After seeing Jimmy Kimmel respond to Donald Trump’s election by crying on his late-night show, Stephen A. Smith admits he would have done it differently.
Kimmel became emotional while hosting his first show after Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the election to Trump. ABC’s late-night host assessed Trump’s victory as being a terrible thing for all Americans, including those who voted for the president-elect. And as he rattled off a long list of things that will be negatively impacted by Trump over the next four years, Kimmel teared up.
Thursday afternoon, Smith joined The Will Cain Show and the Fox News host asked about Kimmel’s emotional reaction, questioning how he would have handled the situation.
“That would not have been me,” Smith quickly interrupted, noting he would have done what he did on his podcast and acknowledged America has a new president who won the election decisively. “I would have tried, because obviously it’s late night, I would have tried to be a bit funny and humorous with it and let everybody know it’s not gloom and doom.”
“We’ve dealt with a lot in our society and we are going to deal with a lot more in years to come long after Donald Trump is gone, no matter what you think. But in the end, it is always good when the American people stand up and they’re as unified as they came across this past election,” Smith continued to Cain. “It would not been a postmortem, it certainly would not have been me crying. I’m not crying over the fact that Donald Trump is the president.”
Smith didn’t outright condemn Kimmel for showing emotion on his late-night show, but he certainly didn’t appear to approve of his Disney colleague’s tearful monologue. While Smith has a large platform through his podcast and First Take, he previously teased wanting Kimmel’s audience. The First Take host hasn’t been shy about his desire to succeed Kimmel in late-night, telling Sean Hannity last year, “I would love to be the heir apparent to Jimmy Kimmel. I believe I could do it. I would throw everybody for a loop, my politics would throw people off.”
That, however, was before Smith’s podcast started to gain traction, before he was staring at a potential $20 million payday from ESPN, and before his latest declaration of being willing to consider a run for president.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com