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Hannity says his Fox News colleague is "anti-Trump," and Smith responds that he's a journalist reporting the facts.
Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity and Shepard Smith are having a war of words over Donald Trump -- and facts.
"Shep is a friend, I like him, but he's so anti-Trump," Hannity said on his syndicated radio show Monday, in a conversation with Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka. "I mean, he went off on a rant last week."
The "rant" came Friday on Shepard Smith Reporting, on which the anchor reacted to the breaking news that there were at least eight people in the meeting during the presidential campaign involving Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The story about the meeting has changed frequently over the past week.
"The lies, one after another after another after another, Chris, they are of note and worthy of reporting and worthy of considering as a constituent," Smith said to fellow Fox anchor Chris Wallace.
Smith, who is gay, has sometimes been characterized as a liberal voice on the conservative channel, but he pointed out that many conservative commentators and fair-minded journalists think the meeting is worth looking into as part of the ongoing investigation as to whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. He shared, among others, a tweet from conservative analyst Stephen Hayes, who said, "If the meeting was a 'waste of time' & a 'nothing burger,' why lie after lie after lie?"
Wallace largely agreed, telling Smith, "This really shouldn't be a matter of liberal versus conservative, pro-Trump versus anti-Trump. If you're a fair-minded citizen, you ought to be concerned about the fact that we were repeatedly misled about what this meeting concerned."
To Hannity, though, such concern amounts to being anti-Trump, and he was trying to make a case to Gorka that Smith's presence shows Fox News offers a variety of voices. "Smith disagrees with me. And he does so vehemently," Hannity said on the radio show. "And the media was praising Shep and he's not the biggest fan of Trump, fine!"
Smith fired back today, saying it's not a question of being for or against Trump but of a journalist doing his duty. "Sometimes facts are displeasing," he said in a statement released to Mediaite. "Journalists report them without fear or favor."
Watch the segment with Smith and Wallace below.
