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Bob Costas strongly tackled controversial social and political issues in his acclaimed sportscasting career when he deemed it relevant, unafraid of backlash for discussing topics as diverse as the U.S. gun culture and Chinese oppression, and now has turned up the verbal heat on the leading candidates for this November’s presidential election.

Costas now is semiretired at 71 years old but still has several part-time baseball broadcasting endeavors as well as serving as a guest commentator for CNN. He mostly adds perspective on that news channel to relevant sports subjects but sometimes hits on broader topics, which he did Saturday when he blasted Republican front-runner and former President Donald Trump as well as Democrat and incumbent Joe Biden while appearing on “Smerconish� — a program hosted by Michael Smerconish. It was a follow-up to related remarks he made earlier in the month on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher� program.

On CNN, Costas called Trump the “most disgraceful figure in modern presidential history ... a bubbling cauldron of loathsome traits� among many other biting comments. “You have to be in the throes of some sort of toxic delusion in a toxic cult to believe that Donald Trump has ever been, in any sense, emotionally, psychologically, intellectually or ethically fit to be president of the United States. But his supporters are locked in on that.�

Biden focus

Costas also ripped Biden, 81, for not stepping aside in favor of a younger, more vibrant candidate to head his party’s ticket.

“He had a chance to be seen as a statesman and a patriot,� Costas said. “Now his legacy is likely to be that of a man whose hubris prevented him from seizing the moment in appropriate way.

“At best, he can squeak by Trump — that’s at best. Or he could lose to Trump and subject the nation to four more years of this kind of ongoing insanity. Or if he squeaked by, it’s very likely that he cannot complete his second term, he’d be 86 at the end of it.�

Costas also scolded the Democratic Party for not making a change.

“How feckless are the Democrats if they realize this guy could possibly lose to Trump? Then get somebody else out there,� he said, adding “this is so obvious. ... Biden is unable to put together two consecutive sentences.�

Costas said Biden is putting himself first.

“The only reason he is president is that he’s not Donald Trump, then the Dems could have gotten a lot of people up in the bullpen and they could have sorted through those people,� he said. “If Biden’s hubris is such that he doesn’t understand the best interest of his party and more important his country, then he has to be shown the door.�

He also pointed out that Biden declined to do an interview that would have aired during the recent Super Bowl pregame TV programming, something that has become a tradition for the sitting president. Biden also declined last year, and Trump skipped once in his term.

“(Biden’s) own staff knows that he has to be bubble-wrapped — that he can‘t do a Super Bowl interview,� Costas said. “It‘s sad to say, Biden is obviously, on balance, a decent man. He served his country and no matter what, sane people will vote for him over Trump. But it’s a hell of a risk to send this guy out there. Trump is a monster; you shouldn’t send this guy out there at this point in his life to try and slay the dragon.�

This parallels comments he made on Maher’s show: “If Trump is a threat to democracy — and in many ways he is — so too are the Dems who are in danger of being as feckless as the Republicans have long been shameless.�

Costas left the CNN appearance with a verbal fastball.

“I’ll remind people what they shouldn’t have to be reminded of concerning Trump,� he said. “What his former chief of staff said, John Kelly, the depth of his dishonesty is astonishing. He is a person who has no idea what America is all about. A person who has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law. God help us all.

“The Trump delusion is not going away on the right. But sane Democrats have to offer a compelling alternative. Biden for all he has accomplished and for all his basic decency is not a compelling figure any longer.�

Moving forward

Of course there has been backlash to Costas’ bold comments, including in ºüÀêÊÓƵ — where he started his broadcasting career at KMOX (1120 AM) in the 1970s and lived in the area for many years and after he blossomed into one of the most prominent figures in broadcasting history. He now has homes in New York and California but makes it back to ºüÀêÊÓƵ several times a year.

Mark Reardon has a talk show on KFTK (97.1 FM), a politically conservative-content station owned by Audacy, as is KMOX. After pointing out Monday that he certainly doesn’t endorse everything Trump does, Reardon said Costas’ critiques alienate the more than 70 million people who voted for him in the last election.

