By Dan Shanoff and Rafe Bartholomew in the NYT
Stephen A. Smith brought a taste of “First Take” to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night.
The ESPN host, who has branched out into political commentary in recent months and even teased the possibility of running for president in 2028, issued a stern rebuke to the nation’s elected representatives over the ongoing federal government shutdown while participating in a cable TV town hall event for the cable network NewsNation. After he finished speaking, Smith walked off the stage for dramatic effect.
Seated alongside a bipartisan panel that included sitting lawmakers Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), as well as former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly, Smith was reacting to a question from a Dallas air traffic controller who described needing to deliver food for DoorDash in his off-duty hours to make up his lost income during the shutdown. Thousands of federal workers have been furloughed while Congress negotiates a plan to reopen the government; employees deemed essential, including air traffic controllers, are expected to work without pay.
He described the issues he and the panelists had debated that night — how to make health care more affordable, the U.S. government’s financial support for Argentina amid the South American nation’s fiscal crisis, concerns over politically motivated prosecutions at the Department of Justice — and accused the government of being insensitive to the problems faced by everyday Americans, including federal workers who are missing paychecks.
“We’re listening to this kind of stuff while a young man walked up to the microphone and said that he had to leave here to go and work on DoorDash to help pay for his daughter’s tuition,” Smith said. “Meanwhile, everybody up here getting paid, but he ain’t. … This is why you have so many Americans — excuse my language — so pissed off at Washington, because somehow, some way, you get to have these conversations, engage in specific elements of it, to talk about what we need to do to get things better.
“Our debt is $37.8 trillion. Somehow, some way, the taxpayer has been paying this, been throwing money, because we all look at our check and it’s been going to the government. And somehow, some way, you’re supposed to be doing something constructive and productive enough to make sure that we don’t have that kind of deficit. It isn’t happening,” he said as members of the audience hooted whoops of approval.
“A government shutdown is going on right now,” Smith continued. “A man has to work on DoorDash when he’s really an air traffic controller that we applaud it, and we’re up here talking about how much some money is gonna cost, and the only person that don’t have a check coming is him.
“You know what I’m gonna do?” Smith asked, before standing up and leaving the stage. “I’m gonna take a break.”
Was this the debut of ‘America First Take’?
The first thing I thought of when I saw that clip of Stephen A. pop up on social media was the day in 2009 when CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli, on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, went off on a diatribe that is credited, if apocryphally, with sparking the “Tea Party” movement.
To be sure, that wasn’t this: NewsNation in 2025 isn’t CNBC in 2009 (and society isn’t remotely close to where we were 16 years ago), but if you squint, you can see the outline of “Stephen A. Populism” — a form of straight talk layered with just enough visceral disgust to match the mood of a segment of the population. (“America First Take?”)
When Smith started dabbling in politics earlier this year, he made the point that in a debate, he would clean the clock of politicians. His rhetorical skill — honed over tens of thousands of morning arguments over Dak Prescott being over- or underrated — is unquestioned.
Simply stating the obvious can leave politicians off-balance, because so many of them carry on in a media bubble where “Embrace Debate” simply doesn’t exist. It doesn’t hurt that the national mood is decidedly against members of Congress; Smith wisely picked an easy target.
Was it performative for Smith to end his monologue by stomping off the set? Absolutely. Watching the clip, I don’t doubt that he felt genuine disgust, but I also don’t doubt that he knew exactly what he was doing. This might not spark the “Stephen A. Party,” but you can spot the outline of Smith’s more muscular approach to immersing in politics. — Dan Shanoff