'NO WAY IN HELL!': Stephen A. Smith addresses BIG Trump rumor

[0:00] Stephen A. Smith, our friend, was back at the White House today, [0:03] sparking speculation that he could be President Trump's new press secretary. [0:07] I can promise you that's not going to happen. [0:10] Anyway, Stephen A. addressed that with reporters. [0:13] Here's what he said. [0:15] What about the press secretary role? [0:17] Did you discuss that? [0:18] No. [0:19] No, not at all. [0:20] Did he offer you it? [0:21] No way in hell. [0:25] No way in hell. [0:27] Anyway, so what was Stephen A. doing at the White House? [0:29] He was there to interview President Trump for his podcast. [0:33] They spoke for nearly an hour, a wide range of topics, [0:36] including how the president does plan to work with Democrats over the next two years. [0:41] Take a look. [0:42] What about you over your last two years in office? [0:45] What are you going to do dealing with the Democrats? [0:48] Are you, is there anything that you change? [0:50] Is there anything that you're going to do differently? [0:52] Are you willing to work with them? [0:53] I know you said you have. [0:54] You're willing to. [0:55] So I'm going to be, I'm going to be vetoing a lot of things that they're going to send me initially [1:00] that are bad for the country. [1:02] And I think eventually they're going to call in. [1:04] They're going to say, let's make a deal. [1:05] And we'll be able to make deals on, on health care, on drug prices. [1:12] All right. [1:12] Here now is the man himself, ESPN host, our friend Stephen A. Smith. [1:16] All right. [1:16] You've got to admit the question about you being the press secretary, [1:19] that was pretty darn funny. [1:21] That was great. [1:22] That was, that was absolutely hilarious. [1:24] Evidently, they don't know about the life that I live and the kind of affluence that ESPN [1:29] You can't take the pay cut, Stephen A. [1:31] And they've blessed me with. [1:32] I ain't taking that day. [1:33] I wouldn't take that pay cut for almost anything but the presidency. [1:36] And even then, I mean, you know, you got to, you got to give it up before you campaign. [1:40] That's why that's not going to happen. [1:41] It would take the presidency, me winning the presidency, in order for me to even consider [1:46] giving up what I have. [1:47] That ain't happening. [1:48] Press secretary, please. [1:49] All right. [1:49] Now, the president and I did talk about you. [1:52] He did ask me a lot of questions going into this interview. [1:56] Asked my thoughts about him doing the interview with you. [1:59] I gave it to him. [2:00] Of course, I said we're, we're longtime friends. [2:02] I'd absolutely do it. [2:03] He promised you that. [2:05] Why don't you take us inside? [2:07] Talk, what did you all talk about? [2:09] Well, the first order of business is to let your audience know you're absolutely right. [2:14] I don't think the interview would have happened without you. [2:16] So I appreciate that, no doubt. [2:18] You know, he promised me we were going to sit down and sure enough when we sat down, I think, [2:22] you know, obviously the war in Iran, the tariffs have obviously had a profound effect [2:26] on our, on our economy, on our society as a whole, in terms of how everybody is looking [2:30] at things from an affordability perspective. [2:33] I definitely challenged him on that. [2:34] He gave a lot of pushback on that. [2:36] And of course, we talked about the devastating losses in the midterms and how the GOP essentially [2:41] got slaughtered, not to the degree of the 63 seats that Obama lost in 2010, or the inordinate [2:46] amount of seats that Clinton lost in 1994. [2:48] But it was still a lot, over 40 seats in the House, obviously significant seats in the Senate, [2:53] about five governorship sheet, governorships throughout the country. [2:58] And they can't ignore what happened with Kansas that turned blue for the first time since [3:02] 1932. [3:03] So I brought all of that up and I asked him, is he willing to point the finger at himself? [3:07] And he was dogged. [3:09] He was, he was no way. [3:10] He was, he was immovable in that regard. [3:12] He said, I wasn't on the ballot. [3:13] I said, that makes absolutely no sense, Mr. President. [3:16] You said, put you on a ballot. [3:18] That's what you told the American people to do. [3:20] He said, well, they didn't do it. [3:21] I said, well, what