Stephen A. Smith Rips Colin Kaepernick For Not Voting: ‘He’s A Flaming Hypocrite’

Colin Kaepernick has been critical of both candidates in the 2016 presidential election: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump, who won the election on Tuesday night.

Stephen A. Smith Rips Colin Kaepernick For Not Voting: ‘He’s A Flaming Hypocrite’

The San Francisco 49ers quarterback called them both “proven liars” and “racists.” Thus, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that he didn’t vote for anyone (not even for a third-party candidate, apparently).

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith lambasted Kaepernick on Wednesday’s ‘First Take,’ calling him a hypocrite for not participating in the election, especially after weeks of protesting police brutality and the oppression of minorities by sitting or kneeling during the national anthem before NFL games.

“As far as I’m concerned, Colin Kaepernick is absolutely irrelevant,” Smith vehemently said. I don’t want to see him again, I don’t want hear from him again, I don’t want to hear a [darn] word about anything he has to say about our nation … He comes across as a flaming hypocrite. …

“After all this noise that you made, even though you didn’t intended to do so, by offending our military service men and women, and pointing out about how you wanted to bring attention to racial injustices and beyond in this country, to turn around and not even take your behind to the polls to vote for a particular candidate, it is shameful! Absolutely shameful!”

Smith finished by saying: “For him not to vote, as far as I’m concerned, everything he said meant absolutely nothing.”

The ESPN anchor’s anger is certainly understandable. Protests are by definition meant to express the desire for change, though that desire means very little if it’s not accompanied by concrete actions like voting for a candidate who is committed to creating such changes.

“I’ve been very disconnected from the systematic oppression as a whole,” Kaepernick said, according to ESPN. “So, for me, it’s another face that’s going to be the face of that system of oppression.”

Kaepernick added that he “really didn’t pay too close of attention” to the election and believed that none of the candidates could change a system that “oppresses people of color.”

He added: “To me, it didn’t really matter who went in there. The system still remains intact that oppresses people of color.”

During a radio interview in August, Trump heavily criticized Kaepernick for his protest, saying the quarterback should “find a different country to live in” if he was unhappy with the state of America.

BUFFALO, NY – OCTOBER 16: Colin Kaepernick #7 of the San Francisco 49ers looks to throw against the Buffalo Bills during the first half at New Era Field on October 16, 2016 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)