Stephen A. Smith believes Barack Obama’s recent friendly chat with Donald Trump at Jimmy Carter’s funeral proves that voters can’t trust any politician.
The two fierce political rivals were captured by cameras engaged in what appeared to be a very warm discussion, with Trump later saying that he thinks Obama likes him.
But First Take host Smith was unimpressed by Obama appearing so friendly with Trump in Washington after such angry opposition to him on the campaign trail last year.
‘Look, was it a good look for Barack Obama? No,’ Smith said on his YouTube show. ‘Civility is the order of the day. One is a former president, the other is the president-elect. So there is a relationship to some degree that everybody should have. We get that, we understand that.
‘Here’s my thing: it wasn’t a good look, but it wasn’t a good look because of Trump.
‘It wasn’t a good look because of all the things that were said about Trump during the campaign while you (Obama) were trying to convince tens of millions of people to vote for Kamala Harris.’
Stephen A. Smith was unimpressed with Barack Obama’s friendly Donald Trump chat
Raising his voice, Smith continued: ‘Fascist,’ ‘threat to democracy,’ you know, people bringing up Nazis and all of this stuff when they talked about Trump. So maybe if you (Obama) hadn’t said all of those things, people wouldn’t be going off like this.
‘See, to me I look at it totally, totally differently. Everything goes in politics, we understand that.
‘But in the end it just shows how we should be very selfish in our thinking in terms of us and what is in the best interests of the country as opposed to listening to what the hell these politicians say.
‘We just can’t trust them. We just can’t trust them. The likelihood is that Obama didn’t mean half the things that he alluded to or flat-out said about Trump. Maybe Hillary Clinton did. Maybe Michelle Obama did. But Barack Obama himself? Probably not.
‘They at least have a little bit in common when it comes to illegal immigrants – Obama sent more back than trump did! He just didn’t advertise it. But he damn sure did it. It was the antithesis of what Joe Biden did.’
Going back to the optics of Obama and Trump talking, Smith said: ‘I don’t think it is that big of a deal.
‘I think class and decorum is the order of the day, especially at a funeral – let alone a funeral of one of the former presidents of the United States.
‘I don’t think that that is a time for vitriol. I don’t think that is a time for insults. That’s not the place. Obama has always been considered class personified. So it is not that big of a deal.
Obama and Trump chatted away at Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington last week
Trump said afterwards he didn’t realize how friendly he and Obama appeared at the funeral
‘I don’t think it is that big of a deal, I just think that in light of all that was said about him leading up to the election, I’d go as far as to say it wasn’t a good look.’
After the footage went viral on social media, Trump appeared quite happy to play up speculation that he and Obama are actually on good terms.
‘I didn’t realize how friendly it looked,’ Trump said. ‘I said, “Boy, they look like two people that like each other.” And we probably do.
‘We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along.
‘But I got along with just about everybody.’
Speaking in December, Smith said he voted for Kamala Harris in the election but already felt regret over his decision just weeks after.
