Fox’s Shep Smith: Trump lies about Russian hacking because those is power want to control ‘the narrative’
During an interview on Steven Colbert’s Late Show, Fox News host Shep Smith said he was siding with U.S. intelligence agencies over President-elect Donald Trump over the the whether the Russians hacked the presuidential election
Host Colbert complimented Smith for being one of the more independent voices on the conservative news network by pointing out the time he equated then-candidate Trump with fascism.
“You called Trump during the campaign ‘almost fascist'” Colbert said, with Smith cutting in to say, “Something he said at that moment was almost fascist.”
“That is un-Shep-like hairsplitting, I want to point out” Colbert needled Smith. “Something he said was ‘almost fascist,’ but he’s not responsible for what he says?”
“I want him to be the greatest president in the history of this nation and I’m going to be for him and with him,” Smith replied. “But as a journalist it’s my job to hold truth to power and I’m going to listen to what he says, give it context and report it and watch what he does and report it and let the people decide.”
Asked about people in power attempting to create distrust of the media, Smith said, “They’ve always tried to do that.”
“Every leader always says ‘Don’t believe them,’ when you tell them things that are true,” he continued. “You want a certain narrative out there and if the truth sometimes flies in the face of that, like Trump to claim that the Russians did not get involved in our election while all 17 of our intelligence agencies say that they did.”
“Unless and until there’s further information on this matter, I’m going with the intelligence agencies because [Trump] doesn’t know yet,” Smith said.
With Colbert pointing out that Trump claimed nobody brought up the hack before the election, Smith shot the president-elect down, saying, “Well, they did. They did long before the election. It was discussed openly in those segments and we reported on them.”
Watch the video below via YouTube: