Fox News Turmoil: Tucker Carlson And Shepard Smith Trade Insults Over Ukraine Coverage
On Tuesday, Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano sparked what would morph into a civil war between two of the network’s anchors. The exchange occurred after Napolitano slammed President Donald Trump for acknowledging that he requested help from the Ukrainian president in an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, calling the reported actions a “crime.”
According to The Hill, while appearing on Tucker Carlson’s highly rated show, former federal prosecutor and Fox News guest Joseph diGenova ripped Napolitano’s assessment of the situation and called the popular legal analyst a “fool.”
Shepard Smith, Fox News’ daytime host, didn’t take kindly to diGenova’s jab at Napolitano and dedicated a portion of his Wednesday broadcast to slamming diGenova and Carlson for allowing the guest to make such a charged statement unchallenged. Smith doubled down, calling the situation “repugnant” and diGenova a “partisan” guest.
On Wednesday night, Carlson returned a volley of insults aimed at Smith and his show during a full segment of his show, breaking down the situation by playing clips of Smith’s outrage and gathering diGenova’s opinion on Napolitano’s legal opinion of the Ukraine situation.
“Apparently our daytime host, who hosted Judge Napolitano, was watching last night and was outraged by what you said and quite ironically called you partisan,” Carlson explained to diGenova, according to Mediaite.
After replaying a clip of Smith invoking the word “repugnant,” Carlson laughed, sarcastically saying to diGenova, “Not clear if that was you or me but someone is repugnant!”
Carlson aimed another shot at Smith, inferring that the only partisan person in the ordeal is Smith.
“Now, unlike maybe some dayside hosts, I’m not very partisan,” Carlson said, before asking diGenova once again whether or not he thought Trump’s actions in the Ukraine call amounted to a crime.
After diGenova once again affirmed that Trump’s actions were not criminal based on his federal prosecutorial experience, Carlson continued taking jabs at Smith, accusing him of partisanship opinion disguised as news.
“It doesn’t seem honest to me when a host, any host on any channel, including this one, pretends that the answer is obvious,” Carlson said. “That’s not news, is it? That’s opinion.”
After launching several more pointed blows at Smith, Carlson ended the segment with a verbal nuke against his fellow Fox News colleague.
“It makes people cynical when you dress up news coverage, when you dress up partisanship as news coverage and pretend that your angry political opinions are news, you know, people tune out,” Carlson said.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Napolitano also claimed earlier in the week that the Ukraine phone call controversy could be more serious for Trump than the Robert Mueller investigation, dependent upon what was included in the call’s transcript and the whistleblower’s formal complaint.
