Stephen A. Smith spilled the tea during her dinner with President Donald Trump – speaking to CNN Laura Coates what he found most shocking in the meal he shared with the commander-in-chief, Rock Child and actor Bill Maher.
Speaking Friday evening on Laura Coates liveSmith said he advocated for HBCUs, or historically black colleges and universities, and pushed the president to get them more funding.
He detailed Trump’s responses, including the president’s defense of the economy — and said Trump appears to realize his party could at least lose control of the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections.
“He hears all the noise about how the Democrats are going to win back the House, and how they’re probably going to, the Republicans are probably going to keep the Senate,” he said.
“I get the sense that he somewhat believes that this is going to become a reality, but he’s working hard to debunk it, or rather to push back against it and make it something that he can do for the GOP.”
Trump then told Smith about poll numbers showing “99 percent of Republicans actually approve of him,” Smith said.
“So people who are conservative, who are Republican, they love me, I love them. They’ll vote the way I want them to vote.’ That’s how he feels. That’s the level of confidence he has,” Smith said.
Coates then discussed what Smith found most surprising about the evening.
“Well, talk to me. I mean, I understand you didn’t anticipate it would last more than 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes. It was about four in the evening. And you had four hours and 20 minutes,” she said.
“I have to tell you, it surprised me because he’s the President of the United States. And as much as I love talking with you and Bill Maher, I don’t know Kid Rock at all, but the idea of the President of the United States having four hours to do this whole conversation, did it surprise you that he was so generous with his time, given everything that was going on?” asked Coates.
Smith was quick to respond:
Lit, shocking. It was shocking. I certainly didn’t expect this much time. I knew we were expecting dinner. I knew we were going to have a chance to talk. I give him all the credit in the world because he didn’t shy away from any questions.
Whatever we asked him, he kept coming back with what he had to say. His conviction in what he had to say.
But he also showed us around the White House, took us to the West Wing, took us to the Rose Garden, took us to the colonnade where you got pictures of every president, but Joe Biden.
And instead of That of Joe Biden the photo being there, it was a photo of the automatic opening. You know, I said, come on, man, that’s cruel. He said, actually, it’s very funny.
And he laughed about it and moved on, he said, but he was a very bad president. He did harm to this country and I have no regrets about that. That was his position.
He was unwavering in this regard.
He definitely took us to see, you know, the ballroom that they’re trying to build right now.
Of course, the helipad outside of where the UFC event was taking place. And he’s very proud of what’s happening now because he believes the White House desperately needed improvement. It’s the White House. It is the center of power in this country. And he finds it absolutely shameful that it hasn’t been renovated for over 100 years.
He thought it was a complete shame. And he says, ‘I’m here to fix it.’ Like I have to make everything right because I’m the greatest president in the history of the United States of America. You know that, don’t you? Do you know that? That’s what he said.
“And it was with a straight face?” asked Coates.
“He just kept going. No matter what we threw at him, that’s what he said,” Smith said.
Watch above via CNN.
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