The Stephen A. Smith ShowStephen A's Take: Trump Survived the shooting, Biden still has no plan, and we are caught in the middle.
Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown. Is it possible that the political games in American politics will have no winners, at least not now, less about working together and more about planning to undermine opposing administrations? Listen and you be the judge.
We all know what the biggest story in the world, in all likelihood is taking place right now. We all know what happened this past Saturday. That's where we're going to start. The attempt at assassination of former President Donald Trump during the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was an historic moment, without question, that sent shockwaves throughout the world as Trump was rushed off the stage, his face bloodied from a bullet he says, pierced his ear. The shooter, who the FBI identified as twenty year old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Pennsylvania, killed one person and wounded to others before he was taken out by Secret Service snipers. Former President Trump went to social media and call for national unity in a post Sunday morning, saying, quote, in this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united and show our true characters as Americans, remaining strong and determined and not allowing.
Evil to win.
Needless to say, we heard from President Biden as well, who echoed the sentiments of unity in an address to the nation last night from the Oval Office.
Take a look, we can allow this violence to be normalized. You know, the political recorl in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that. Yes, we have deeply felt strong disagreements. The stakes in the selection are enormously high. I've said it many times that the choice in the selection we make in the selection is going to shape the future of America and the world for decades to come.
I believe that with all my soul.
I know that my fellow Americans believe it as well, and some have a different view as the direction our countries should take. Disagreement is inevitable in the American democracy. It's part of human nature. But politics must never be a literal battlefield, a god from bid a killing field.
You know, I've had a lot of thoughts, obviously since the attempt of assassination took place this weekend. Thank god Donald Trump was not killed. First of all, we don't wish that on anybody as human beings. I don't give a damn what your political ideology is, where you stand, whatever the case may be, you don't wish that on anybody. And so thank God that Donald Trump was not killed. He's fortunate in that regard, and to be quite honest with you, as a nation, we're very, very fortunate because when you talk about chaos and mayhem, and Lord knows.
What other other words that you can associate with such a thing.
If that man, if mister Crooks, who is now deceased, had succeeded in taking out the presumptive GOP nominee for the presidency of the United States of America, if he had pulled that off, who knows what state of affairs would exist in this country today. Who knows what kind of chaos would have reigned because of it?
Who knows?
So Thank the Good Lord that Donald Trump was not killed and that he is alive and still free to pursue the presidency or return to the presidency of the United States of America. We'll get that out of the way first. Secondly, talking about this kid right here, twenty years old. I'm just looking at some of the notes that I researched twenty years old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, mid sized town of roughly thirty three thousand residents, about forty five miles south of the Butler Farm showgrounds where the shook. Where the shooting took place.
He worked.
Mister Crooks worked as a dietary terry aid at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, not far from his home. He graduated from Bethel Park High School in twenty twenty two. Former classmates described him as a quote relentlessly bullied loaner who loved playing video games and hunting. So we've had many, many conversations about the detrimental effects of bullying and the kind of terror it has the potential to breed, because one day, when somebody's bullied and bullied and bullied, you just never know what they'll turn into and what they will do. And this is the latest example of that, all right, interestingly enough in some people's eyes anyway. According to state voting records, Crooks was a registered Republican, though has given his age, he would have been too young to cast a ballot in twenty twenty. However, he did make a fifteen dollar donation to the Liberal Act Blue Political Action Committee on January twentieth, twenty twenty one, the day of President biden inauguration Day, when he was just seventeen years of age.
They said that just hours.
