Fox News’ Shepard Smith went off—I mean really went off—on President Trump Thursday for repeatedly making false claims to reporters and to the American people.
“It’s sort of our job to let you know when things are said that aren’t true, especially by people you’ve elected,” Smith said, “and this president keeps telling untrue things and he does it every single time he’s in front of the microphone.” Smith added that Trump’s falsehoods are “demonstrable” and “there were a lot of them” in Thursday’s White House press conference. He cited as an example Trump’s bogus claim that he had the biggest electoral win since Ronald Reagan.
He then called out Trump on his lack of transparency regarding his relationship with Russia. This is why, Smith explained, reporters keep asking questions about it. “He says Russia is a ruse. It’s fake news. The leaks are real but the news is fake. So that’s impossible,” a perplexed Smith said.
“It seems as if he yells at us for pointing it out and calls us names and calls us fake and stuff when we are pointing out that the president of the United States just told another untrue thing…that he’s going to yell about us and people are going to tweet about us—things I don’t care about at all,” Smith complained to Jeff Mason, head of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
“It’s up to people like you and all the rest of us to point it out when the president of the United States keeps saying things that are demonstrably, unquestionably—opinion aside—100% false,” said Smith. He explained that it was bothersome that Trump refused to give a straight answer when a reporter asked, “Can you say definitively that nobody on your campaign had any contacts with the Russians during the campaign? And on the leaks, is it fake news or are these real leaks?”
Mason, who is also the Washington bureau chief for Reuters, didn’t disagree “It is the job of journalists and it is the job of the media to report the truth and to call out positions of power, including the most powerful person in the world, which is the president, when he says things that are untrue.” Mason noted that President Trump says things that are untrue “regularly” and the media has a responsibility to report it and correct the record.
Reflecting on how the president treated CNN’s Jim Acosta during the press conference, Smith said, “He treated him like he’s…I’m not even going to use the word. I’m not going to give Twitter the love it needs.” He referred to the correspondent from the competitor network as a “good reporter.”
“It’s crazy what we’re watching every day. It’s absolutely crazy,” Smith continued. “He keeps repeating ridiculous throwaway lines that are not true at all and sort of avoiding this issue of Russia as if we’re some sort of fools for asking the question. Really? Your opposition was hacked and the Russians were responsible for it and your people were on the phone with Russia on the same day it was happening and we’re fools for asking the questions?”
Smith then looked into the camera and spoke directly to Trump: “No, sir. We are not fools for asking these questions and we demand to know the answer to this question. You owe this to the American people. Your supporters will support you either way. If your people were on the phone with [unintelligible] what were they saying? We have a right to know. We absolutely do. And that you call us fake news and put us down like children for asking these questions on behalf of the American people is inconsequential. The people deserve that answer—at the very least.”
Smith then suggested that Trump’s attacks on the media are a tactic intended to deflect attention away from a potentially problematic relationship with Russia.
The only thing Smith didn’t say was the “L” word—lie. He and his guests danced around it and used every imaginable synonym, which suggests that the word is verboten at Fox. Considering the network’s slobbering love affair with Trump, it’s surprising that Smith went as far as he did. Will there be repercussion? A tearful apology, perhaps? It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for Shep to update his LinkedIn profile, just in case.
A few last questions:
- Where was Shep—and everyone else at Fox News—during the primary and general elections when Trump was lying to their faces—day in and day out—on the campaign trail and on their shows?
- And where was CNN during the primary when they gave him thousands of hours worth of free air time, providing him with a platform from which he could destroy all of his emotionally stable competitors?
- Where were CNN and the rest of the MSM when Hillary and Obama were lying for the last eight years?
- Will Trump start tweeting nasty things about Shep in the middle of the night tonight or will he wait until morning and do it during a super boring national security briefing?
Watch the whole thing below.
“This president keeps telling untrue things”
Full video of Shep Smith ripping Trump after the press conference pic.twitter.com/edTDZLRn5Z
— Colin Jones (@colinjones) February 16, 2017
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