Smith Pushes Back On Critics For Travis Podcast Interview

Stephen A. Smith sent a message to everybody who was upset that he had Clay Travis on his podcast.

Smith hosted the OutKick founder on his Audacy “Know Mercy” podcast earlier this week, and the two opinionists had a wide-ranging conversation that included their thoughts on cancel culture and whether or not Donald Trump would be the likeliest Republican candidate to defeat Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

There was some backlash on social media and sports blogs to the idea that Smith, an ESPN talent, “platformed” Travis, who has been persistently critical of ESPN as a company and personally mocked a number of on-air talents who work there for skewing too “woke.”

We need to have more conversations with those we disagree with.

Whether it is @ClayTravis or someone else, I’m going to talk with whomever the hell I please on @KnowMercyPod pic.twitter.com/151niuBter

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 19, 2023

“I watched the reaction to my conversation with Clay Travis, obviously a successor to Rush Limbaugh on his radio show. You’ve got a lot of people writing stories and alluding to problems because I sat down and had a conversation.”