Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith weighed in on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) appearance in the White House, saying she has no choice but to engage with President Trump.
Smith joined ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday, where host Jonathan Karl asked him about Whitmer appearing to hide from the press after meeting with Trump.
“Listen, she’s the governor of Michigan. She has no choice but to do that,” Smith said of the meeting with Trump. “Anybody that thinks otherwise is just being foolish and immature and childish.”
“The fact is, is that she’s the governor of a state in the United States of America. You need to do business with the federal government. He’s the president of the United States. You don’t get to circumvent him,” he continued.
Whitmer experienced backlash after the photo emerged of her holding a folder over her face while Trump spoke with the press.
The Michigan governor said she was unexpectedly whisked into the room for Trump’s signing of an executive order ahead of their planned closed-door meeting.
Whitmer was there to discuss Trump’s tariff plan and opportunities for Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base.
Smith, whose name has been floated to run in the next presidential election, criticized Democrats who did nothing to warn the American people about Trump’s tariffs, which he repeated on the campaign trail many times.
“Instead, they talked about everything from woke culture to cancel culture to abortion rights and all this other stuff. So, that wasn’t going to win the election,” Smith said.
He later asked what it would take for Democrats to “get the job done.”
“That’s why somebody who’s a sports analyst, for crying out loud, is in the doggone polls,” Smith said about his own potential bid.
