Stephen A. Smith is not on the same page with Michelle Obama regarding her suggestion that America is “not ready” to have a female as president.
This comes after Obama, 61, touched on the topic while she was addressing a crowd of women at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Friday, November 14, to promote her new book, The Look, Fox News reported.
To justify her claim that Americans are “not ready” for a female occupying the country’s highest seat, Obama made mention of Donald Trump being elected over Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
“As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” the former first lady said. “That’s why I’m like, ‘Don’t even look at me about running, because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not.'”
Obama also stated that she feels a lot of men in America do not like the idea of being led by a woman. “You know, we’ve got a lot of growing up to do, and there’s still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman, and we saw it,” Obama said.
But Smith, 58, on Monday’s episode of Straight Shooter, begged to differ as he mentioned female lawmakers who were recently elected, stating it was to show that Americans do not have any issues with having women at the helm of political affairs. The television personality and sports analyst also buttressed his point by referring to New York Governor Kathy Hochul and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election.
“Didn’t we just see an election take place last month where a woman won the gubernatorial seat in New Jersey — Mikie Sherrill? Didn’t we just see Abigail Spanberger win in Virginia — the gubernatorial seat? Isn’t Kathy Hochul the governor of New York? Am I missing something?” Smith questioned. “Maybe I need to go back to the 2016 election with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Didn’t she win the popular vote in the United States?”
Though Trump won the 2016 presidential election, he lost the popular vote to Clinton by a 2.9 million margin, Fox News reported. “What do you mean we weren’t ready?” Smith said in reference to Clinton’s feat.
“Weren’t there White women who voted for Donald Trump? Not just White men. Didn’t the Blacks show up for Hillary Rodham Clinton? Didn’t Hispanics show up for Hillary Rodham Clinton? Wasn’t it Hillary Rodham Clinton who spent the last few days neglecting to campaign in places like Michigan or Wisconsin or Pennsylvania or places like that while [Trump] was everywhere?” he added. “Y’all remember that?”
Smith further made mention of Harris’ presidential run and suggested she lost to Trump because the Democratic Party held on to former president Joe Biden until the last minute, not as a result of Americans being unready for a female president.
“How about 2024 when Kamala Harris was running as the Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States of America? Yes, she did only have 107 days to do it,” he said.
“But whose fault was that? The Republicans, Black people, Hispanics, women, whomever. Nobody told y’all to hold on to Joe Biden for dear life until July of that summer, when there was evidence that showed months earlier that he wasn’t ready anymore.”
Smith also said that Harris was the first Democratic candidate in history to garner the most votes, adding that her reluctance to accept interviews and she distancing herself from some decisions made by the Biden administration played a role in her defeat to Trump, Fox News reported.
But though Smith claimed that Harris has the most votes of any Democratic candidate in history, that record belongs to Biden, as he secured over 81 million votes in 2020. “But 74 million plus people still came out and voted for you. Myself included,” Smith said.
Smith also touched on previous complimentary comments he had made about Michelle Obama, stating that Trump would have lost to her if she had run for president.
He said he was still adamant it would have been the case.
READ ALSO: Michelle Obama reveals why she avoided wearing braids in the White House
