'Stay in your lane': Internet slams Stephen Smith for criticizing hush money criminal trial against Donald Trump

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: Stephen A Smith voiced his criticism of the hush money trial involving former President Trump, expressing his desire to see Trump "lose the right way."

As a predominantly Democratic voter, the sports commentator expressed his profound dissatisfaction with Trump's criminal trial, which began on April 15 with the jury selection process.

Smith critiques Trump's strategy and expresses a desire for fair competition

Stephen Smith characterized the trial as an effort by Democrats to politicize the judiciary, attributing it to their failure to impede the former president's increasing support in the polls.

“That appears to be their strategy, but I’m going to tell you, it’s not working. It’s not working at all,” Smith told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on April 18.

He added, “And to be quite honest, I don’t mind the fact that it’s not working because I might not be a supporter of Donald Trump, but I want him to lose the right way.”

“I want him to lose because you have better ideas and you make your case to the American people better than he does. That’s why I want him to lose,” he continued, citing President Biden.

“I don’t want him to lose the way they’re trying to make him lose.”

This week marked a historic event as Donald Trump became the first US president to face trial in a Manhattan criminal court.

The charges against him include the unlawful manipulation of business records by reimbursing his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

These payments were allegedly intended to conceal an alleged affair just before the 2016 presidential election.

In addition to this case, Trump is facing a total of 88 criminal charges spread across four separate indictments.

It remains uncertain if any of these cases will conclude with a jury verdict before the November election when Trump is anticipated to become the Republican Party's nominee.

Smith argued that Democrats, who pushed for Trump's trial to begin before the election and succeeded in starting it on April 15 despite Trump's attempts to delay it, are exposing their concerns about Biden's capacity to defeat Trump in the polls.

Social Media criticizes Stephen Smith's comments on the Trump trial

Smith's remarks elicited rapid and harsh criticisms on social media platforms, with one user suggesting, "As primarily a sport commentator maybe he's out of his league." [sic]

Another person said, "Weird he doesn't want him to be held accountable for his crimes. How many women has Stephen Smith paid off?"

One more person said, "Weird that he says he primarily votes Democrat but talks to Sean Hannity of FOXNews of all people."

"The 'right way' would be treating him and anyone else at the same standard as any normal citizen and put him in jail if he's guilty of committing crimes," one comment read. 

"That's literally not how trials work in a democracy. In an authoritarian regime, absolutely kangaroo courts with predetermined decisions work that way," another comment read. 

"Stay in your lane, Smith," one more comment read. 

"Nobody cares what a sports mouthpiece has to say," said one viewer. 

This article contains remarks made on the internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.