Fox News’ Shepard Smith Faces Homophobic Backlash After Criticizing Donald Trump

Fox News is known as a right-wing network, but that doesn’t mean its news personalities aren’t allowed to criticize President Trump. However, if they do, they will face an intense backlash, and this is something Shepard Smith has learned after angrily criticizing Donald Trump at his press conference on Thursday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8C5E4geDzU

As USA Today has noted, Trump supporters are figuratively calling for Smith’s head.

“Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is under fire for criticizing President’s Trump’s treatment of CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a freewheeling news conference Thursday and for Trump’s refusal to answer questions about his campaign’s ties to Russia.”

“It’s crazy what we’re watching every day. It’s absolutely crazy. 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 kind 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? No sir,” Shepard is quoted as saying.

Almost immediately, right wing Twitter exploded. A lot of tweets made fun of Smith’s sexuality.

Last year, Breitbart wrote an article about Shepard coming out as gay.

“Fox News anchor Shepard Smith revealed he is gay in an interview with the Huffington Post and defended former Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes against claims that Ailes urged him to never come out about his sexual orientation in public.”

Many of the comments after the article were very insulting towards Smith and his sexuality.

“Save your preaching for the pulpit. The radical homosexual agenda is despicable and so are those who promote it,” said LWM.

“God makes it very clear in His Word that it [homosexuality] is indeed sin,” claimed L. Masco.

Shepard Smith has upset the right-wing audience a lot during the past year. Last July, he experienced a backlash after chastising a guest for saying “all lives matter.”

“During a Sunday broadcast, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith scolded former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for daring to use the phrase ‘all lives matter.’ Smith snapped at Jindal and insisted the phrase is seen as a ‘derogatory’ and racist term,” wrote Breitbart columnist Warner Todd Huston, adding that that Jindal insisted that everybody’s lives mattered and that we have to come together to end the unnecessary bickering over whose life is or isn’t important.

Once again, many in the comments section felt betrayed by Smith.

“What an a**. If I ran Fox, Shepard would be fired for abysmally bad judgment,” said Golden Rule.

“Shep Smith’s PC leftism is repugnant. Of course all lives matter,” said Wild_Bird.

Shepard Smith isn’t the only personality on Fox News that has been brutally criticized. Megyn Kelly, who just left the channel, was brutalized for asking Donald Trump questions about his attitude towards women in a debate in August of 2015. After that, Trump supporters body-shamed, slut-shamed, and did everything else they could to demean her.

In January of 2016, Vox noted that out of 80,000 tweets aimed at Kelly in a 24-hour period, 423 contained the word “b***h,” “88 wrote “whore,” 404 used “bimbo,” and 128 used “blonde.” There were hundreds of tweets with other forms of misogynistic words. Shepard Smith was one of the few fellow Fox personalities who defended Kelly.

What do you think of Trump supporters anger towards Shepard Smith? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

[Featured Image by Richard Drew/AP Images]