Stephen A. Smith accused of secretly voting for Donald Trump after he sharply criticized Oprah Winfrey and then claimed the president-elect had the greatest “comeback” in American history

Let the electoral blame game begin.

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith has he solid his vote in the post-election ritual of pointing to someone or something as the reason a candidate lost, pointing to Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.

On Wednesday on his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith said the media mogul and former first lady set an exclusionary tone that turned off men (Trump’s most credible voting bloc).

“If we don’t agree with you, are we against you?” Smith said, referencing the media mogul and former first lady’s speeches. “What do you think the men thought about this? So we must do what you tell us; otherwise we are against you? Did you think it worked? Do you know anything about most men? Do you think this will work?”

Smith’s hour-long podcast has garnered greater than 8,000 comments and nearly 700,000 views. Most viewers agreed with Smith’s assessment and openly shared their decision to vote for Trump.

One user wrote, “We know Stephen A. voted for Trump, but he can’t say it or he’ll be recalled.” Just minutes into the podcast, Smith confirmed he voted for Kamala Harris. However, viewers weren’t entirely convinced. Another added in response: “He said he voted for Harris but I don’t believe him.”

It didn’t help matters when Smith shared on X (formerly Twitter) a link to his podcast episode on YouTube with the caption: “Donald Trump just completed the greatest comeback in American history.” Underneath that post, a user called Smith a “flip flop, nigga”

Oprah and Michelle O. are amongst the long list of celebrities who’ve endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris. She had on her side the hottest artists in the country (Beyonce and Taylor Swift), the most famous athlete (LeBron James) and two of the most famous actors (George Clooney and Harrison Ford). Stars from the past (Madonna and Bruce Springsteen) and current (Charli xcx and Lizzo) declared their support for Harris.

But together they were all fair sermon for the choirsaid Seth Abramovitch, senior author at the Hollywood Reporter.

“Oprah, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Ariana Grande – these are artists whose audiences (black, female, liberal, queer) were already willing to vote for Kamala,” he told The Guardian.

Swift, popular with each country and pop fans, appears to be an outlier, Abramovich said, but her influence was negligible amongst two demographic groups which have shifted significantly toward Trump.

Of course, the same may be said about famous Trump supporters. Women of color, part of the demographic most proof against the former and future commander-in-chief, weren’t about to be influenced by the likes of Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.

Left or right, famously, they rarely, if ever, move the counter together with voters.

“In the academic literature,” said Professor Margaretha Bentley of Arizona State University, who has studied Swift’s cultural impact, “research has shown that while celebrity endorsements can increase civic engagement and voter registration, it has not been proven to have a direct impact on the way people make voting decisions.”

When Swift endorsed Harris, she directed followers to this page voting.gov. The website was visited by 405,999 people in 24 hours. However, not everyone was convinced to vote for the former prosecutor and current vice chairman.

In fact, Swift can have hurt Harris greater than helped. A poll conducted by YouGov shortly after her endorsement found that only 8 percent of voters could be “somewhat” or “much more” prone to vote for Harris, well below the 20 percent of respondents who said supporting Swift would make them less prone to vote for a Democrat.

Ashley Spillane of Harvard, who creator a study titled “Celebrities Strengthen Our Culture of Democracy” found that it’s unimaginable to quantify whether a celeb endorsement translates into more votes for a candidate.

This is a change from the past. A 2008 poll conducted by Northwestern University found that Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama added roughly a million votes to his final tally.

But that was in less divisive times.

Smith argued that it was Oprah’s message, not Oprah herself, that turned off male voters. Her warning on the eve of the election was that a second Trump term would herald an antidemocratic takeover of the United States

“This is something that alienates the electorate, alienates the voter,” Smith said. “Because the freedom you tell them you have, you’re trying to morally confiscate it by letting them know you’re worth nothing if you don’t vote the way we think you should vote.”

“Who will decide on this in the general election?” Smith asked. “In an economy full of inflation, with over 12 million people crossing the border?”

The high-power recommendations also served to verify Republicans’ findings that Democrats were an elite party.

“Ultimately, stars value tons of of tens of millions, if not billions, who most American residents consider are incredibly out of touch with their lifestyle and the quality of it, weren’t going to run away and blame them for doing something different than what their experience says and what they need to do with it do,” Smith said.

The people almost certainly to learn from a celeb’s endorsement are the celebrity themselves, says Laurence F. Maslon, an art professor at New York University.

“I think sometimes it’s a way of tying your star to someone who seems to be good for you, and maybe there’s some kind of reflected glory in that,” Maslon said.

British comedian Ricky Gervais probably said it best video – he posted in June in which he ridiculed overly serious stars who consider that their political beliefs really matter.

“As a celebrity, I know everything about science and politics, so trust me when I tell you who you should vote for,” Gervais said. “If you don’t vote the right way it will be like a hate crime and it makes me sad and angry so I will leave the country and you don’t want that.”