Keith Olbermann has issued ESPN an ultimatum: silence Stephen A. Smith or fire him.
In a recent interview with Fox Newsâ Sean Hannity, Smith spoke negatively about how the left has tried to use former President Donald Trumpâs ongoing hush money trial in New York to prevent him from running for re-election in November because, according to Smith, they canât beat Trump on the issues.
These comments didnât sit well with Olbermann, who called on ESPN to fire or silence their longtime star.
âWhy is ESPN letting Stephen A. Smith go on Fox News and campaign for Donald Trump,â Olbermann asked in a video posted to his X account.
âThey either have to silence him, or they have to get rid of him,â Olbermann said.
Olbermann also said that the days of sports commentators crossing over into political commentary are over, and that Smith should focus on sports.
Smith told Hannity that he was âutterly disgustedâ by what he was seeing, a clip from the interview posted to the USA Features Media X account showed.
Addressing liberals, Smith said that âyou donât seem to have the issues in your favor, you believe. So, because of that, youâre going to manipulate the system as best as you possibly can to avoid him possibly running for re-election again.â
Smith said that the leftâs strategy regarding Trump âis not workingâ and that he doesnât âmind the fact that itâs not working.â
âI might not be a supporter of Donald Trump, but I want him to lose the right way,â Smith said.
But perhaps the most controversial statement came when Smith said Trump wasnât wrong when he said that black voters are turning to support him.
âAs much as people may have been abhorred by Donald Trumpâs statement weeks ago talking about how black folks, heâs hearing that black folks find him relatable because what heâs going through is similar to what black Americans have gone through, he wasnât lying. He was telling the truth,â Smith said.
It wasnât just Olbermann who was upset by Smithâs comments. The NACCP strongly disagreed with Smithâs assessment that Trump was relatable to black Americans.
The backlash apparently got to Smith, as he issued an apology video on his YouTube page on Tuesday in which he said he âsincerely apologizedâ for his comments.
âTo be clear, my words were misconstrued. Iâm stating right here for the record that my words were taken out of context,â Smith said.
Smith said that his comments were in reference to articles from the outlets such as the New York Times, NBC News and The Hill that have shown black voters shifting toward Trump.
âIâm seeing a momentum shift, as we all have,â Smith said.
Smith also responded to the NAACP directly on X.
Unfortunately, cancel culture wins again.
Olbermann and the NAACP became enraged because Smith was merely relaying facts about how Trump is gaining popularity among black voters.
Itâs asinine that leftists can become so upset when you present them with a fact that doesnât match their narrative, they immediately call for you to be silenced or fired from your job.
So much for Free Speech.
In actuality, the left believes in Free Speech, they just have to agree with whatâs being said. As Bobby Burack from OutKick pointed out, Olbermann had no problem when Smith criticized Trump in an interview on NewNation last month.
Smith is no fan of Trump; he said as much in his interview with Hannity. He simply said that he can understand why many black voters are likely to vote for Trump in November.
And instead of taking Smithâs advice and trying to beat Trump based on superior policy, leftists have resorted to trying to literally throw him away in jail.
These are the same people that cry that Trump is going to ruin democracy.
The idiocy here cannot be overstated. The left is mad at a journalist for reporting facts.
It just goes to show the true mentality of the left: They donât care about you; they just want you to go along with their plan.
Itâll be interesting to see if this mentality will help them out at ballot boxes in November.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.