By Jason Cohen, Daily Caller News Foundation | May 06, 2025
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said Monday he was pleased with President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory because he believes the Democratic Party has long manipulated black voters.
Trump garnered 13% of the black vote in November, including 21% of men and 7% of women, according to a CNN exit poll. Smith, on “CUOMO,” criticized Democrats for relying on “guilt” and scare tactics instead of policy to gain black support.
“They wanted to make sure, ‘Oh, we’re going to point to racism. We’re going to guilt you into voting for us. We’re not going to talk about the things that we’re doing positively. We’re going to talk about what the other side is doing negatively to engage in fear mongering to help you, through fear factor, go our way instead of theirs.’ And it didn’t work this time,” Smith said. “And to be quite honest with you, even though I might not like some of the things I’m seeing from the Trump administration thus far, the bottom line is I’m glad it didn’t work.”
“Because I think, for the longest time, black Americans have played the role of suckers to the Democratic Party,” he continued. “They’ve guilted us into voting for them, making us feel as if we’re going to be ostracized, creating division within our own communities or what have you to get our vote, instead of saying to us, ‘Hey, this is what we will do for you. And it will work better than what they’re offering.'”
Smith in March also argued that Democratic Party policies conflict with the values of conservative black families during an appearance on “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
“A lot of us obviously vote Democratic, but we live very conservative lives. We come from very conservative households,” he said at that time. “Our parents raised us in a certain way where you can’t come into the home with that kind, with such nonsense when you talk to your mother, your father.”
“Somehow, some way, inexplicably specifically since 1964, I should say inexplicably since the civil rights legislation, obviously they’ve had the Democratic vote,” he added. “The Democratic Party has had a black vote for the vast majority of that period. But in the end, looking at all of those things, I just felt that it became a bit crazy and quite frankly a bit unfair.”
He particularly called out the party for not prioritizing the economy and border security and instead focusing on social issues like pronoun usage and gender-specific bathrooms.
In contrast, Smith credited Trump on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” April 28 with successfully cracking down on immigration.
“When it comes to immigration enforcement, there is no doubt that Donald Trump has been successful,” Smith said at the time. “We can slice it any way we want to, but Joe Biden having an open border policy caused a lot of problems in this nation, particularly to the psyche of American citizens.”
Daily border encounters have dropped 93% and migrant crossings have plunged by 99.99% under the Trump administration, according to a 100-day fact sheet the White House shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation on the same day.
There were about 8.5 million migrant encounters along the U.S-Mexico border from fiscal years 2021 to 2024 under former President Joe Biden, according to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Jason Cohen is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation
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