The president sat for a wide-ranging interview and did not shy away from a challenge on last weeks elections.
As reported by RedState, President Donald Trump answered questions on camera from ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith in an interview released Thursday evening on YouTube. The sit-down grew out of a request Smith made when he attended an October dinner at the White House with Trump, Kid Rock, and Bill Maher.
Smith pressed the president on the Republican losses in the midterm elections and later told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he was not fully satisfied with the answer. He said, I wasn't on the ballot. I said, That makes absolutely no sense, Mr. President. You said, put you on a ballot. That's what you told the American people to do. He said, Well, they didn't do it. I said, Well, what if they did do it and that was the reason you lost, Smith explained.
He refused to accept that, he continued. His attitude is that the candidates were not that great. If it were him that was running, this would not have happened. That's his mentality.
Trump had urged Republican voters to treat the midterms as if he were on the ballot, but turnout among Republicans fell sharply while Democrats came out in force. Smith was right that the president had made that ballot plea, and Trump was also right that many of those voters apparently did not show up.
In the same interview, Trump said he would still beat former President Barack Obama if a hypothetical race were held now. Smith posed the matchup as a 2028 question, and Trump did not hesitate.
I have most of the state records, Texas I have the all-time record, Florida I have the all-time record, I think I beat him easily, I think hes highly overrated, Trump said. A surprised Smith asked how Obama could be overrated, and Trump answered, He's a divider.
Asked how he would classify himself, Trump said, As a person that brings people together...through success. Smith also challenged the president on what he had done for Black Americans, and Trump answered with a prepared list that included permanent funding for historically Black colleges and universities, criminal justice reform, opportunity zones, jobs, $1,000 Trump accounts for children, and expanded Medicaid access for sickle cell disease.
Smith is not a reliably partisan voice and often confounds critics on both sides of the aisle. He later gave the president credit for not dodging the questions. I give him credit. I asked a question, and he answered, and he didn't run from anything.
One role, at least, is not in the offing. After the White House meeting, a reporter asked Smith whether they had discussed the press secretary job, and whether Trump had offered it to him.
No, Smith said to the first question, and to the second, No way in hell! The full interview is now public, and it leaves the president still rejecting the idea that the midterm losses were a verdict on him, even as one of the more combative interviewers in sports media tried to pin that case down.
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