Sports commentator and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith said he is seriously considering a 2028 presidential run as a Democratic candidate. Smith made the comments during an interview with Robert Costa. “I will confess to you, I’m giving strong consideration to being on that debate stage for 2027,” Smith told Costa. “I’ve got this year coming up 2026, to think about it, to study, to know the issues,” he added. The interview will air Sunday on “CBS Sunday Morning.” Stephen A. Smith to @CBSSunday airing Feb. 15: "I will confess to you, I'm giving strong consideration to being on that debate stage for 2027" and running for the Democratic nomination. "I've got this year coming up 2026, to think about it, to study, to know the issues." — Robert Costa (@costareports) February 13, 2026 More from the New York Post: Never one to shy away from confrontation, Smith is renowned for his hot takes and unwillingness to back down from his opinions. However, Smith isn’t the only one who thinks running for the nation’s highest office is a good thing. Last May, President Donald Trump publicly expressed his support for Smith in a 2028 presidential run. “I love watching him. He’s got great entertainment skills, which is very important,” Trump, who called in during the NewsNation town hall, said of Smith. “People watch him. You know, a lot of these Democrats I watch, I say they have no chance. I’ve been pretty good at picking people and picking candidates. And I will tell you, I’d love to see him run.” Smith recently provided a glimpse into his potential platform, saying he would never go against Trump for closing the border. “My position has been very clear from day one. Biden opened it. That’s why it had to be closed,” Smith said. “Had he followed Obama’s plan, who deported 3.1 million people, none of this would be necessary,” he added. Check it out: STEPHEN A. SMITH: “I will NEVER go against Donald Trump for closing the borders.” “My position has been very clear from day one. Biden opened it. That’s why it had to be closed. If he had followed… Obama’s plan, who deported 3.1 million people, none of this would be necessary.” pic.twitter.com/E9Cwgx5MlN — Vigilant Fox (@VigilantFox) February 12, 2026 USA TODAY shared further: “Time to stop messing around. Life is great. Especially at ESPN/Disney,” Smith said in an April 7, 2025, post on X. “Hate the thought of being a politician. But sick of this mess. So I’m officially leaving all doors open.” A month earlier, Smith told USA TODAY he didn’t “give a d**n about the office” and preferred sparring with political leaders rather than being one. But since then, Smith has gone back and forth talking about his presidential possibilities on his various platforms and to those who broached him with the question. During a July 27, 2025, appearance on ABC’s This Week, Smith told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that the Democrats look “very bad right now because they look leaderless.” “One party has a lead in Donald Trump. You can refute. Yeah. Nobody can refute that. He is the leader of the GOP and the Republican Party. Make no mistake about it. The Democrats don’t have a leader,” Smith said. :We — I see — who — who’s your leader? Who is it? Is it AOC? Is it Bernie Sanders? Is it Jasmine Crockett? Who is it? We respect so many people on Capitol Hill. “I’m certainly not here to cast dispersions upon individuals, but as a body, the Democratic Party just looks very, very bad right now because they look leaderless,” Smith said. “They don’t have a definitive voice that anybody can depend on. “When we look towards 2028, for example, we see a guy like Governor Wes Moore, who I like a lot, and I think is very capable, a Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, who I like and I think is very, very capable. “But when you talk about a national voice for the Democratic Party, it is literally non-existent. You have no one right now,” Smith continued.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has come a long way since his “Little Marco” days. During the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Rubio’s speech stole the show. During his speech, Rubio explained how Europe and the United States are bound together by their culture and their deep Christian roots. He then encouraged European nations to get behind President Trump’s agenda rather than fight it. Here’s a clip: Marco Rubio with one of the greatest speeches by a Sec of State in decades: “We are prepared to do this alone but it is our preference, and our hope, to do this together with you, our friends in Europe. America was founded 250 years ago, but the roots began here on this… pic.twitter.com/1jJlENNToz — Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) February 14, 2026 The Department of State provided the following transcript: For the United States and Europe, we belong together. America was founded 250 years ago, but the roots began here on this continent long before. The man who settled and built the nation of my birth arrived on our shores carrying the memories and the traditions and the Christian faith of their ancestors as a sacred inheritance, an unbreakable link between the old world and the new. We are part of one civilization – Western civilization. We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir. And so this is why we Americans may sometimes come off as a little direct and urgent in our counsel. This is why President Trump demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe. The reason why, my friends, is because we care deeply. We care deeply about your future and ours. And if at times we disagree, our disagreements come from our profound sense of concern about a Europe with which we are connected – not just economically, not just militarily. We are connected spiritually and we are connected culturally. We want Europe to be strong. We believe that Europe must