Michael Smerconish

American journalist

Michael Andrew Smerconish (/s//m//ɜːr/'/k//ɒ//n//ɪ//ʃ/ smurKONish; born March 15, 1962) is an American radio host and television presenter, political commentator, author, and lawyer. A self described "lifelong Republican" and former GOP administration appointee, he left the Republican party during the Obama administration. He hosts a morning radio show, The Michael Smerconish Program, on the POTUS Channel on SiriusXM, and a CNN and CNN International program on Saturdays. He is a former Sunday columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and has written seven books, including six non fiction works and one novel. He serves of counsel to Kline & Specter, a Philadelphia law firm.

Smerconish was born March 15, 1962, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the son of Florence (née Grovich) and Walter Smerconish. His family hails from Galicia in Eastern Europe. He graduated from Central Bucks High School West, a public high school in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He received his B. A. from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia. Smerconish was raised in a Republican household, and while in his early teens, Smerconish began to correspond with the then Democratic Mayor of Philadelphia, Frank L. Rizzo. The two eventually met, and established a relationship. In spring of 1980, Smerconish's father competed unsuccessfully in a Republican primary for the Pennsylvania state legislature. Smerconish worked on his father's unsuccessful campaign during his senior year in high school. In 1980, Smerconish founded Youth for Reagan/Bush at Lehigh University. As a student at University of Pennsylvania Law School, he ran unsuccessfully for the Pennsylvania state legislature, losing the Republican Primary by 419 votes. After losing his primary, Smerconish returned to law school and worked on political campaigns. In 1986, Smerconish was responsible for managing Philadelphia for U. S. Senator Arlen Specter's re election. In 1987, Smerconish served as Frank Rizzo's political director in Rizzo's losing bid to return as mayor of Philadelphia.

After graduating from Penn Law School, Smerconish opened a title insurance agency with his brother Wally prior to being appointed, at age 29, by the George H. W. Bush administration to serve as regional administrator of Philadelphia Region III for the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Secretary Jack Kemp. On October 19, 2008, after supporting only Republican presidential candidates, Smerconish endorsed Barack Obama for president in the 2008 presidential election. In a 2,000 word essay for Salon titled "Why this lifelong Republican may vote for Obama," citing the Republican Party's failure to capture Osama bin Laden after seven years of war, he wrote, "All of this drives me bat shit, and it just might drive me into the Obama camp. That'd be quite a departure." In his commentary, Smerconish urged the Republican Party to pursue "moderation on social issues in order to advance a suburban agenda for the GOP." In June 2010, he authored an op ed for The Washington Post in which he wrote, "Buying gas or groceries or attending back to school nights, I speak to people for whom the issues are a mixed bag; they are liberal on some, conservative on others, middle of the road on the rest. But politicians don't take their cues from those people. No, politicians emulate the world of punditry." In February 2010, Smerconish announced that he had left the Republican Party. Discussing Smerconish's move to the middle, Manuel Roig Franzia of The Washington Post wrote, "It may be conventional wisdom that the only way to truly succeed in the world of talk is to occupy one of the poles. But Smerconish is betting his career that there's a great untapped center." Smerconish voted for Gary Johnson in the 2016 presidential election. Smerconish's tenure at HUD came to a close after George H. W. Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton in the 1992 election. In 1993, Smerconish began what would become a decade practicing law with legendary trial attorney James E. Beasley, who would become the benefactor and eponym of the Temple University Beasley School of Law. Smerconish became acquainted with Beasley while at HUD when he sought the latter's legal opinion for a possible defamation action against Steve Lopez, then a columnist with The Philadelphia Inquirer. Beasley was noted for his record breaking defamation wins against the newspaper. (No lawsuit was filed by Smerconish against Lopez.) Working closely with Beasley for a decade, Smerconish specialized in complex tort litigation. At a 2015 legal seminar sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Smerconish wrote an essay summarizing some of his lessons learned working for Beasley. Smerconish's legal work spanned various subject areas, including contracts, medical malpractice, and products liability. His clients included: the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police (in an action against Dead Kennedys for publishing an FOP photograph on an album cover that advocated the murder of police); the City of Rome, Italy (in a contract dispute against the Barnes Foundation); and Orlin Norris, a professional boxer who through Smerconish sued promoter Don King for a shot at the heavyweight title. In a medical malpractice action, Smerconish successfully sued abortion provider Kermit Gosnell. While in active practice, Smerconish served one term as a member of the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Trial Lawyer's Association. Today, Smerconish's law license hangs in the office of the Philadelphia law firm Kline & Specter.

