ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith recently gave his opinion on the implications of the guilty verdict in the Trump hush money trial. The case brought against Trump convicted the former president of all 34 felony counts related to the falsification of business records.
In the aftermath of the verdict, Trump’s base appears to be emboldened, further deepening their support for the 45th president. Furthermore, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee received a massive outpouring of donations to this campaign. In light of this, Smith noted that this could spark discourse throughout the country and that he is “scared as hell.”
Smith stated, “It all points to civil war in this country . . . .We’re all pawns. We’re all subject to the mercy of politicians who find a way to manipulate the system and ultimately manipulate us. . . . That’s a concern I had before January 6, when the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a bunch of Trump supporters. I’ve had it ever since, I have it now, because Trump is not going to go away quietly.”
The ESPN personality explained that the recent verdict does not influence his critical opinions of Donald Trump. Smith maintained that he doesn’t support Trump because he would supposedly propagate division in the country. “It ain’t about Trump being in jail, it ain’t about him being a convicted felon. I don’t want him to be the President of the United States, period,” he said. “Because I think he’s divisive, and I think he will serve to divide America.”
Smith continued, claiming that he believes Trump would put himself “above America” after showing a clip of the former president slamming the trial he faced. “The man is a problem. He’s not about galvanizing and bringing people together who don’t support him, only those who do. I think he puts himself above America.”
Donald Trump addressed the guilty verdict he was handed on Thursday last week, appearing calm and unfazed by the felony conviction. He stated that the “real verdict” would come on November 5th while emphasizing that he is fighting for the country and the Constitution. Trump said outside the courthouse:
“This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt. It’s a rigged trial, a disgrace. They wouldn’t give us a venue change. We were at 5% or 6% in this district, in this area, this was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be November 5, by the people. And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here. You have a Soros-backed DA and the whole thing, we didn’t do a thing wrong. I’m a very innocent man, and it’s okay. I’m fighting for our country. I’m fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now. This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent, and I think it’s just a disgrace. And we’ll keep fighting. We’ll fight till the end, and we’ll win because our country’s gone to hell. We don’t have the same country anymore. We have a divided mess we’re nation in decline, serious decline. Millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists and they’re taking over our country. We have a country that’s in big trouble, but this was a rigged decision, right from day one, with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case, never, and we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over. Thank you very much.”
Featured image credit: Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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