‘He Called You Stupid!’ Jemele Hill Hammers Stephen A. Smith Over Dinner with Trump

Jemele Hill torched Stephen A. Smith on Tuesday for his decision to have dinner at the White House with President Donald Trump.

Smith was joined by Bill Maher and Kid Rock for a dinner hosted by the president last week. In response to the criticism he received for dining with Trump, Smith claimed his objective during their meeting was to discuss issues involving HBCUs.

On Tuesday’s episode of SPOLITICS Live, Hill argued that meeting with the president was a “dummy mission,” saying:

Now, I am of the opinion that sitting down with people who are politically opposite of you is totally fine if there is some common ground to be reached. A beautiful thing. But both parties have to come into it with a certain intention, with a certain level of honesty to be able to say, “I’m going into this meeting or into this conversation with the thought that I kind of want my mind changed.” You have to adopt that mentality.

There is nothing about Donald Trump that suggests that he is in that frame of mind. He’s stubborn, he’s bullish, and most importantly, he rarely shows displays of compassion. He’s not a compassionate person, so trying to appeal to his sensibility and appeal to his compassion to me is a dummy mission, not that the person doing it is a dummy. But it is a dummy mission, meaning, what’s the point?

She later pointed to the fact that Trump and Smith feuded months earlier, with the president hurling a number of personal insults at him.

“And oh, by the way, ain’t this the same dude that basically called you stupid?” Hill said. “He called you stupid! He told America you were stupid and low IQ. Gotta say, when I think about dinner companionship, last person I want to have dinner with is someone who called me stupid to the world — not just in a private conversation where we arguing, told the whole world I’m stupid. They’re not going to be on my priority list. But hey, if you like it, I love it.”

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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