Featured Image Credit: ABC News
Topics: Stephen A Smith, Donald Trump, United States
Ryan Smart
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith has criticised US President Donald Trump for an 'appalling' comment about a black politician.
Jasmine Crockett, a member of the Democratic Party, has been the representative for Texas's 30th congressional district since 2023.
The 44-year-old announced in December that she would be running for the US Senate in Texas.
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The incumbent Republican Party have won every US Senate election in Texas, which was traditionally a blue state before switching in the opposite direction in the 1980s, since 1990.
In a video announcing her Senate bid, Crockett used a clip of President Trump calling her a 'low IQ person'.
In October, while aboard Air Force One, Trump criticised Crockett and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic representative of New York's 14th congressional district, as part of a bizarre rant.
He said: "We [the Republicans] have a great group of people. They [Democrats] do not.
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"They have Jasmine Crockett, a low IQ person. AOC's low IQ. If you give her an IQ test... have her pass the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed.
"Those are very hard... they're really aptitude tests in a certain way. But they're cognitive tests.
"Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump. I don't think Jasmine... the first couple of questions are easy - [identify] a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know.
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"When you get up to about five or six, then up to 10 or 20 or 25, they couldn't come close to answering any of those questions."
During a subsequent appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, Crockett responded: "I know that he can't seem to find himself in the Oval Office to make sure that he can end this shutdown, but he does have time to troll me.
"So, listen, if he's down, I'm down [to go against Trump]."
Prior to Trump's comments, ESPN presenter Smith had criticised Crockett himself, stating on an episode of 'Straight Shooter': "If every day you're just cussing Trump out, that's not work."
He then implied her tone relied too heavily on 'street verbiage'. Smith would later apologise for his remarks.
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Now, in an interview on ABC News' 'Prime' show, Smith was probed by presenter Linsey Davis about his comments on Crockett - and decided to take aim at Trump in his answer.
"Let me tell you what I apologised for," he said. "Trump followed up what I said by calling her 'low IQ', and stuff like that. Which I found appalling.
"She's a highly educated woman. She has a license to practice law in the state of Texas, Arkansas and federally. She's a United States representative.
"She's an influential, intelligent, decent, good black woman, who cares a lot about black people in this country.
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"So I apologised for assisting, in any way, this notion that it's okay to say that [what Trump said] about her. Because I didn't want any parts of that.
"But I did feel that the situation was overblown. I was simply saying - is cursing a President out and calling him a piece of s**t, on national television, in front of a national audience, going to help your constituency?
"I wanted to know the answer to that question."