Oct 23, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Stephen A. Smith (Stephen Smith) on the ESPN NBA Countdown live set at Intuit Dome.

ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith walked off the stage during a town hall after criticizing politicians for not solving the government shutdown.

Smith, who hosts ESPN's First Take, participated in the event conducted by cable network NewsNation on Wednesday night, Oct. 16, in Washington, D.C., along with host Chris Cuomo and other guests, including Bill O’Reilly.

The government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 and is in its third week, was a top issue during the town hall. Republicans have "passed a bill that funds the government at the level the Democrats wanted," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told the panel and its audience, according to NewsNation.

To that, Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pennsylvania, replied that Republicans "have the trifecta" in that the party has the White House and controls both houses of Congress. "You’re failing to govern,” she said.

A member of the audience brought a personal side to the issue. Jack Criss Jr., who said he had been an air traffic controller for 16 years, told the assemblage he is so concerned about the situation that he has a side gig as a DoorDash delivery person after working to make sure he can pay his daughter's college tuition.

That riled up Smith, who said Criss's story personifies why Americans are angry about the shutdown. “This is why you have so many Americans, excuse my language, so (expletive) off at Washington," he said. Politicians need to work "to get things better,” Smith added.

Smith criticizes government for letting US debt balloon

Beyond that, he criticized Washington for letting the U.S. debt balloon beyond $37.8 trillion. “We all look at our check and it’s been going to the government and somehow someway you're supposed to be doing something constructive and productive enough to make sure that we don’t have that kind of deficit," Smith said in a video posted by NewsNation on X. "It isn’t happening.”

Smith, who has said he is keeping an open mind to a possible presidential run, decried how Criss had to work another job because he isn't getting a paycheck as an air traffic controller because of the shutdown.

"Everybody up here is getting paid," he said, gesturing to the panel, which included several members of Congress.

"The only person that don’t have a check coming is him," Smith said. "You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to take a break."

Then, Smith got up from his chair and exited stage right.

Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stephen A. Smith says Americans 'ticked off' at Washington about government shutdown

Reporting by Mike Snider, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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