Stephen A. Smith Gives His Thoughts On Jimmy Kimmel’s “Jokes” On Charlie Kirk: “Where Was The Joke?”

Stephen A. Smith has officially moved into the political commentary space.

ESPN analyst, podcast host and debate master Stephen A. Smith has become more outspoken about politics as of late, and that all comes as reports suggest that he’s seriously considering a potential presidential run. For the longest time – and despite being courted by politicians to consider running – Smith has insisted that he enjoys the line of work he is in (yelling about sports) too much to give it up.

But there’s apparently been a shift.

Polls have long shown that Stephen A. Smith could be competitive as Democratic presidential nominee. That being said, those numbers have never been enough to convince one of the faces of ESPN to leave his network job to pursue a career in politics. He’s been very open about that, as rumors have tried to connect him with a potential presidential run.

Stephen A. has always denied that speculation… that is until he was asked about his political aspirations during a NAB Show in Las Vegas back in April. It was there that he confirmed that he won’t rule out a presidential run in 2028, though he says it’ll be a decision that he makes in late 2026 or 2027.

Only time will tell if Stephen A. actually make the jump in full-fledged politics. At the very least, he’s already ventured into the political commentary sphere, and has been very active in having conversations and discourse about the current political state of the United States. He even debuted his new political show “Straight Shooter with Stephen A.” yesterday, which airs on SiriusXM.

Let me paint a picture (or rather just lay out Stephen A.’s schedule) of just how busy Smith is on a regular weekday. He does First Take for ESPN from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST, hops on MadDog Sports Radio for The Stephen A. Smith Show from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and he’s now adding his political commentary show, Straight Shooter with Stephen A., from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. That right there is 6 hours of Stephen A. Smith talking every single day… and it doesn’t even account for the other places that he pops up in.

Straight Shooter is the newest endeavor for Stephen A., and the show shares the same name of the book that he released back in 2023. It’s not exactly a surprising move, since it has seemed as though Smith has been headed for some sort of political program for quite some time.

He introduced the show, and himself to people that might not know him, by saying this:

“To those of you out there who don’t know me, I’m many things. I am a man that born in Bronx, New York. I’m a black man and I’m very proud of it. But I’m also proud of the fact that I didn’t grow up believing that just because you were white, you were evil and wrong. I’m a bit more expansive than that in my thinking.

I’m a liberal on social issues, and I’m proudly a fiscal conservative on others… right here on this show, Straight Shooter with Stephen A., all of this partisan stuff is coming to an end. I hit everyone. I don’t pull punches for liberals or conservatives at the expense of the other. I come at everybody.”

Not many political shows out there that go after both sides… should be interesting.

And in his first show (quite the time in American history to be launching a new political program), Stephen A. borrowed from the sports radio world and had a call-in segment. One caller brought up the topic of Jimmy Kimmel being suspended for comments about Charlie Kirk’s death, and Stephen A. didn’t shy away from it.

Remember, Stephen A. Smith might not have been working for ESPN while he was doing this show, but he is an employee that’s technically under the umbrella of Disney – as is Kimmel, who works for ABC. One might have guessed that Smith would be careful talking about someone that works for the same corporation as him, but he did not hold any punches… just as he suggested when he introduced his show:

“The only thing that I would say as it pertains to Jimmy Kimmel: Where was the joke? Because you’re a late-night host — and obviously that has a comedic attachment to it. Where was the joke? Obviously, it wasn’t anything funny about that.”

Anyone else here for Stephen A. Smith’s political era?The post Stephen A. Smith Gives His Thoughts On Jimmy Kimmel’s “Jokes” On Charlie Kirk: “Where Was The Joke?” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.