{"id":2517717,"date":"2025-12-04T20:08:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T01:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-didnt-stutter-stephen-a-smith-and-sunny-hostin-clash-on-the-view-over-video-urging-troops-to-ignore-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T20:09:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T01:09:25","slug":"i-didnt-stutter-stephen-a-smith-and-sunny-hostin-clash-on-the-view-over-video-urging-troops-to-ignore-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-didnt-stutter-stephen-a-smith-and-sunny-hostin-clash-on-the-view-over-video-urging-troops-to-ignore-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I Didn&#8217;t Stutter&#8217;: Stephen A. Smith and Sunny Hostin Clash on &#8216;The View&#8217; Over Video Urging Troops to Ignore Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">40<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fi-didnt-stutter-stephen-a-smith-and-sunny-hostin-clash-on-the-view-over-video-urging-troops-to-ignore-trump%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2517717&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith appeared on the talk show &#8220;The View&#8221; to strongly criticize Senator Mark Kelly for participating in a video by the so-called &#8220;Seditious six,&#8221; which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gallego-rips-pentagon-over-mark-kelly-investigation-f-you\/\" title=\"Gallego rips Pentagon over ... investigation: &#039;F*** you&#039;\">encouraged military personnel<\/a> to refuse illegal orders. Smith condemned Kelly&#8217;s public message as reckless and disrespectful to the commander in chief. sunny Hostin, also on the show, defended Kelly by citing comments from former Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the military&#8217;s duty not to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-hints-at-expanded-role-for-the-military-within-the-us-and-legacy-law-gives-him-few-guardrails\/\" title=\"Trump suggests increased military involvement in the US, while existing laws limit his control\">follow unlawful orders<\/a> and challenged Smith to reconsider his position. Smith refused to change his view, arguing that Kelly, despite his military and astronaut background, was out of line to make such statements publicly. The exchange highlighted a contentious debate over the balance between lawful military obedience and the responsibility to <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >resist unlawful commands<\/a>, with Smith emphasizing the risky implications of Kelly&#8217;s message.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith stormed onto &ldquo;The View&rdquo; this week, not for entertainment, but to confront a dangerous lapse in judgment. The well-deserved target: Sunny Hostin.<\/p>\n<p>The spark was a video from the &ldquo;Seditious Six,&rdquo; spearheaded last month by Sen. Elissa Slotkin and also including Sen. Mark Kelly and four member of the House of Representatives, urging troops to ignore &ldquo;illegal orders.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Smith didn&rsquo;t mince words when specifically targeting Kelly: Such public messaging to active-duty military is reckless.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Respectfully, senator, what the hell are you doing?&rdquo; Smith said in an earlier clip replayed on the show, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/stephen-smith-gets-slugfest-the-view-over-sen-kellys-video-urging-troops-ignore-illegal-orders\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fox News<\/a>. &ldquo;Looking into the camera and telling military men and women to ignore the commander in chief? How dare you? How dare you do that?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Hostin apparently took umbrage with those remarks, and made sure to tell Smith about it when he appeared on the ABC talk show.<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"stnvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\tdocument.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() { \t\t\t\t\tfunction loadScript(src) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst script=document.createElement(\"script\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.src=src; \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.async=true; \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.body.appendChild(script); \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\tfunction findPreviousParagraph(selector, x) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst targetElement=document.querySelector(selector); \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!targetElement) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Target element not found.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Get all <\/p>\n<p> elements in order as they appear in the document \t\t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphs=Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(\"p\"));  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the index of the last <\/p>\n<p> before the target element \t\t\t\t\t\tlet targetIndex=paragraphs.findIndex(p=> p.compareDocumentPosition(targetElement) & Node.DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING);  \t\t\t\t\t\tif (targetIndex===-1 || targetIndex <x) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Not enough paragraphs before the target element.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\treturn paragraphs[targetIndex - x]; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Set up IntersectionObserver \t\t\t\t\tfunction observeElement(element) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!element) return;  \t\t\t\t\t\tconst observer=new IntersectionObserver( \t\t\t\t\t\t\t(entries)=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tentries.forEach(entry=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tif (entry.isIntersecting) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(\"Paragraph is now visible:\", entry.target.textContent.trim()); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tloadScript(\"https:\/\/embed.sendtonews.com\/player3\/embedcode.js?fk=s28Az7AY\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.disconnect(); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t}, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t{ threshold: 0.5 } \/\/ Adjust threshold as needed \t\t\t\t\t\t);  \t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.observe(element); \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the 1st paragraph before #stnvideo and observe it \t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphToObserve=findPreviousParagraph(\"#stnvideo\", 2); \t\t\t\t\tobserveElement(paragraphToObserve); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>You can watch the whole exchange below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>WARNING: The following clip contains language that some viewers may find offensive.