if they did do it? [3:22] And that was the reason you lost. [3:24] He refused to accept that. [3:25] His attitude is that the candidates were not that great. [3:28] If it were him that was running, this would not have happened. [3:31] That's his mentality. [3:32] He doesn't believe they put him on the ballot. [3:33] And to me, I'm not, I don't think that he's lying. [3:37] I think that he is somebody that is convinced his way is, is what it is. [3:41] I just don't agree with them. [3:43] I think that the American people made a statement against what they were seeing from him in terms [3:48] of him not having his eye on the ball and coming across as a bit detached in their eyes. [3:53] They don't believe him to be the Donald Trump that he once was. [3:56] I basically broached all of these subjects with him, but he had an answer for everything, [4:00] which is predictable. [4:02] And, you know, he was just very rigid and immovable in his thinking that it was blown [4:08] by the people who lost and that the candidates on the Republican side simply were not good [4:13] enough. [4:13] It was not about him. [4:15] I don't disagree. [4:16] I don't agree with that. [4:17] But nevertheless, I give him credit. [4:19] I asked a question and he answered and he didn't run from anything that I had to do. [4:23] You do that with everybody in fairness. [4:24] And I've been on your podcast. [4:26] That's not an interview that Joe Biden would ever do or would be capable of doing. [4:31] You have been very outspoken. [4:33] It's not just Biden. [4:35] There's a whole bunch of Democrats that haven't done it. [4:36] Just to be clear, I've invited Barack Obama on my show. [4:40] I think you should do it. [4:42] AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Bernie Sanders, Hakeem Jeffries has come on. [4:49] That's absolutely. [4:50] Wes Moore has come on. [4:51] Senator Cory Booker has come on, along with a few other Democrats. [4:55] I want to ask you one more question. [4:56] But not those names. [4:58] You've been very outspoken about the radicals within the Democratic Party and how dangerous [5:03] you think their policies are. [5:05] Did that come up? [5:07] And now that the radicals have won, what are your thoughts? [5:11] I didn't need to bring that up because, to be honest with you, I'm aligned with most [5:14] people, moderates and folks on the right in this country, in terms of thinking about how [5:19] dangerous that is. [5:20] I'm a moderate. [5:21] I'm not a progressive leftist. [5:24] And I don't believe that's good for the United States of America. [5:26] And I'm not apologizing for that to a damn soul. [5:29] I think it would be disastrous if the country fell into that kind of leadership personally. [5:33] That's just how I feel about it. [5:34] I've been very honest about it, very unapologetic. [5:36] And I'm just as immovable as the president or anybody else is that believes such things, [5:42] because I think that would be bad for the country. [5:44] We did not need to get into that, no question about it. [5:47] But I definitely think that right now the Democrats have a challenge on their hands because clearly [5:52] there's a lot of people out there that view the Democratic Party as a divided party. [5:56] Now, they will tell you they're a very big tent and there's room for everybody. [6:00] But I think that the progressive left has shown you there isn't room for everybody, [6:05] because if you're not willing to capitulate to their desires, their wishes, and their [6:09] ideological beliefs 100 percent, then they got a problem with you. [6:13] You can agree with 97, 98 percent of what they do. [6:16] Not that I don't. [6:17] Not that I do, because I don't. [6:19] But you can agree with 98 percent. [6:21] They'll hold the 2 percent against you as if you're a sworn enemy. [6:24] At least that's how their behavior has come across. [6:26] And I don't think that's something that's good for the country. [6:28] I think when they watch this podcast, they should go back and watch the one we did recently [6:32] because I thought it was a lot of fun. [6:33] Stephen A., thank you, as always, for being on the show. [6:36] We appreciate it. [6:36] All right. [6:37] Thanks for watching. [6:38] Check out my new podcast, Hanging Out With Me, Sean Hannity. [6:41] The big interviews, the debates you won't get anywhere else. [6:44] Like and subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.