Before taking aim at the former president Donald Trump, Crooks bought fifty rounds of AMMO and when his body was found on the roof of a manufacturing plant over one hundred and thirty yards away from Trump's rally stage. He was found with an AR style semi automatic rifle that belonged to his father. Crooks was wearing a shirt for a popular gun focused YouTube channel called Demolition Ranch, which has over eleven million subscribers that notes about him, and that's where we go from there. I wanted to say this, and I understand that it's not going to be popular, and I'm certainly not pointing the finger at any individual or any party when it comes to such a thing. Again, and thank god Donald Trump survived. We certainly don't need an assassination. This country doesn't need to deal with that. It almost happened with Ronald Reagan in the eighties. It almost happened out of the country with George W. Bush when somebody threw a grenade in his direction when he was in the presidency. We know what happened to John F. Kennedy in nineteen sixty three. We know what happened to Robinton Kennedy in sixty eight when he was ultimately going to be running for president. For the presidency, So This is not the first time in history that we've seen something or heard of something like this, but the times that we're living in right now. If you think about the history of presidential assassination attempts in the United States, right there in front of you, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, President elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, two men breaking in the home of Harry Truman in an assassination attempt in nineteen fifty. It's been going on for a law period of time.
John F.
Kennedy, like I told you, sassination attempts on Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan shot and wounded by John Hickley Jr. In eighty one, and of course I brought up Bush in two thousand and five. You know, somebody got to say it, so I'm.
Gonna say it.
You know, when we're looking at situations like this, first thing I want to get out the way, is this.
This shooter.
This is my opinion. It's not the opinion of anybody I work with, anybody that knows me or anything like that. In my opinion, the shooter he just handed Donald Trump the election. That is what I believe. Of course, I don't know that as fact of course, things could change. But in my opinion, he just handed Donald Trump the election. Ladies and gentlemen, you can't buy I've been in media for thirty years. You can't buy a better photo than what Donald Trump has at his disposal.
We speak. He goes to the ground.
He's got blood on his right ear, looked like it got nicked, which is what he said, had pierced his ear.
He gets up.
He looks dishoveled, all right, clearly taking aback by what happened, and rightfully so.
Blood trickling down his ears and.
A sigh on the right side of his face, surrounded by Secret Service agents.
Raises his fist, is shriveling, you know, cringing his face up. Fight, fight, Fight, He says.
It three times, and while raising his fist, surrounded by Secret Service agents. The American flag is behind them. Ladies and gentlemen, you can't buy that. You can't buy a better photo than net. If you're a politician, you can't buy a better photo than the net. Look at the video of him raising his fist, Look at the crowd going crazy behind him, look at them.
Saying yeah, yeah, yeah, you know.
And then listen to the pundits on TV talking about how strong, vibrant, how courageous, and they were using these words, and not coincidentally, it was the antithesis of what they've been saying about President Biden. Now you see right there what Donald Trump's statement was on his truth social media page, and he after Matthamwa transported I wanted to thank the United States Secret Service and all of law enforcement official for their rapid response and the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country.
I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.
I knew immediately that something was wrong and that I heard a whizzing sound shot and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. God bless America. This is what he's doing. There's not a word in there that he said that we can refute and he brought up somebody that was injured.
This individual was killed.
Shots rang out and he literally jumped to save his wife, to cover his wife and his two children, and he got hit in the head and he was killed. My condolences to him, to his family and to him, of course, and to those who were injured at the rally as well. Make no mistake about it, Donald Trump, in my opinion, secured the presidency with this. A Donald Trump that was impeached twice, a Donald Trump that had a four hundred and fifty four million dollar settlement levied against them, A Donald Trump that was convicted on thirty four felony accounts, yet was still the presumptive GOP nominee. That Donald Trump is now a martyr excicely anyway you want to. If you're talking about America and a kind of impact visuals have on in our society, good or bad. As a politician, it don't get any better than the picture by the Associated Press, by the way that you see if Donald Trump surrounded by Secret Service agents raising his fist, telling imploring folks that continue to fight with the American flag behind him, it doesn't get any better than that.
Ladies and gentlemen.
And I'm not using words like better and stuff like that inappropriately, because obviously I'm not talking about his shooting that in and of itself is egregious and awful and heinous. I'm talking about the photo thereafter. As a politician, it doesn't get it. You can't find a better photo than that. You just can't.
