Stephen A. Smith addressed the controversial video released by CNN of rap mogul Diddy assaulting ex-girlfriend and R&B singer Cassie on his iHeartMedia podcast The Stephen A. Smith Show. Smith didn't mince words about the video and the situation surrounding Diddy, as Smith said he watched the video ten times and recounted the video as he watched it at the start of the segment.
Surveillance video from InterContinental Hotel Century City, Los Angeles obtained by CNN reveals Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulted Cassie in 2016, supporting her lawsuit settled last year. The footage shows Combs chasing her down a hallway.
Diddy encounters Cassie in the elevator lobby, grabs her by the back of her neck, and forcefully pushes her to the ground. He proceeds to kick her, snatch her bags, and kick her once more before dragging her back towards the hallway by her sweatshirt. Combs transports Cassie bags back to the hotel room while she reaches for a hotel phone by the elevators. He comes back to Cassie and seems to push her into a corner, followed by throwing an object at her out of view.
Smith emphasized the seriousness of the incident and how it could inform that other incidents of the same magnitude occurred outside of the video.
“There's no way around this. This ain't funny at all. And yes, this was 2016, but you acting like that in 2016, who's to believe you didn't do it in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023! Why would we believe otherwise?”
Smith likened the scenario with Diddy to that of Ray Rice, who engaged in a physical altercation with his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, in an elevator in February 2014. Rice struck Palmer with such force that she lost consciousness, hitting her head against the elevator's handrails. Rice, who played for the Baltimore Ravens from 2008-2013 never played another down in the NFL again.
“Remember Ray Rice? Remember what happened? Late 2014 when his girl was in the elevator and she either shoved him or hit him and then he check-left-hooked her? And hit her, and knocked her face into the bar inside the elevator? She hit her head to it and then she laid on the floor, unconscious? In the elevator, straight up, knocked out,” Smith described.
Smith used the Rice incident to say that, although Diddy is immensely wealthy, his career has he's known it is over.
“This sh*t is over. It's over in the worst possible way…One of the worst possible ways you can imagine.”
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