about sports. If people get passionate about a game where folks win and folks lose, even when they're not gambling on it, they're not losing money on it, They're just emotionally invested in their particular team and the outcome. What do you think they feel about the economy if it detrimentally affects them. What do you think they're thinking about representatives When it involves immigration, when.

It involves healthcare, when it involves education.

You're talking about people's lives, quality of life.

Being impacted by elected officials.

This is why I continuously point out how the rhetoric has to die down.

We got to agree to disagree.

We can disagree without being so disagreeable, without engaging in a kind of incendiary rhetoric where we're constantly pointing a figure at one side or another, showing an inability to work together, or at least giving that impression, and then wondering how stuff like this could happen. According to the police, and according to the reports, mister Boulter had a manifesto in a vehicle that he was driving by the way, which was disguised as a police vehicle, and he had on a police outfit, according to the reports, and they said in a manifesto he had targeted over seventy people. Some were politicians, some were pro abortion advocates. So you have to take those things into consideration and wonder, in God's name, what do you think is going to happen if you're talking about people like that and you're pointing the finger of blaming and you're not giving the impression we're discussing.

When negotiating, we're getting along.

Everybody can't have everything that they want, but we're aligned in some of our thinking. Half the time they're agreeing with one another on both sides of the aisle.

They don't even tell us. And then you wonder.

How you have some people on the fringes, particularly the extremists, and what they're going to do. One of the things that somebody pointed out, and they pointed this out, and I had to remember this. One person texted me they said, did you see the expression on a god's face when they caught him talking about Bolter? They said, did you see the facial expression on the guy who shot.

Up the embassy weeks ago?

Did you see the god's face who shot up the healthcare? Who shot the healthcare ceo Luigi when they caught him, They said, did you see how extremists looks?

Stephen A calm? Calm?

So we have to fight extremism. We have to fight stuff on the fringes on both sides of the aisle. We have to make sure that there's a line that everybody knows should never be crossed.

Yes, it's happened throughout history.

President Reagan got shot, Abraham Lincoln got shot. Folks in between got shot. We got that part. Steve Calise, representative, he got shot. All of these things. The former representative in Arizona.

She got shot.

The point is not normalizing it, not walking around like it's okay now as it pertains to what's been going on in the streets of America. We're talking about Trump and the Trump administration celebrating two hundred and fifty years of the army, perfectly within his right to do so. But let's be real, it was a bit over the top showing America's might. In America's strength, well, if we know we have it, why do we need to show off. We're considered the richest most powerful country in the world. Right everybody knows. Everybody knows our military might. Why do we need to showcase it?

And why did it have.

To coincide on the seventy ninth birthday of the forty seventh President of the United States? Was it about our nation or was it about him? No matter how much he tried to say it wasn't. The flip side to it, however, is that on a day when that parade was taking place, there were thousands upon thousands of protesters across the United States of America, New York, LA, and every place in between.

And it was supposed to be.

In Minnesota until the police was asking folks not to attend because the shooter was still on the loose, And what were they protesting.

ICE and migrants.

Being grabbed in the streets by members of ICE in an effort to ultimately deport them.

And folks were coming to the defense of it.

You had the State of California suing the Trump administration. You have people talk about no kings, no kings. He's not a dictator. This is not an authoritarian regime. But that's why he's trying to make it like, well, really, that's why the state's suing him. That's why he's losing some of these cases in court. Last time I check. You're in a position of power, you try to get your way, somebody sues you. They fend you off by going through our court system. The court system makes it ruling, and as a result, it shows that our system works. What is Trump doing differently than what he campaign doing. You may not like it, that's why you win the election. So he's not in a position to do it as opposed to focusing on stuff that they gonna win an election.

And then I talk to some folks on that.

Side of the aisle, and these are the kind of messages that I'm getting. It's the Democrats only way to be relevant. They have no answers to help Americans. They don't go over the top four American criminals. Our prisons are full of people separated.

From their families. They didn't say anything about those folks. Most of the leaders of the protest are paid agitators.

You get into d Iran is Raeli conflict something else that the United States can end up in the middle of because Israel ain't playing games. They're going after all of their enemies. They're not playing games. We already seen what they've done in Gaza. We know how they're trying to disarm Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon, and they're hell been on doing so. We know that we were in negotiations with Iran and ultimately we scaled that back, and then all of a sudden, Israel attacks.

Now you've got.

Officials from Iran saying there's no reason to have talks because there's no way that America didn't know about this and that this was coming, etc.

With all of that going on, then you have folks on the right saying, what's new.

Destroying Iran's and military nuclear sites is a good thing. We'll also destroy destroy Hesbalah and hamas Isis as well, being that they were funded by Iran. So every time you sit there you throw some something in the direction, the other side has something to say no matter which way you slice it. In the end, America is in a quadary at some point in time gonna have to come together. You don't have to like everything about Trump. I don't like what he's doing in California. I don't like what he's doing with the migrants. I don't like it at all. And I think that he caught himself because he mandated a pause on the raids when it came to agriculture, hotels, restaurants, et cetera. Because those business were being detrimentally affected. And he's gonna need those folks support in him, particularly in the midterms. So you can make sure the GLP members remember it remaining in the House, in the Senate. But in the end, what it comes down to is that is he overstepping his hand. Probably so, But to the right, he's doing what he campaigned on, so in their eyes, he's keeping his word. They don't mind that because they don't believe politicians on the left.

Have done that.

No matter which way you slice it, it's an absolute mess. We got Israel and Iran going at it over two hundred and fifty missiles being dropped on one another. We still got the conflict with Hamas and the Gaza in the Gaza Strip. We still see that going on. We got a terriff situation here. You know what folks are gonna say, right the right, terrorf's ten trillion in investments from manufacturing in auto pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

That's what they're gonna say.

They're gonna say, already a new threat about to be finished for our lifetime. Save us from a modern day holocaust, That's what they're gonna say. Whatever point the left is gonna have, the right is gonna have a counterpoint to justify anything that Trump is doing. Where's the solution? Can't see one in sight. Here's the biggest problem. Peace is not a part of this equation. Even within our own borders, we're at each other's throat, no sight of coming together in sight. It's pretty bad right now, and it looks to be getting worse.

We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.