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ESPN Star Blasts Michelle Obama After ‘Real Housewives’ Dig

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Stephen A. Smith
Photo Credit: Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Stephen A. Smith clapped back at former First Lady Michelle Obama after she compared both his show and ESPN to a reality TV circus.

Smith fired back during his YouTube show, calling out what he deemed an “offensive” and unfair portrayal of him and his home network.

He also used his platform to blast her past rhetoric surrounding President Donald Trump and Republican voters.

During a recent episode of her “IMO” podcast, Obama likened ESPN’s programming to Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” suggesting that sports talk has devolved into little more than dramatic bickering.

“If I listen to ESPN for an hour, it’s like watching ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta,’ you know?” she began.

“I mean, you know, it’s the same drama, and they’re yelling at each other, and they don’t get along, you know?” Obama stated.

One of her guests even joked, “He’d be a great real housewife,” referencing Smith.

Obama laughed and said, “He would be, right? So that’s why I’m like, ‘What’s the difference?’ It’s just sociological drama.”

The former first lady argued that the inability of certain personalities to get along despite years of working together was not limited to women or reality television.

“The fact that people over seasons of working together still can’t get along, right?” she asked.

“They still have the same arguments, and it’s just not women, but this happens in sports too. I find it fascinating.”

Smith didn’t take kindly to the comparison or to being reduced to a punchline.

During his YouTube response, he urged Obama to consider hosting guests with differing viewpoints and made it clear he hadn’t forgotten her previous remarks targeting Trump supporters.

“Michelle Obama, I wanna take this opportunity to remind you that while you are revered by me personally, and I truly, truly mean that with the greatest sincerity, I’m still a bit salty at you,” he said.

He pointed to her campaigning efforts for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, particularly when she suggested that voting for Trump was essentially a vote against women.

“You said a vote for Trump was a vote against you and a vote against y’all as women,” Smith recalled.

“I want to stay for the record, I took major offense to that. Black men don’t just love our black women, we revere y’all.”

He said her language was the only thing she had ever said that truly bothered him.

“It’s who we are,” Smith continued. “And to say what you said back then, I think to this day, is the only thing that I didn’t like that you said, I didn’t appreciate it.”

At a Michigan rally last October, Obama vented frustration over what she claimed was a lack of enthusiasm among voters for Harris.

She attempted to frame reproductive health policies proposed by Trump-aligned politicians as a male issue as well, arguing that men should care about what women go through.

“I am asking y’all from the core of my being to take our lives seriously — please,” she pleaded with the crowd.

“Do not put our lives in the hands of politicians — mostly men — who have no clue or do not care about what we, as women, are going through.”

Smith countered that voters base their decisions on a wide range of priorities, not just reproductive rights.

“Because there’s so many things that go into deciding where your vote is going to go. For some people, it’s all about the economy. For others, it’s all about national security,” he listed.

“For some people, it is immigration. For some people, it’s safety in the streets of America. Long before they think about pro-choice or pro-life.”

Despite his frustrations, Smith did acknowledge Michelle Obama’s popularity and potential political viability.

He praised her as a “sensational” figure and suggested that both she and Barack Obama could defeat Trump if either of them decided to run.

Turning back to her jab at ESPN, Smith gave a rebuttal laced with sarcasm but also a defense of the network’s substance.

“So this doesn’t have anything to do with what you were talking about, how sports and reality TV mirror one another, even though we would beg to differ,” he said.

“Because a lot of things on reality TV are made-up situations and scenarios to provoke reactions and all of that stuff.”

“We’re at sports, that’s live entertainment, and you’re actually competing against one another is big time,” he went on.

“No, reality TV is not like that. You’re so wrong about that, about that assertion, but that’s neither here nor there.”

Even with all the disagreements, Smith maintained a tone of respect towards the former first lady.

“You will never hear me utter a negative word about you, but I respectfully disagreed and still remain pretty salty about what you said about us,” he remarked.

He further added that Obama had “sort of blackmailed us emotionally into trying to compel us to vote one way or another.”

Smith, who has become arguably the face of ESPN, has also generated political buzz.

Earlier this year, a national poll found that he would outperform several prominent Democratic contenders in a hypothetical 2028 race.

President Donald Trump himself weighed in with surprising praise for the outspoken commentator, saying Smith might be one of the more competent options if Democrats looked his way.

“He’s a smart guy. I love watching him. He’s got great entertainment skills, which is very important. People watch him,” Trump said.

“I’ve been pretty good at picking people and picking candidates, and I will tell you, I’d love to see him run.”

Watch Trump’s remarks here:

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