Shepard Smith: Trump Created Fake News With Sharpie

Out Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, who has generally been one of the few Fox personalities willing to criticize Donald Trump, has decried the president's use of a doctored map to back up his erroneous claim that Hurricane Dorian was going to hit Alabama.

Trump "decries fake news that isn't and disseminates fake news that is," Smith said Thursday on Shepard Smith Reporting.

Trump first made the claim about Alabama Sunday, tweeting that the state was in the hurricane's projected path, along with Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. The latter four were, but Alabama wasn't, and the Birmingham office of the National Weather Service quickly pointed that out.

The president, apparently not willing to admit a mistake, kept on insisting throughout the week that Alabama was in danger from the storm. Wednesday he showed a math of the hurricane's path that appeared to be altered with a black Sharpie marker to include Alabama. Then, when asked by a reporter if the map was doctored, Trump just said, "I don't know. I don't know." The Washington Postreports Trump was actually the one who marked up the map with the Sharpie.

"Some things in Trumplandia are inexplicable," Smith said. "This week's edition, the president's ongoing claim that Alabama was at risk from Hurricane Dorian. It wasn't. Maybe he got some bad info ... maybe he made a mistake. Maybe he was confused. We don't know. But he was wrong." Yet, instead of acknowledging he was wrong, Trump "blamed the media for his own inaccurate warning and started to rewrite history on the matter," Smith continued.

While Smith has historically been about the only Trump critic at Fox, earning him the president's ire, others at the conservative news channel have recently stepped up to scrutinize Trump more closely and point out his missteps. Trump has now begun to lash out at Fox, saying "there's something going on" there and he's "not happy with it." Fox host Neil Cavuto clapped back on the air late last month.

"Well, first of all, Mr. President, we don't work for you," Cavuto said. "I don't work for you. My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you, just report on you."

Trump has not responded directly to Smith's Thursday statements, but he has kept on sending tweets to defend his Alabama prediction.