survive, because the two great wars of the last century serve for us as history’s constant reminder that ultimately, our destiny is and will always be intertwined with yours, because we know – (applause) – because we know that the fate of Europe will never be irrelevant to our own. National security, which this conference is largely about, is not merely series of technical questions – how much we spend on defense or where, how we deploy it, these are important questions. They are. But they are not the fundamental one. The fundamental question we must answer at the outset is what exactly are we defending, because armies do not fight for abstractions. Armies fight for a people; armies fight for a nation. Armies fight for a way of life. And that is what we are defending: a great civilization that has every reason to be proud of its history, confident of its future, and aims to always be the master of its own economic and political destiny. The speech was so good, Vice President JD Vance encouraged his followers on X to watch the entire speech: This is a great speech. Worth watching the whole thing. https://t.co/tRmWP3MVdd — JD Vance (@JDVance) February 14, 2026 Here’s how users on X reacted: Rubio 2.0 is growing on me. https://t.co/rCEgGIlLnT — Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) February 14, 2026 I always liked Rubio. He gets the essence, the concept of ‘the West’ more than any European or American politician right now. And he can articulate it extremely well. 2028, here it comes. pic.twitter.com/niA5yhQK3a — Pieter Dorsman (@PieterDorsman) February 15, 2026 @SecRubio keeps diplomaxxing the world. I’m here for a Rubio Administration in 2028. https://t.co/LqZVV0fzkG — Jonathan Bridges (@JQBridges) February 15, 2026 Watch the entire speech below: WATCH: Secretary Rubio Delivers Remarks to the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany. https://t.co/MSnxmlRf2w — Department of State (@StateDept) February 14, 2026

Barack Obama has responded to a video that was briefly posted by President Trump that depicted him and Michelle Obama as apes. As previously reported by the WLT Report, President Trump received backlash last week from Democrats after posting a video on Truth Social that featured Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The video was quickly deemed racist by liberal and even some conservatives. However, the video featuring the Obamas as apes appeared at the end of the video posted on Trump’s Truth Social account and lasted only about 2 seconds, whereas the majority of the video discussed voting machine flaws in the 2020 general election. The section depicting Obama as an ape appeared to be from an entirely different video and only appeared because the person who screen-recorded the video accidentally didn’t cut out the autoplay video that was next. Here was the full video: Senator Scott, this was a meme that auto-played on a screen recording of the actual video he posted. Please focus your energy on getting Voter ID enacting and deporting the 30+ illegal aliens in the country. Voters elected you to focus on serious issues.pic.twitter.com/HUGgi7hoHp — ALX (@alx) February 6, 2026 The Hill provided Obama’s response to the post: Former President Obama argued in an interview published Saturday that American politics has become a “clown show” under the second Trump administration, suggesting that many Americans dislike the rhetoric coming out of the White House in recent months. Obama made the comparison while addressing a controversial video posted on President Trump’s Truth Social account earlier this month that briefly depicted the former president and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, as apes. Trump has refused to apologize for the video despite strong bipartisan backlash. Instead, the White House blamed a staffer for “erroneously” making the post, and it was taken down. “I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” Obama told host Brian Tyler Cohen on his “No Lie” podcast. Here was Obama’s full response: Obama responds to the ape meme that inadvertently appeared for two seconds at the end of a video posted by Trump about election fraud. pic.twitter.com/pTDMdclXzY — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 14, 2026 ABC News reported that a staffer posted the video to Trump’s Truth Social: President Donald Trump said Thursday he hasn’t disciplined or fired the staffer he and the White House say posted the video on his social media platform that included a racist animation of the Obamas. Trump continued to downplay the image depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, a racist trope used to dehumanize Black people, that was shared to his social media account last week. The post was deleted after widespread backlash, including from several Republicans who had called for Trump to apologize — which he’s so far refused to do. “Have you fired or disciplined that staffer who posted the video from your account that included the Obamas?” a reporter asked the president on Thursday as he took questions at an unrelated event at the White House. “No I haven’t,” Trump said. Here was Trump’s response to the video being posted: BREAKING: Liberals are livid after President Trump told the Fake News to SHOVE IT, he’s NOT firing the staffer who accidentally posted the Obama ape meme “NO…no, [I won’t apologize]. I didn’t make a mistake! It was a takeoff of Lion King.” NEVER APOLOGIZE, 47! pic.twitter.com/E0UY5n8iJO — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 7, 2026