And so this is where we are. And if you are.
President Biden, Boydy, you've got your work cut out for you now because the courts and Floria are just ruled that Donald Trump can't be prosecuted for taking the files out of the White House to his to his mar Ao Lago estate. So you can't go after him for that any longer. Okay, that's no longer an issue. That's no longer something you can get at him about. We already know he lost the New York City hush money trial for force to fine business records. Those were the thirty four felloing accounts that I told you about. He still has the Capitol ride in the twenty twenty election case. What you think that's gonna be? Like, what DA is gonna be able to bring Donald Trump into court at this moment?
Think about that? Think about that.
The GOP, the Republican National Convention starts tonight in Milwaukee. He's gonna name his VP running mate. He's gonna give a speech Thursday, and it will no longer be presumptive. He will be officially the GOP nominee. How you're gonna rush him in the court for the twenty twenty election case. Now, he still has a Georgia twenty twenty election interference case.
How are you gonna run that against him? Now?
Tell me what prosecutor is going to be able to justify to the American public taking a presidential candidate and the GOP nominee into court days or weeks after he survived as an assassination attempt.
You can't do it.
So all the legal stuff, all the legal maneuverings that have been taking place, it's all over, ladies and gentlemen. Donald Trump's not going to jail, not gonna be prosecuted. You can book it, you can book it. It's not gonna happen again. It's just my opinion. It's not gonna happen. You can't justify doing it. Now, How are you gonna pull that off? I can't see it. Here's the last point that I wanted to make before we have our next guest doing, because it's something that's.
Very, very important.
You know, I watched a lot of news over the last forty eight hours, and we've seen a lot of political pundits and politicians over the airways waxing poetically about we need to.
Tone down the rhetoric.
I just played you the sound from the President of the United States saying we got to tone down the rhetoric, and blah blah blah, and you know, the American public is getting lectured on what we need to do to dial back the rhetoric. I don't disagree with that sentiment. I don't disagree with that sentiment at all. But I'll be damned if I don't disagree or I don't at least have a problem rather with the politicians and the pundits who have the audacity to unmitigate a gall to stick their big faces in front of a camera and think they get to lecture us when they're the ones who instigate all of this. It's them. It's them, all of this rhetoric we're talking about. And I don't mean in any way to imply that that's responsible for crooks trying to assassinate the president. No, that's on him. Clearly something was wrong with him. Clearly the bullying got to him and he wanted to sit up there and be a martyr or hero or whatever the hell he thought of himself. I'm certainly not gonna blame politicians or political pundits for that, But I don't want to be lectured about how we need to dive down a rhetoric when you're the one that's fomenting it, you're the one instigating it.
You're the one starting it.
All of yours, Republicans and Democrats, politicians and.
Pundits, all of yours.
You did that, not us, Not the American people, Black, white, Latino, Asian, American, Jews, Catholics, Christians.
It don't matter. Y'all did that.
That wasn't us. I got quotes here President Joe Biden months ago. Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He's a threat to our freedom, he's a threat to our democracy. He's literally a threat to everything America stands for. We're talking about both sides here. We pledged to you that we will root out the communist, Marxist fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. Nobody has ever seen anything like we'll witnessing right now. It's poisoning in the blood of our country. That's Donald Trump. Representative Rick Scott, Florida. This isn't some unfortunate incident. This was an assassination, the tempt by a madman inspired by the rhetoric of the radical left. That's what a a senator said. You can't say stuff like that, but look at Representative viz that take a Zalees months ago. The rhetoric you hear from the Republican Party a shameful and disgraceful for Latinos. And you know when you see Latinos for Trump, to me, it's like seeing Jews for Hitler almost.
You know.
What what what you're looking at us for? I'm looking at Donna Brazil the other day, who I love, by the way, and I've long admired as a political pundit usually on ABC. Went over to Fox News for a little while, came back to ABC. Good to see her on this week, but she's did the other day talking Heyn Rents.
