ESPN host Stephen A. Smith defended his trip to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump during an episode of “The View” Wednesday, telling the co-hosts he wouldn’t apologize for sitting down with the president.
Co-host Sunny Hostin asked Smith, “He has this history of racial bias that is so clear. Did you think meeting with him, that you got anywhere?”
“I don’t know. We’ll find out, but he’s the president of the United States, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to try,” he said. “And the reality is I’m just speaking from a constitutional perspective in that regard.
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“And it points to a bigger issue. There are so many people that have this mentality, ‘Why even waste time talking to him?’ Whether you like him or not, he’s the president of the United States of America. He’s not going away until 2028. At least. He’s not going away.”
Smith met with Trump, comedian Bill Maher and Kid Rock at the White House Oct. 15.
Hostin raised the possibility that Trump could be impeached after the midterm elections, but Smith rejected the idea.
“I think you’re going to have a situation where the Republicans are going to maintain the Senate,” Smith said. “They’ll probably lose the House. So, you’ll get folks to impeach him, but then they’ll step in and save him, and it will be an ongoing continuous thing.
“And don’t get me started with that because I get disgusted with all that pomp and circumstance. I’m so sick and tired of us acting like that’s going to do something. He’s not going away until 2028.
“You’re going to have to deal with him,” he continued. “And when it comes to getting things done, I’m all about exhausting every means and every measure to try to do what’s in the best interest of our community. I’m not apologizing for that to anybody.”
The co-hosts told Smith they had invited Trump onto the show, but, on Tuesday, co-host Ana Navarro said there was “no way in hell” she would meet with the president.
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“It’s easy for the cast of ‘The View’ to attack people for meeting with President Trump or crow about how they would never take a meeting with him,” Nicholas Fondacaro, associate editor of the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters, told Fox News Digital in a statement about the exchange.
“One, they’ll never be asked. Two, they’re not counted on by anyone to be a champion of their cause.
“It’s clear that ‘The View’ truly believe him to be the bumbling racist caricature that they and the rest of the liberal media paint him to be to their viewers,” he continued. “They were visibly shocked to learn that Trump seemed to hear him out and called him a few days later to hear his argument again before he met with others about the HBCUs issue.”
Navarro also pressed Smith on the meeting and questioned whether he pushed back on the president.
The ESPN host said he pressed Trump several times regarding the war in Iran and added that Maher grilled the president during the meeting as well.
“The only other thing I would add is I’m kind of disappointed that you’re asking whether or not I pushed back because that shows me that you’re not watching my SiriusXM show enough because I push back on Trump all the time,” Smith said.
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Kid Rock spoke on “Fox & Friends” about the meeting Friday.
“Last night, I’m having dinner at the White House with the president, Bill Maher and Stephen A. Smith. We all agreed socialism and communism has no place to have a foothold in our government,” he said, before referring to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Asked how the dinner went, Kid Rock said the group had a great conversation.
“It was epic,” he said. “And the thing that was the greatest — there’s so many points, I could do an hour on it — is that, you know, two Democrats, two Republicans sit down, break bread, have laughs, talk about, have tough conversations on a lot of the issues.”