Jemele Hill 'skeptical' of Stephen A. Smith's presidential aspirations (2025)

Jemele Hill and Stephen A. Smith were once colleagues at ESPN. The Spolitics host doesn’t seem to have much, if any, ill-will towards Smith, who has since become the Worldwide Leader’s golden boy, but that doesn’t mean she sees everything he does as positive.

Case in point, Smith’s ongoing will-he-won’t-he presidential run, which has already become an annoying talking point to many in the sports and politics worlds. Smith has claimed he has no interest in running but also says he thinks he could easily win the Democratic nomination and would run if asked.

Hill was asked what she makes of all this presidential chatter, especially after a presumably reputable poll seemed to show positive results for the First Take host’s chances. She, like many others, has a hard time believing that Smith is a legitimate candidate for the job.

“It’s funny because I hate that it’s a conversation because it has become such a conversation [that] even I am forced to talk about it, not just on this platform, but I’ll be talking about it on my YouTube show for sure,” she said on The Rick Strom Show. “I guess I just refuse to believe it. I just really do.

“I think we have seen polling is not always right. We have seen this. I did see some snippets from his interview on this week on ABC when he says that several billionaires and politicians have come to him and said, ‘You should run.’ I’m skeptical. I’m not calling Stephen A. a liar. I am skeptical, and I would love to know who are these people that are saying, ‘Stephen A. Smith, you should run for president.'”

Hill noted that she feels as though Donald Trump’s success in being elected and re-elected, despite having no prior political experience, offers proof to others like Smith that they too can handle the role.

“This is one of the byproducts of the person that we have in office now is that, understandably, it has given people a lot of confidence that they can also run for president,” said Hill. “And in an age and a time where the disrespect for actual expertise is at an and all-time high and… there’s an anti-intellectual movement. I’m not saying that Stephen A. is not an intellectual, nor am I coming after him in terms of his ability. But I’m just saying that, in general, the mood in the country is that expertise is bad, to be smart is bad, to have experience in something is bad, that you have people on social media that will sit up there and argue with a renowned scientist about something in their field, and will leave there thinking they’re smarter than them. But I’m just like, how did we get here?

Hill believes that there is a profound misunderstanding about how specific political skills are no longer necessary for one to be President of the United States, and Smith, in his own way, has not made a strong case for possessing those kinds of skills.

“We have seen too many examples that politics is actually a skill. It does require you have some level of expertise in this, especially when we’re talking about geopolitical affairs,” she said. “I ain’t trying to throw a shot, but this is the same dude who in his field of expertise referred to Cade Cunningham as ‘Wade Cunningham.’ But that’s who you want to put in charge of massive geopolitical matters. I’m just saying.

“I’m sure it’s very flattering, and given, to be honest, the money that’s in politics, he probably could, let’s be real, he probably could make more money doing the political thing than he could when he was at ESPN, which I know sounds probably bizarre when you’re on a $100 million contract. But when you look at the amount of money, if it is true that these billionaires have approached him, if somebody’s going to fund this campaign where you could get 200 or 300 million people to pour money into it, I can see why somebody might look at politics as a come-up.”

We recently introduced the Stephen A. Smith Presidential-O-Meter in our daily newsletter and we’re also as skeptical as Hill for now. But of course, as she mentioned, there’s enough money involved to make anything possible.

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