Stephen A. Smith open to Trump debate amid Knicks feud

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Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith on Sunday said he’s open to debating President Trump amid their feud over the president’s presence at Game 3 of the NBA Finals, where the New York Knicks lost the game.

Smith has suggested that the two debate one another over policies and issues. The president, however, has accused the commentator of being a “low IQ individual” who would get “annihilated in a debate.”

“But when he wants to sit up there and question my IQ and talk to me about people that would smoke meat in a debate, well, why don’t you do it yourself?” Smith said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Why defer to anybody else? Because I’d be more than happy to sit across from the president and debate some of the decisions that he’s made.”

Smith added that he’s “not interested in running” for president. “I like my job, like my money, and I’m not giving it up to campaign for higher office,” he said.

“But I would certainly say that if you really, really want to be serious about questioning somebody’s IQ, put me at the same table as you, and we could have a discussion in front of the masters about some decisions you’ve made on behalf, supposedly, of the American people,” Smith reiterated. “And we’ll see where my IQ lands then.”

When asked about Trump turning 80 on Sunday, and if he thinks the president is “still sharp enough to hold the job,” Smith said he would not associate Trump with “sharp.” He labeled Trump an “upgrade from what we were seeing from Joe Biden in terms of his alertness and what have you.”

“But I’m not here to denigrate or insult the president of the United States in that regard,” the NBA analyst said about Trump.

Smith then hammered on the president over a viral video of Trump appearing with his eyes closed in his seat at Knicks owner James Dolan’s private box at Madison Square Garden.

“He was caught napping, OK?” Smith said.

“And so … it is what it is. But he is the president. He’s got a lot on his plate. He certainly gets up early enough in the morning, and he certainly has time to post tweets on his Truth Social platform,” he added.

Smith has previously said that Trump should not have attended Game 3, and he should have stayed “his a– at the White House.” He first accused Trump of sleeping at the game on Tuesday, telling the audience of ESPN’s “First Take” on Tuesday that the “brother wasn’t awake.”

“Didn’t you call out former President Joe Biden, ‘Sleepy Joe’?” Smith said on the show. “Well, what should we call you? Because you weren’t awake.”

In a Wednesday Truth Social post, Trump followed up his attack on Smith’s intelligence, calling him an “arrogant fool.”

“Joe Biden’s now ‘fabled’ performance would look great by comparison to anything that this loudmouth huckster has to offer, which isn’t much!” the president added, referring to his predecessor’s disastrous 2024 debate performance against him. “Within a few weeks, they’d laugh him out of politics!!!”

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Donald Trump

James Dolan

Joe Biden

Stephen A. Smith

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