The family of Texas businessman and former gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines owns Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico. Huffines, who served in the Texas Senate from 2015 to 2019, is currently running to become the state’s comptroller. According to Santa Fe New Mexican, the ranch was “purchased in 2023 by a limited liability company created just a month before the purchase.” “Four years after Mr. Epstein’s death, the Huffines family purchased property in New Mexico listed at public auction whose proceeds benefited his victims,” Huffines’ campaign spokesperson Allen Blakemore said, according to The Texas Tribune. New: The family of Don Huffines, a former Republican Texas senator who is now campaigning to become the state’s comptroller, bought the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico after the child sex trafficker and molester died. https://t.co/qdhlGdY179 — Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) February 13, 2026 Santa Fe New Mexican explained further: Records obtained by The New Mexican also show the ranch has been renamed San Rafael Ranch and its address, formerly 49 Zorro Ranch Road, is now 49 Rancho San Rafael Road. The change was made in 2024. The ownership was previously unreported. Epstein died in 2019 in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. The property was listed for sale in July 2021 for $27.5 million; a published report later said the sale price had dropped to $18 million. In 2023, San Rafael Ranch LLC bought Epstein’s sprawling property for an undisclosed price. The buyers behind San Rafael Ranch LLC have been private. New Mexico is one of a handful of states allowing anonymous ownership of property through limited liability companies. Blakemore said the Huffines family had never visited the property before the auction listing. The spokesperson did not answer questions about the purpose of the property purchase. NEW: The family of Texas businessman and political candidate Donald Huffines have been identified as the owners of Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch in southern Santa Fe County, which was purchased in 2023 by a limited liability company. https://t.co/M6pro294HY — Santa Fe New Mexican (@thenewmexican) February 13, 2026 More from The Texas Tribune: A limited liability corporation tied to the Huffines family bought the property in 2023 for an undisclosed amount, and later protested its valuation to $13.4 million for tax purposes in part because of the “notoriety” of the property, according to the New Mexico newspaper. Public records received by the paper tied Huffines to the company. Huffines, a businessman, previously served in the Texas Senate representing the Dallas area. He unsuccessfully challenged Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022. A poll released this week showed he is heading into early voting next week with a steady lead over the other candidates in the primary for comptroller. The comptroller acts as the state’s chief financial officer, managing the state’s taxes, investments and other duties. Huffines faces Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, a former state senator appointed to the job last summer by Abbott, Michael Berlanga and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick in the March 3 Republican primary. The revelation of the ownership arrived in the wake of the latest release of documents from the U.S. Department of Justice about Epstein, whose death has created conspiracy theories due to the billionaire’s connections to the nation’s powerful — from elected officials to university leaders — and has become a political conundrum for Republicans across the nation.

Hillary Clinton scurried out of the woodwork to go speak on women’s rights at the Munich Security Conference today. She hosted a “Fundamental Rights for Women” panel at the conference. The first guest? A Democrat Congressman who pretends to be a woman — Rep. Tim “Sarah” McBride. Watch for yourself: BREAKING: Outrage erupts after Hillary Clinton at the Munich conference hosts a “Fundamental Rights for Women” panel with MALE transgender Rep. Tim McBride, who pretends to be a woman “Threats towards trans people are threats towards all women.” WHY is Hillary there?! Send… pic.twitter.com/GLSkuFB36F — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 14, 2026 You truly can’t make this up. It just reeks of delusion. The Washington Examiner has more details on the panel: America’s first transgender member of Congress and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are joining forces to highlight girls’ fundamental rights at the Munich Security Conference. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), a transgender woman, will speak on a panel moderated by Clinton on Saturday, labeled “Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights: Fighting the Global Pushback.” McBride’s office confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the first-term representative would be in attendance. Congressionally-paid travel to the conference was canceled due to a looming funding lapse of the Department of Homeland Security, but McBride was invited outside of official delegation travel. Both McBride and Clinton have pushed legislative agendas that support women’s rights. Clinton has a longtime track record of advocacy on the topic across her time as first lady, senator from New York, secretary of state, and 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee. Now, since when has Hillary Clinton represented the average American woman? Truthfully, she shouldn’t even be there. But, at least she’s actually woman! The same can’t be said about this mentally-ill man who goes around pretending to be a girl who understands ‘women’s struggles.’ It’s not just absurd; it’s an insult to all women in America. Take a look at some of these on-point replies: Men in dresses addressing Women’s Rights would be like white people painting themselves black to discuss Black Rights issues! Totally disgusting and disrespectful — DogMom (@PamF194) February 14, 2026 Clinton had no business speaking for women in the US. It’s an embarrassment. — AislinToo (@AislinToo) February 14, 2026 It’s pure godlessness. — Roscoe Smith IV (@LoneStarLegendX) February 14, 2026 What a joke.