Stephen A. Smith doesn't think Pat McAfee has anything to apologize for.
McAfee apologized to Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday after Aaron Rodgers speculated on McAfee's show Tuesday that Kimmel might be included in a slowly leaked list of Jeffrey Epstein associates. .
On his eponymous podcast, Smith absolved McAfee of any responsibility for the scandal.
“I commend Pat McAfee for apologizing, but let me start by saying he didn't need to,” Smith reported in Awful Annunciation. “He did nothing wrong. This was his show, the show was live, and he had no idea what Aaron Rodgers was going to say.”
Epstein's list was brought up Tuesday by McAfee's co-host and Rodgers' former Packers teammate, AJ Hawk, who said the official Super Bowl logo could be next month's Ravens-Niners matchup. We were jokingly talking about how we were forewarned.
In response, Mr. Rogers said there are others, like Mr. Kimmel, who want Epstein's list not to be made public.
Smith said on his podcast that he believed Rodgers was joking, but Kimmel still owed him an apology.
“I definitely feel like Pat McAfee hit the mark when he said Aaron Rodgers just despises him.” [Kimmel], he just joked around and wasn't necessarily serious about things like that,” Smith said. “But let Aaron Rodgers say this: Jeffrey Epstein is no joke. I love Aaron Rodgers, we all know he's a bad guy, man. But Aaron Rodgers should just apologize. Short and simple. Don't complicate the situation. Even if you hate Jimmy Kimmel, say so!”
After Rodgers' remarks, Kimmel tweeted that he had “never met, flown with, visited, or had any contact with Epstein,” adding that the quarterback had no such insinuations. He threatened to see Rogers “in court” if he continued to do so.
Mr. Rogers and Mr. Kimmel criticized Mr. Rogers for saying in 2021 that Mr. Kimmel was “vaccinated” against COVID-19, after which Mr. Rogers later revealed that Mr. Kimmel had not been vaccinated. Ever since this was revealed, we have continued to have back-and-forth exchanges.
Kimmel said during a performance in November 2021, “The worst thing you can do than not get vaccinated when you're around other people is if you're vaccinated when you're not vaccinated.” “It's what you make other people think.” “This is basically the COVID-19 equivalent of a ‘dropped condom.’”
Kimmel also sarcastically accused Rogers of being a “tinfoil hatter” earlier this year, suggesting that the U.S. government's UFO disclosures were intended to distract from the impending release of the Epstein files. .
