Ebro Darden has shared a specific criticism about Stephen A. Smith and Charlamagne Tha God's respective positions in media.
On Thursday’s (November 6) installation of Ebro in the Morning, Ebro called Smith and Charlamagne grifters in response to Peter Rosenberg saying (around the 3:55 minute mark in the video below): "I'm tired of people claiming to have progressive ideals and somehow consistently, quote unquote, stumbling into things that support right-wing agendas. How does it happen over and over and over again?"
"That's what's called a grift. You are only going in the direction of things that are going to be trending or popular or where you think that you can make money," Ebro responded.
"If you look at Stephen A. Smith and Charlamagne, they are leaning into being the Black media people who are embraced by the conservative side because there's opportunity there for them — financial opportunity there for them," Ebro added.
"I don't think it's their actual political beliefs. I think it's just a grift like anyone else who's a political influencer or any influencer, for that matter. It's just to get to the bag."
The conversation stemmed from recent comments Charlamagne made about the government shutdown. Earlier this week, the radio host said that Democrats should "give it up" since they are the ones prolonging the shutdown.
"Democrats, you fought. It seems like you lost the fight. At this point, you know, go on and give it up," Charlamagne said on Monday’s (November 3) episode of The Breakfast Club (around the 8:30 minute mark in the video below).
"At least give the people some relief by getting the government back open. Let these people get these SNAP benefits. Let these government workers get their checks. We don't need all this craziness at the TSA during the holidays," he added. "I feel like they lost, it’s over."
According to ABC 7, the Democrats are indeed holding up the reopening of the government. They are demanding that an extension of expiring health care subsidies be included in the spending bill. Since that hasn't yet happened, Democrats have voted 14 times to keep the government closed since October 1.
It’s also worth noting that Ebro and Charlamagne are from rival New York City radio stations, with the former at Hot 97 and the latter, Power 105.1.