Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith revealed that former President Barack Obama phoned him before the 2024 election to discuss his influence, but, like other top Democrats, refused to appear on his show.
Smith dropped the disclosure on "The Culture Table" podcast, hosted by Tori Cooper, Sumatra Abernathy, and Ashley Christopher, marking the first time he had publicly acknowledged the call. The revelation came as Smith continued to push back against what he described as a coordinated effort by Democratic leaders to engage him behind closed doors while declining to face him on camera.
The phone call, Smith said, came after he publicly argued that President Joe Biden was finished and that Democrats needed a new standard-bearer. Obama reached out to talk about Smith's "impact," but he never agreed to sit for an interview on Smith's podcast. Neither did former First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or Rep. Jasmine Crockett, all figures Smith said he invited onto his show.
Smith was blunt about the pattern he sees. As he told the podcast hosts:
"What I never told y'all, and I never brought up, is that Barack Obama called me too. The content of that conversation will remain private because I will not violate trust."
He added that Obama "called before the election to discuss my impact, but he didn't come on the podcast either." Smith said he would not reveal the substance of the conversation, but his frustration with the broader dynamic was unmistakable.
"So it's like I'm taking these hits, and these are people that want to facilitate or assist in the facilitation of these narratives being disseminated and projected about me. But the same people calling me privately, having discussions upon which I have never violated. This is the first time anyone has ever heard me publicly state that Barack Obama called me."
Smith also disclosed that Harris had reached out, asked to meet, and sat with him for two hours, but still did not come on his show before the election. Obama's office and Harris's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
Smith framed the private outreach as evidence that leading Democrats recognize his reach but are unwilling to face unscripted questions in front of his audience.
"I think the Democrats fear my footsteps. I think they know that they have a legitimate fear that I can influence the election potentially."
He drew a sharp contrast: Democratic leaders will talk to him off the record, but "they take paths of smaller resistance" when it comes to public appearances. That assessment lines up with a broader complaint from media figures who sit outside the left's preferred outlets.
Fox News contributor and media analyst Joe Concha pointed to the same dynamic. He noted that Bill Maher has voiced an identical grievance, that high-profile Democrats avoid his program, and argued that the pattern extends to potential 2028 presidential contenders like Ocasio-Cortez and Harris herself.
Concha told Fox News Digital that Harris "avoided holding a traditional press conference during her vice presidency and her presidential campaigns because she prefers to control the narrative." He described the approach as "the essence of being risk-averse" and called it "a losing proposition."
The contrast with Republicans, Concha argued, was clear. President Trump sat with Joe Rogan for a three-hour interview during the 2024 campaign and appeared on Theo Von's show to reach younger male voters and irregular voters. Harris, Concha said, "wanted nothing to do with either." He added that potential 2028 Republican nominees like JD Vance and Marco Rubio "have proven they will take questions from anyone at any time", and that "ultimately, that kind of exposure can make the difference in a close race."
Smith's frustration with Democratic leaders dovetailed with a separate fight: the National Association of Black Journalists gave him a "thumbs-down" award at a gala in Atlanta. Smith called it "a personal hit job" and accused the organization of abandoning its own journalistic standards in singling him out.
"This is a journalism organization that didn't engage in journalism when it came to critiquing me. Disparaging Black women is a very incendiary thing to say. If you felt that adamant about it, President Haines, how come I never got a call?"
Smith said he reached out to NABJ President Errin Haines to discuss their differences, but the conversation "ultimately went nowhere." He speculated that the award was connected to his criticism of high-profile Black female political figures like Crockett.
NABJ pushed back, telling Fox News Digital that Smith was one of five recipients named that year and that the organization's concerns "extend well beyond any one individual." The group cited threats to editorial independence, the loss of newsroom diversity, and "responsible use of influential media platforms" among its broader worries.
But Smith was unconvinced. He made clear he saw the award as retaliation for his willingness to break with Democratic orthodoxy, particularly his early, public call for Biden to step aside.
Smith's willingness to provoke is not new. In 2014, ESPN suspended him after he made on-air comments about domestic violence that critics said amounted to advising women not to "provoke wrong action." He later returned to the air and, within weeks, publicly clashed with the president of the National Organization for Women over her call for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's resignation in the wake of the Ray Rice abuse scandal. Smith called the NOW president "off her rocker" for holding Goodell personally responsible.
He later partially apologized, admitting he lacked "sensitivity" but standing by the substance of his argument. The episode illustrated a pattern: Smith says what he thinks, takes the incoming fire, and does not retreat on the underlying point.
That pattern now extends well beyond sports. Smith's criticism of Biden, his public frustration with Harris and Obama, and his open defiance of the NABJ have placed him squarely in the crosshairs of institutions that expect loyalty from prominent Black media figures. His response has been to name names and demand accountability, on camera, not behind closed doors.
The picture Smith paints, and that Concha corroborates, is of a Democratic establishment that treats friendly media as a safe room and independent platforms as enemy territory. Obama called Smith but would not sit for an interview. Harris met with him privately but would not face his audience. Ocasio-Cortez, by Concha's account, "rarely leaves her political comfort zone." The party's leading voices want influence without exposure.
Republicans in 2024 took the opposite approach. Trump logged hours on podcasts with massive, unpredictable audiences. Vance and Rubio, Concha noted, have shown the same willingness. The results spoke for themselves on Election Day.
None of this means Smith is a conservative. He has not said so, and his complaints are rooted in media access, not ideology. But his disclosure about Obama's private call, and his broader charge that Democrats court him in secret while punishing him in public, lands a point the party has not answered.
When the people you're trying to influence won't let you ask questions on the record, the question answers itself.
