‘You are disappointing us’: Bakari Sellers fires back at Stephen A. Smith for comments on his podcast

Attorney and politician Bakari Sellers has more words for Stephen A. Smith, after Smith dedicated a part of his “Straight Shooter” podcast this week to fire back at Sellers, who called him a “charlatan.” Sellers not only doubled down on the charlatan comment, he also said he was “disappointed” in Smith for having more issues with people like Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett than right-wing politicians and pundits.

“While you’re appreciating the gaze of those individuals in the White House, the gaze of people like Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, you’re quiet as a church mouse pissing on cotton when Donald Trump is out here trying to take away our voting rights, when he’s putting police and National Guard in our American cities, taking Black and brown people out of their homes,” Sellers said in a Threads and Instagram post yesterday.

This back-and-forth between the two media figures started when Sellers officially joined as a host of the “Native Land” podcast with Angela Rye, Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillum this week. The group was discussing Smith’s criticism of Crockett. Sellers said he has never seen a clip of Smith “where he actually praises a Black woman.”

He went on to call Smith a “charlatan,” comparing him to Ice Cube and conservative pundit Jason Whitlock.

“These individuals have been around since we have been on this freedom struggle,” Sellers said. “There have always been individuals out there which exhibit behaviors of charlatans. Some people are in it for the change and some people are in it for the change.”

Smith, never one to back down from an argument, retorted on his podcast this Thursday. “I am not fond of Bakari Sellers,” he said. “I think that he is an individual that is so judgmental of other people that he is allergic to mirrors.”

Smith then posited that Sellers is jealous of his platform.

“Think about the level of resentment you really have that the American people are more willing to listen to somebody like me or the others that you mentioned rather than you, who’s been doing this for years,” Smith said. “Nobody cares what you have to say, I’m giving you pub right now talking about you.”

This prompted Sellers to post on Friday. He rebutted that he is not mad at Smith’s platform; he is “disappointed” in how Smith uses it.

‘You use your platform to tear down the people who are actually in communities doing the work. What you hear in my voice is not resentment. It’s disappointment,” he said. “I know you stand on the shoulders of strong Black men, and you are disappointing us every time you continue to chop down those people who are doing that real work.”

He accused Smith of catering to right-wing leaders for their approval instead of Black civil rights activists and politicians.

“I think we’re different because you rather those individuals and the Donald and Eric Trumps and the Bill O’Reillys to say, job well done. And I’m looking for people like Marion Barry and Julian Bond, Judy Richardson, my dad, Cleveland Sellers,” Sellers said. “I’m looking for the people who actually did the work and whose shoulders we stand upon to be able to look at me when I’m done with my journey and say, You put your heart in it. You put your shoulder to the wheel to help our people get out the ditch.”