Stephen A. Smith criticized the hush money trial against former President Trump in Thursday comments, saying he wants to see him “lose the right way.”
As primarily Democratic voter, the sports commentator said he is “utterly disgusted” with Trump’s criminal trial, which kicked off Monday with jury selection. Smith said he sees it as Democrats attempting to politicize the courts as they’re unable to stop the former president’s momentum in the polls.
“That appears to be their strategy, but I’m going to tell you, it’s not working. It’s not working at all,” Smith told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Thursday. “And to be quite honest, I don’t mind the fact that it’s not working because I might not be a supporter of Donald Trump, but I want him to lose the right way.”
“I want him to lose because you have better ideas and you make your case to the American people better than he does. That’s why I want him to lose,” he continued, citing President Biden. “I don’t want him to lose the way they’re trying to make him lose.”
Trump made history as the first U.S. president to face a criminal trial when his trial began in Manhattan this week.
The case alleges that Trump illegally falsified business records when reimbursing his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for paying adult film actor Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Including this case and others, the former president faces 88 criminal charges across four indictments. It remains unclear if any of his other cases will reach a jury before the November election, where he is the presumptive GOP nominee.
Smith argued that Democrats who pushed for Trump’s trial to begin before the election, which it did Monday despite his attempts to delay, are just showing they’re scared Biden can’t beat Trump in the polls.
According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Trump currently leads Biden by .08 percent in national polling. A survey from mid-March found that 44 percent of respondents said their vote would not be changed even if Trump is convicted in the hush money trial.
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