Was it Ryn's previous for the RNC.
Oh, we're brothers. We're all brothers. We different, we different politically, but we get along. We have we share drinks together, we have lunch together. There's plenty of my Republican colleagues across the aisle that we have dinner together. We talk with one another, we exchange ideas, we get along.
Well, that ain't what you've been telling us, y'all haven't been telling us that. We've heard threat to democracy. We've heard on both sides, we gonna lose the country. We forget that we're a democracy.
And guess what if you don't like something for you two years, you get to change the representatives. Four years, you get to change the White House, six years you get to change the Senate.
Seats, and we forget all of that.
We've spent years listening to these politicians tell us, Hey, if you don't vote this way, the world is gonna end. And you're telling us to come down. You're telling us the dollar down.
The rhetoric that would be, y'all.
So all I ask, respectfully, is that people who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones.
Why don't y'all chill with the rhetoric. Don't just talk about it, be about it he's implying that you're responsible for what happened this weekend.
Adults are adults, and that's on them. But if you're going to imply it by saying the rhetoric is too incendiary and it needs to be dialt back, what I'm saying of politicians and political pundits on both sides of the ale is it starts with y'all, let's.
Discuss the facts. Let's discuss whose idea is better, and then move on. Pick a sye, ladies and gentlemen.
And do it that way. Don't lecture us for stuff y'all have been doing. That's all I ask. That's all I ask. Now, let me be clear, ain't no hypocrite sitting here. I have been on the record stating on many occasions I wasn't voting for Donald Trump because guess what, I think he would create civil war in this country because I thought he was a divisive force. Okay, but that's me on the outside talking about what I'm seeing. If you're on the inside, you're a political pundit and you actually get along with people on opposite sides of the aisle, but you go on camera and you pretend that you don't, and you're going at each other like crazy, acting like the world's gonna come to an end. If your way is it what's agreed upon by the voters and the constituents out there.
It's a problem.
That's the difference between me and the pundits that I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about all, I'm not talking.
About everybody, but those of you who have been divisive, you know who you are. All I'm saying is if you gon't do that, don't turn around and elect you the American public like it's us that we're doing it.
We were following your lead. One could easily argue you on Capitol Hill.
You're a political pundit on the left or the right, literally a sign to go out there and disseminate messages to the masses on behalf.
Of the party line.
And you know that you've got good relationships and this peace amongst the people when you're going out to lunch and dinner together and you're getting along and.
All of this other stuff. But you just happen to disagree politically.
But when you go on the air, you're acting like Ohmageddon it's gonna take place if you side with this person instead of you or vice versa. I'm sorry, that's a little bit different than me saying, hey, I think Trump being a divisive force that he is may be on a revenge tour and he's gonna be a divisive force in the White House.
That's what I felt. That's what I feel.
But the bottom line is, I'm not a political pundit working in Capitol Hill withinside knowledge of the relationships we have with.
One another on both sides of the aisle. You guys are, and if you know that the relationship is better.
And you know that, you might not necessarily believe the world's gonna come to an end if you and your side don't win an election. Why do you come across like it? Because it works and you didn't care. That's what I'm saying. Let's make sure I'm clear about that. All that being said, you want to sit up.
There and say, yo, Stephen, there you in this too cool? No problem.
I happen to believe when I go on political you know, on networks, talking politics or news or social issues, giving social commentary, because that's really what I like to do. Sports is first, social commentary is second. Let me be very clear, if you tell me, anything that I'm doing is against the best interests of this nation, our safety, our ability to thrive, less division, et cetera.
If you tell me anything.
That I could do to facilitate more unity, more togetherness, more productivity.
I will do it. I will do it because.
I'm not rooting against us as a nation. I'm rooting for us. Whatever it takes for all of us to be better, I'm in it.
I'm down with it.