In the spring of 1990, Smerconish made his first radio appearance as a guest of a guest host, Brian Tierney, who was then a substitute host on Philadelphia talk station 96.5 FM WWDB. During the 1991 Philadelphia mayoral election, Smerconish worked at WWDB as a political analyst. He then transitioned from a guest to a guest host. By 1993, he had his own program Sunday nights from 8 p. m. until midnight, during which time his day job was the practice of law. In 1996, after the death of longtime broadcaster Dominic Quinn, Smerconish moved to Saturday and Sunday mornings, the latter of which allowed him to be the lead in of Sid Mark's Sunday with Sinatra. WWDB was then sold by broadcast entrepreneurs Chuck and Susan Schwartz and a new owner began selling informercials masked as programming which Smerconish refused to honor. That led to his 1997 move to CBS affiliate WPHT (formerly known as WCAU AM). By the following year, he was moved to afternoon drive, all the while maintaining his practice of law. Only when in September 2003, after the firing of Don Imus, whose morning drive slot he took, did Smerconish become a talk show host who was a lawyer instead of a lawyer who was a talk show host. In February 2009, Smerconish's program was placed into national syndication by Dial Global. On August 20, 2009, Smerconish became the first talk radio host to interview President Barack Obama live from the White House, one of seven radio conversations he had with Obama. The interview was held in the Diplomatic Reception Room, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt conducted fireside chats. The President took questions from Smerconish and his listeners on a variety of subjects including the recent debates on the then pending Affordable Care Act. He has also interviewed Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as well as Vice Presidents Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Joe Biden. He has often said that he has spoken with everyone who interested him with the exception of the elusive creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David. Smerconish appeared on television, first locally and then nationally. In Philadelphia, he was first asked to appear by his friend and eventual mentor, Larry Kane, on WCAU Channel 10 providing election night analysis. He then became a regular on the local WPVI program Inside Story, hosted by Marc Howard. He appeared as a guest of Lynn Doyle, host of Comcast's It's Your Call on CN8. Smerconish joined CNN as a guest and guest host of Arthel Neville on the program TalkBack Live. CNN engaged Smerconish as a legal analyst and utilized him as the substitute for Glenn Beck on CNN's Headline News. CNN briefly aired a program called Attorneys at Law featuring Smerconish, Jeffrey Toobin, and Lisa Bloom. When CNN switched to extensive coverage of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the program was interrupted and never returned. Smerconish then moved to MSNBC as a contributor at the invitation of Phil Griffin, the future head of MSNBC, where he began guest hosting Scarborough Country in the absence of former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough. In 2007, after MSNBC fired Don Imus for a racial slur, and Smerconish was invited by the network to guest host Imus' time slot during for a week on a trial basis. In studio guests included Jon Anderson of Yes and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. MSNBC eventually hired Scarborough for the slot formerly held by Imus and rebranded the program as Morning Joe (where Smerconish has never been a guest). At MSNBC, Smerconish's role then became one of appearing daily with Tamron Hall, host of News Nation, and as a guest host of Hardball in the absence of Chris Matthews, a position he filled for five years. At the same time—despite the polarized media climate and differences between MSNBC and Fox News—he guest hosted The Radio Factor for Bill O'Reilly. In 2013, Smerconish decided to give up his terrestrial radio platform then consisting of 80 radio stations across the country to move to the POTUS Channel 124 on Sirius XM Radio. He said at the time that this reflected his desire to be "nonpartisan" in discussing issues; having left the Republican party in 2010, adding that satellite radio would give him more freedom to talk politics without a party label. In early 2014, Smerconish left MSNBC after Jeff Zucker, president of CNN, invited him to host his own program there. Smerconish hosts CNN Saturdays at 9:00 am ET. The show also broadcasts on CNN International. Smerconish has appeared on Larry King Live, The View, Real Time with Bill Maher The Today Show, The Colbert Report, and The O'Reilly Factor. To mark his 30 years in talk radio, Smerconish aired an autobiographical film Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking on CNN in July 2020. In the film, Smerconish walks through his transition from a reliably Republican voter to a registered independent, illustrated by interview excerpts and anecdotes throughout his time in talk radio and television as a political commentator.

Smerconish has been awarded three honorary degrees, a Doctor of Humane Letters from Widener University in 2016, a Doctor of Humane Letters from Delaware Valley College in 2018, and a Doctor of Science degree from University of the Sciences in 2020. Talkers Magazine named him one of America's most important talk show hosts, In 2003, he was named to "The Pennsylvania Report Power 75 List" of influential figures in Pennsylvania politics. In 2011, the National Association of Broadcasters selected him as a Marconi Award finalist in the category of Best Network/Syndicated Host. In 2004, Philadelphia magazine named him the city's best talk show host and one of the city's most powerful citizens.