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Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon suggests the only reason behind Stephen A. Smith’s support of the ICE agent involved in the shooting of Renee Good is his desire to “appeal to white audiences.”
Lemon, who seems skeptical of Smith’s motives, accused him of labeling the shooting as “justified” to pursue financial gain, despite the unlikely setting of ESPN for such endeavors.
“I try to avoid criticizing, especially when it comes to Black men or the Black community in general, because we face so much negativity. The standards are different for us,” Lemon started. “However, Stephen A. Smith often discusses topics he is uninformed about.”
Lemon elaborated, “He frequently appears on conservative podcasts or his own show, making comments about Black people and issues he doesn’t fully understand.”
The former news host remarked, “It’s astonishing to me, this tendency to align with white people. It seems driven by financial motives.”
Lemon then mused about how much money he could make as a black conservative journalist.
“If I became a Black conservative, I would be richhhhh!” Lemon exclaimed. “Like a gazillionaire.”
Stephen A. Smith is richly compensated, for sure. Though his eight-figure contract is owed to his sports hot-takes, not so much his talking politics.
Lemon’s criticism of Smith stems from the ESPN talker’s comments earlier in the week when he called the actions of the ICE agent who shot and killed anti-ICE protester Renee Good, “completely justified.”
However, Smith also said the officer could have shot Good’s tires instead of shooting her.
“I saw the video on numerous occasions and, seeing what transpired, from a lawful perspective as it pertains to a law enforcement official, don’t expect him to be prosecuted,” Smith explained. “He was completely justified. From a humanitarian perspective, however, why did you have to do that? If you could move out the way, that means you could have shot the tires. That means you could have got her a few feet away after you shot the tires; and if you were unsuccessful in doing that, you could have got her down the road. You didn’t have to do that. She wasn’t driving down the road, coming at you 90 miles an hour. She was parked in the middle of the street, and rather than get out the car, she wrongfully tried to drive off and wrongfully disregarded law enforcement official — which is exactly what ICE is — and as a result, lost her life because of it.”
Lemon continued his scathing criticism of the ESPN talker by saying that Smith’s “stock and trade” had moved from sports to bashing black people.
Both Good and the ICE officer who shot her, are white. So it’s unclear why he sees the issue as racial. Nor is Smith ingratiating himself with his ESPN colleagues by defending ICE officers, since the overwhelming majority of them are liberal.
Then again, making sense was never Lemon’s strong suit.
