Here are the facts: Stephen A. Smith has been inviting prominent Democrats to appear on his podcast for months, and they are not showing up. Meanwhile, every Republican he has invited has either accepted or committed to appearing. This is not speculation. This is what Smith himself revealed on his show Friday, and it raises an obvious question: What are Democrats afraid of?
Smith laid out the situation plainly. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been invited for four months. Representative Jasmine Crockett has been invited for four months. California Governor Gavin Newsom has been invited for even longer than that. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has received an invitation. None of them have appeared. The contrast with Republicans could not be starker. Representative Jim Jordan, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Representative Chip Roy have all sat down with Smith recently without hesitation.
The only prominent Democrat who has consistently appeared on Smith’s show is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whom Smith praised as “a friend of the show” and someone he respects. That is one Democrat out of the multiple invitations extended. To be fair, Smith has interviewed other Democrats in recent weeks, including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Representative Madeleine Dean, and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. But the high-profile names, the ones who dominate cable news and social media, are conspicuously absent.
This pattern reveals something significant about the current state of Democratic Party messaging. Republicans are willing to engage with media figures who may challenge them. Democrats, particularly the progressive wing represented by Ocasio-Cortez and the presidential aspirant wing represented by Newsom, appear to be avoiding venues where they might face substantive questioning from someone outside their ideological comfort zone.
Smith addressed this issue while defending himself against backlash he received for criticizing Crockett’s approach to politics. He argued that she focused too heavily on performative politics rather than substantive work for her constituents. That criticism, whether one agrees with it or not, is legitimate political commentary. The fact that it generated such fierce pushback from the left, and that these Democrats continue to avoid his show, suggests a troubling insularity within Democratic circles.
The broader implication is clear. If Democrats cannot handle questions from Stephen A. Smith, a sports commentator turned political podcaster who is not even a conservative, how can they expect to win over skeptical voters in swing states? How can they rebuild trust with working-class Americans who have been drifting away from the party? The answer is they cannot, not if they continue to operate in an echo chamber.
Republicans have recognized that engaging with diverse media platforms, even those that may not be uniformly friendly, is essential to reaching voters. Democrats, or at least the most prominent among them, seem to believe they can avoid scrutiny by simply not showing up. That strategy failed spectacularly in the last election cycle, yet here they are, employing it again.
Smith’s challenge to these Democrats is straightforward: show up and make your case. If your ideas are as strong as you claim, if your policies are as beneficial as you insist, then defend them in a forum where you might actually be questioned. The silence in response speaks volumes about the confidence, or lack thereof, that these politicians have in their own positions.
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