Starting with, agreed to be the LP candidate for president, then left them all high and dry at the last minute.
I think he's doing political commentary as a profession. It's to put bread on the table. Not to die. Probably his wife told him to cut it out on the Israel stuff. I think he's telling the truth that he hasn't "got the call", but I have a strong feeling we won't be hearing any more strongly anti-Israel takes going forward. He said "give it a couple weeks", and I'll give it more than that. But I strongly doubt we'll be hearing the old Dave Smith anymore for the simple reason that his wife isn't about to allow him to get his head blown off. Just my take.
I went and reviewed the Megyn Kelly interview and this is actually more of a smoking gun than Dave seems to think:
Charlie explicitly says "both in public
and private", indicating that he is receiving private pushback. He mentions that he has been sent texts calling him an "anti-semite" and calling his moral character into question, which is pressure-tactics, by definition. In addition, he makes it clear that all of this criticism is fratricidal, that is, he's not getting this pushback from leftist Hamas supporters, but from unspecified, Israel-aligned forces. After he says his piece on this to Megyn, his face has some contortions around the mouth that are unusual for him (not part of his baseline), and thus indicate that he is having a very strong emotional response in respect to what he has just disclosed. See timestamp @6:07, for example. Because of his highly polarized and influential political views, Charlie Kirk was in the flames from the very beginning of his career. This is a man who was bathed in controversy from the word Go. So, to be experiencing a very strong emotional reaction like this indicates that whatever he's speaking about really is hitting him hard. This was not just some ordinary political bickering, this was something heavier, and he knew it.
Also, I wasn't aware of the connection to the Dave Smith v. Josh Hammer debate until watching this segment. I think this is the other reason that Dave is quietening down. By the way, I don't judge him for it. He has a family. He has young children, just like Charlie. He has things to lose. If the message from the false-zionists was, "If you give robust Israel skeptics a big platform, you will be shot", then it would make sense that
the robust Israel skeptic for which Charlie was shot for giving a platform....... would quieten down. At the very least, the part of prudence is to lay low for the duration. In fact, I would consider Dave Smith continuing on unfazed a more suspicious direction because where is he getting this chutzpah from? (pun-intended)
The debate: