Stephen A. Smith has challenged President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to a debate over DEI policies after an article about color-barrier-breaking MLB legend Jackie Robinson was removed from a Defense Department website.
On Thursday’s edition of his ESPN show First Take, Smith took Hegseth to task after the Department of Defense (DOD) removed an article about Robinson’s military service from its website. The article on Robinson was not targeted by DOD; instead, it was one of several scrubbed as part of the effort to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content from government websites.
Once criticism of the move reached DOD officials, the article was restored.
This did not placate Smith, who, after spending considerable time blasting the administration, challenged Trump, Vance, and Hegseth to defend the government’s actions.
“Similar to civil rights legislation in 1964, similar to things like affirmative action, similar to things like the Rooney Rule in the National Football League, etcetera, how dare you try to get away with highlighting why it needed to exist in the first place?” Smith said. “It was because of the iniquities of folks in the United States of America — primarily the White power structure that exists. It is a fact. It is known throughout history that it is a fact. They want to gloss over and erase the need for those things to take place to begin with.”
Here is my full statement from @FirstTake today on Jackie Robinson pic.twitter.com/v60fK5UAZi
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) March 20, 2025
Smith closed his screed with a challenge.
“President Trump, I’m happy to sit down with you to have that conversation, sir,” Smith continued. “I’d love for you to try to defend it. Vice President Vance, you too. Pete Hegseth, you too. Stephen A. Smith is calling you out on national television. I’d love for you to sit down with the cameras rolling and try to defend this. It’s ridiculous.”
