Rob Smith on Smollett and Coming Out as a Republican

BUCK: Our friend Rob Smith is with us now. He is an Iraq war veteran, political analyst, and host of the Rob Smith is Problematic podcast. Rob, my friend, great to have you on.

SMITH: No, great to be here, Buck, and we celebrate a hundred episodes of the Rob Smith is Problematic podcast today. So if you and your viewers — your listeners — like what they hear, have them go ahead and check it out.

BUCK: Rob, I love that you have — ’cause you are somebody who is a guy who speaks in opposition to the left as a member of the LGBTQ community, right? You’re a guy who’s been holding Jussie to account all along here. Why did people believe this?

SMITH: I think that people believed it because they wanted to believe it. You have to understand, I actually don’t subscribe to the LGBTQ stuff. I’m just a gay guy. All the other LGBTQ stuff like that’s radical left nonsense, and the reason why people were so interested in believing this is because they wanted to believe this. What you have to understand is what the left does with a lot of their victim groups — whether it be gays and lesbians, whether it be African-Americans, whether it be Latinos, et cetera — is they feed them this steady diet of victimhood.

And so, yes, when people see something like this that was so, obviously, false — I mean, this story started falling apart within hours of it breaking. But the people just want to believe it so much because they have to play into that victimhood narrative of the left. This is why you saw so many prominent people speak out against this as soon as it happened. As soon as Jussie Smollett came out with this fake hate crime, which anybody that has a sense of critical thinking knew that this stuff, something was not adding up here.

But that did not stop it. I want to read you a couple of things, a couple of statements from the very prominent leftists. This is what they said after the news broke of this. This was in early 2019. Here’s what Kamala Harris said: “This was an attempted modern-day lynching. No one should have to fear for their lives because of their sexuality or the color of their skin.” This from Kamala Harris.

Joy Reid said, “Nooses never really disappeared but every time they’re used, my God, it’s chilling. Praying for Jussie’s full recovery.” This is what Joe Biden said. Joe Biden said, “What happened today to Jussie Smollett must never be tolerated in this country. We are with you, Jussie,” and, Buck, it goes on and on and on.

These people were duped because they wanted to believe it, because they wanted to push a message of victimhood to gays and lesbians in this country and to make them think that they are potential victims of a racist hate crime in this country so that they could run to vote for Democrats who claim that they were gonna keep them safe.

CLAY: Here’s a… Rob, this is Clay. I appreciate you coming on. Rob, does this change anything going forward? By which I mean, will any of those usual suspects that you just cited…? Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Joy Reid, et al. Will they behave differently the next time a hate crime like this is alleged — ’cause you know it will be alleged again at some point down the line — or will they just memory hole this story, pretend it never existed, and make the exact same mistake if something similar occurs in the future?

SMITH: So I think two things will happen. I think that both things will happen. So these prominent figures, I think that the politicians — the Kamala Harrises and the Joe Bidens and the AOCs of the world — will be a little bit more cautious the next time something like this comes up. But you have to understand that they only represent a small part of this whole sort of like leftist media victimhood infrastructure, right?

So you have so many people from Hollywood celebrities to actors and actresses and I hope so and all of this other stuff. They will pick up the slack as soon as the next hate hoax comes. I think the politicians will get a little bit smarter about waiting to make a statement. But that’s not gonna stop the idiot celebrities and singers. Now, there is a clip that’s going viral right now of this actress…

Um, so Elliott Page, formerly known as Ellen Page, the transgender actor in Hollywood, whatever. So Ellen Page was speaking righteously against this hate crime, this alleged hate crime when it happened, when the news of this first broke — and this quote is going viral on Twitter right now because this is what the Hollywood celebrities do.

You know, they get up on their soapboxes. They’re a part of this whole victimhood narrative, infrastructure complex as well. So we’re gonna hear a lot of this stuff from them the next time one of these hoaxes come around. But I think that these politicians are gonna be a little bit smarter moving forward.

CLAY: So I didn’t even know this. Ellen Page, the girl from Juno, is a guy now?

BUCK: Yep.

CLAY: I didn’t even know that. I missed that transition.

SMITH: Yeah, and I’m telling you they’re gonna attack us all for “dead naming” Ellen Page. This is what they say. When Ellen Page transitioned into Elliott Page, and so now we cannot… We all have to pretend that this Ellen Page person never existed. But, yeah, the clip of Ellen Page is going pretty viral on Twitter right now of Ellen Page at the time sort of forcefully condemning this act of racial hatred — racist hatred — which we all know is absolutely false.

CLAY: Juno was a good movie.

BUCK: Speaking of Rob Smith, he’s the host of the Rob Smith is Problematic. Rob, you have often described yourself as “America’s favorite black, gay Republican.” As we see this issue now unfold before us, do you feel like, as we’re talking about this, there will be more people in either and/or both of those communities who feel like maybe, just maybe the left doesn’t have their best interests in mind?

SMITH: Buck, I absolutely think so. I came out, quote, unquote, as a Republican about three and a half years ago. And, you know, my platform has grown so much but it’s not only so much that my platform is growing but I’m also starting to see every single day I see my social media, my Facebook messages. Anybody can follow me Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as RobSmithOnline.

I see it all the time, and I see that even my presence is inspiring a lot of these people to kind of stand up, use their voices and say we are not going to be owned by the left anymore. And the way that I’ve seen it explode in just the past 3-1/2 years that I’ve been speaking out leads me to believe that we’re gonna be seeing a lot more of this in the coming years.

CLAY: Rob, which was tougher, coming out as a Republican or coming out as a gay man for purposes of your responses that you received? Which one was more controversial?

SMITH: The more controversial one was coming out as a Republican. I’ll tell you, look, you come out as gay today in 2021; you’ll get a parade. Everybody wants to be so woke and so inclusive and all that stuff. That’s not an issue. When I came out as a Republican, I lost all my friends. There were people that I had known for over a decade that literally looked in the other direction when I was walking down the street in New York.

It was one of the most completely disruptive factors in my life. I think that in the history of my life, it is one of the most disruptive things. But you know what? As negative as some of that blowback and negative as some of that response has been, I came out on the other side better and stronger because, look: I get to say what I think and what I feel, and whoever I’ve lost, I’ve already lost.

But I will say this, that I hope that we can get to a place as a country where we are just more tolerant of everybody’s beliefs. The left tries to pretend that they’re the tolerant and inclusive ones, and they are actually the most hateful and the most destructive when you do not bow down to what they believe or what they think that you are supposed to believe and think and say just because you’re a member of one of these communities.

CLAY: Rob, outstanding stuff. He’s an Iraq war veteran, political analyst, host of the Rob Smith is Problematic podcast. He’s also the author of Always a Soldier: Service, Sacrifice, and Coming Out as America’s Favorite Black, Gay Republican. He is Rob Smith. Thanks, my man.

BUCK: Rob, thanks buddy.

SMITH: Thanks a lot, guys.