Stephen A. Smith expected a candid reunion with former ESPN colleagues Jemele Hill and Cari Champion. Instead, his interview on the Flagrant and Funny podcast sparked a troubling backlash against the women. As threats surfaced, Smith made his position clear. He now wants the controversy to end.

The three talked about ESPN dynamics, political commentary, and professional disagreements. Meanwhile, the YouTube stream had to have the comments turned off because of how abusive and threatening the audience got in the comment section. Smith took up the matter on The Stephen A. Show.

“Can we leave it alone?” the 58-year-old said without an ounce of amusement in his voice, or on his face. He read out the response from his team and said,

“Ladies and gentlemen, I would never have read what I just read to you if all that we were talking about were threats to Cari and Jemele because my concern for them is real. I don’t want anybody bothering them in that regard. You can disagree with them. What the hell is up with the threats, people? These are our sisters. Chill the hell out. Don’t be threatening them.”

Stephen A. Smith strongly condemned the threats against Cari Champion and Jemele Hill. He said disagreements are acceptable, but harassment and abusive behavior are not. He stressed that the matter should remain a respectful adult discussion.

“If you were so concerned about the threats and the abusive language in the comment section over part two, why couldn’t you just leave the interview well enough alone and move on?” Smith went on. “Why you keep talking about it? What if you talking about it, reversed it, and then it turned to me getting threats?”

He further expressed concern about the possibility of facing similar threats himself. Therefore, he questioned whether those involved would be comfortable seeing him subjected to the same abusive and incendiary language.

“Do you want that for me? Why can’t you leave well enough alone? I did the interview earlier this week, five, six days ago,” he added. “I haven’t said a word until now. And that was because of y’all post show, your interpretation of the show without editing the full show for everybody to see.”

Now, why did this happen?

Stephen A. Smith gets an explanation for the edited interview

Stephen A. Smith said his team initially requested the complete footage for personal use. The production team reportedly explained that full videos usually require approval from everyone involved. After Smith’s representatives asked about the missing section, they received an explanation for what had happened.

The response explained that the interview covered two separate themes. One section centered on ESPN and business, while the other addressed politics. During the video editing process, a producer accidentally removed part of the first section.

Smith accepted that explanation and acknowledged that mistakes can happen. He also learned that the audio release contained the complete discussion, suggesting the omission happened during the video export.

They also explained why they disabled comments on the second part. They said Cari Champion and Jemele Hill were facing a flood of abusive and threatening messages. Many allegedly violated YouTube’s rules, but the volume reportedly made automated moderation ineffective.

As a result, the team disabled comments to protect everyone involved. Smith understood their reasoning and accepted that they acted in good faith. Still, he questioned whether they handled the situation in the right way.

For Stephen A. Smith, his conversation with Cari Champion and Jemele Hill was meant to be candid. And to a great extent, they were successful in doing so. However, little did they know that an interview would unleash such an ugly side of the audience.