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fQlW_rjhB08?si=_Kydhjf8-EPi_Nfj\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You know I like you, right?&rdquo; Hostin began, rather disingenuously. &ldquo;OK, so you recently accused Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran, an astronaut, of crossing the line for participating in a video reminding troops that they can refuse to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-blasts-seditious-democratic-veterans-punishable-by-death\/\" title=\"Trump blasts &#039;seditious&#039; Democratic veterans: &#039;Punishable by death&#039;\">follow illegal orders<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The show then cut to other scathing comments Smith made about Kelly&rsquo;s participation in that video. Hostin picked up again after the clip ended.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Let me just remind you that [Secretary of Defense] Pete Hegseth said in 2016, &lsquo;I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes. If you&rsquo;re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That&rsquo;s why the military said it won&rsquo;t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief,&#8217;&rdquo; Hostin recited. &ldquo;Now, given the fact that the secretary himself said that, I&rsquo;d love to give you the opportunity to perhaps change your position on what you said.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>(Spoiler alert: He won&rsquo;t.)<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not changing a thing,&rdquo; an unusually muted Smith replied. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t stutter.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You want to stay loud and wrong?&rdquo; shot back Hostin.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Well, you could call it &lsquo;loud and wrong&rsquo; all you want to,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re entitled to your opinion, I&rsquo;m entitled to mine. Here&rsquo;s the reality of the situation: First of all, I don&rsquo;t give a damn what Pete Hegseth has to say.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Smith then took a shot at Hegseth, saying he&rsquo;s unqualified for the war secretary role.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As it pertains to Mark Kelly, what I was talking about was military,&rdquo; Smith said. He went on to ramble a bit, but the point had largely been made: Kelly was out of line with his remarks for a litany of reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Look, gratuitous shot at Hegseth notwithstanding, Smith is largely correct about this.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly isn&rsquo;t just a politician: He&rsquo;s a retired Navy pilot and former astronaut. When someone with that resume speaks to troops, words carry weight.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, Hostin waved off the practical implications, framing the video as a harmless lesson in civic duty.<\/p>\n<p>Urging troops to second-guess the commander in chief in public isn&rsquo;t civic virtue &mdash; it&rsquo;s political theater with dangerous potential.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith appeared on &#8220;The View&#8221; this week not for entertainment, but to address a serious error in judgment, focusing his criticism on Sunny Hostin. The controversy arose from a video released last month by the &#8220;Seditious Six,&#8221; led by Senator Elissa Slotkin and including Senator Mark Kelly along with four House members, which encouraged military personnel to disobey &#8220;illegal orders.&#8221; Smith was particularly harsh toward Kelly, calling such public statements to active-duty troops reckless. He questioned Kelly directly: &#8220;Respectfully, senator, what are you doing? Looking into the camera and telling service members to ignore the commander in chief? How dare you?&#8221; Hostin took offense at Smith&#8217;s remarks and confronted him during his appearance on the ABC talk show.<\/p>\n<p>You can watch their full exchange below (viewer discretion advised due to strong language):<\/p>\n<p>Hostin began somewhat insincerely by saying she liked Smith before reminding him that he had accused Senator Mark Kelly-a veteran and astronaut-of crossing a line by participating in a video advising troops they could refuse illegal orders. After showing clips of Smith&#8217;s harsh comments about Kelly&#8217;s involvement, Hostin cited former Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth from 2016: that there must be consequences for war crimes and unlawful acts, which is why the military refuses unlawful commands from their commander in chief. She then invited Smith to reconsider his stance-though he declined.<\/p>\n<p>Smith responded calmly but firmly: &#8220;I&#8217;m not changing anything; I didn&#8217;t stutter.&#8221; When Hostin challenged him further with &#8220;You want to stay loud and wrong?&#8221; he replied that she was entitled to her opinion as he was to his-and dismissed Hegseth&#8217;s views entirely while questioning his qualifications as defense secretary.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding Kelly specifically, Smith emphasized that as a retired Navy pilot and former astronaut speaking directly to troops, Kelly&#8217;s words carry significant weight-and thus were inappropriate given the circumstances. Despite this reality-which includes an unwarranted jab at Hegseth-Smith largely stood by his position.<\/p>\n<p>Hostin downplayed these concerns by portraying the video as simply teaching civic responsibility; however, encouraging soldiers publicly to question or defy their commander in chief is not civic virtue but political posturing with potentially dangerous consequences<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2517718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Smith-and-Hostin.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[32150,34267,32639],"class_list":["post-2517717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-stephen-a-smith","tag-sunny-hostin","tag-the-view"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Smith-and-Hostin.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2517717"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2517721,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517717\/revisions\/2517721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2517718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2517717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2517717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2517717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}