Stephen A. Smith still won’t commit to running for president of the United States in 2028, but it’s not because he doesn’t think he can win the election.
Smith joined his former ESPN Radio co-host Brandon Tierney on his BT Unleashed YouTube show this week. During the wide-ranging conversation, Tierney pressed Smith on his political aspirations and whether he thinks he can actually become president of the United States.
Forget about J.D. Vance or Gavin Newsom, Smith believes there’s only one candidate who could potentially stand in his way of becoming president. Smith insisted he can win the election, but he just doesn’t know if he wants to.
“I believe I can win,” Smith told Tierney of a presidential election. “The only candidate I would be worried about is Marco Rubio. Because I think he’s an adult in the room with impeccable credentials, I can’t knock that. But I don’t believe there’s a Democrat out there I can’t beat. I don’t believe it.”
Tierney questioned whether Smith believes he can get enough of the Black vote, considering some of the more conservative political opinions he’s shared in recent years.
“I wouldn’t get enough of it during the primary, maybe,” Smith agreed. “But once you have to pick between me and the Republican candidate, what choice you have? You live in a binary system. And by the way, Black folks can say what they want, whether you like it or not, I’m one of you…as a Black man, I’m accustomed to butting heads with my own people out of love.”
But as much as he believes Marco Rubio would be his only real challenger in a presidential election, Stephen A. Smith maintains it’s the FCC’s equal-time rule that is keeping him from running.
“I was personally informed that the second I announce that I’m showing up on that debate stage, I immediately get pulled off the air,” Smith told Tierney.
The equal-time rule requires American radio and TV stations to provide equivalent airtime opportunities to qualified competing political candidates. Which means if Smith were running for president, competing candidates would need to be offered as much airtime as he receives. Cable and streaming platforms, however, have been exempt from the rule, but Smith doesn’t seem to believe those exemptions would allow him to keep his ESPN and SiriusXM shows during a bid for president.
“Don’t let them come up with a way for me to be on that debate stage in 2027 and I still get to keep my check,” Smith said. “If that happens, I will be on that debate stage.”