“Working class people — this is what I don’t think Bob Costas understands — maybe Bob should take a little bit more time spending a little homework assignment here in Missouri instead of New York or wherever he might be,� Reardon said but did not address Costas’ critical remarks about Biden. “Talk to working-class people who are fed up with this administration and with previous administrations and with Republicans and Democrats in Congress for not addressing their needs and not talking about the real things that we should be discussing in this country.�

Others have criticized Costas for stepping outside of sports, that he is out of his element in talking about politics.

“Generally speaking, that’s what I’ve done unless something political directly intersected with sports,� Costas told the Post-Dispatch this week. “... I would hope that if I was covering baseball in 1947 that I would have been strongly and vocally on Jackie Robinson’s side. That’s not a question of policy. That’s a question of morality.

“The people who will say ‘stick to sports’ from the Trump perspective have voted for a guy and plan to vote again for a guy who has had no political experience, never held office, never was in the military and who quite obviously could not pass a 10th grade civics or history test. In addition to all of his other objectionable qualities, he’s an ignoramus. His lack of basic knowledge is stunning.�

Costas told the Post-Dispatch he often is perceived as being a leftist but actually is “somewhat left of center like what Bill Maher calls a classic liberal. I strongly disagree with much of what is said and done under the heading of progressive or leftist or woke. And I actually agree with and respect many what would be labeled conservative positions.�

He added that a lot of the “stick to sports� crowd takes that stance “unless you’re saying something I agree with� then the opinion of a celebrity is unwelcome. He also expressed frustration that some observers will dismiss a prominent person’s thoughts, no matter how well-thought, for irrelevant reasons such as the physical appearance of the commentator.

“If I was 6 feet tall (instead of being shorter), what I say would make more sense, wouldn’t it?� he said. “.... These are people who would say, what’s that mole on Lincoln’s face? And why should I listen to Churchill? He’s a fat pig.

“Very often in our current climate, an argument is not considered on its merits. We look to disqualify the argument without thoroughly engaging it. So (if) you accuse people of Trump derangement syndrome — that’s from the ‘mainstream media.’ It’s a way to just sweep everything you don’t want to consider off the table and assign an unworthy motivation to the person no matter who the person is.

“Even if there’s a mountain of evidence and a choir of angels attached to it, that’s the world in which we live. What I have said is not something that you need a career background in politics or a Ph.D. in political science to observe. Trump by what he shows you himself — forget what’s in The Washington Post, The New York Times or on MSNBC — put that all aside and any person with common sense and common decency can observe what Trump shows you himself in his rallies, in his history both in business and what he has said publicly without any filter in his increasingly unhinged rallies. ... This is someone who is obviously emotionally, psychologically, intellectually and ethically unfit to hold any position of public trust let alone the presidency.�

He referenced a remark he made a few years ago when he was on KMOX with host Charlie Brennan.

“I said we live in a world where anything you want to be true is true even without much credible evidence. But anything you don’t want be true doesn’t have to be true.�

He told the Post-Dispatch that he wished in the CNN interview that he had made one more point about Trump’s candidacy:

“Jan. 6 alone and the lies and incitement that led up to it and the ongoing lies about the 2020 election to this day in the absence of any convincing evidence and in the presence of some 60 court cases, all of which rejected Trump’s claims — that alone would be enough to disqualify him from ever holding any elected office again. But of course, in Trump’s case, there’s so much more.�

Costas added that he would have said Trump has duped a lot of people who “always pride themselves on common sense.�

They say things such as, “’Hey, I didn’t go to college, I’m not some elitist, but I’ve got common sense and I’ll tell you something, pal, I can spot a phony a mile away.’ This guy is such a phony. He’s not like a slick con man. If he wore a neon sign that said, ‘I’m a liar and a lout,’ it couldn’t be any more plain. What happened to your common sense? What happened to your ability to spot a phony? What the hell is wrong with you?