Bret Baier acknowledged that former colleague Shepard Smith is concerned about Fox News’ coverage weeks after the latter suddenly left the network.
Smith, an original hire for the network in 1996, abruptly announced his departure from Fox earlier this month.
Baier, who worked with Smith, 55, for over twenty years, addressed Smith’s exit during a Tuesday morning appearance on CBS This Morning.
He said of Smith, “It was his decision. He was by far the best at breaking news coverage I’d ever seen. It was his call. What I’m happy about is the 3 p.m. hour is going to be a news hour. And they’ve committed to being a news program. I’m going to go in for a week in a couple of weeks and will do my turn in the anchor chair.”
[Read more: ‘Things have changed’: Shepard Smith frets about Trump’s combative tone]
Gayle King then asked Baier if Smith’s final words on air — “the truth will always matter” — was a dig at the network.
After getting pushback for not answering, he responded, “He’s concerned about coverage, journalistic coverage. I think he was proud of the news division at Fox. There’s obviously an opinion side, too. And he made a choice to leave. I’m happy that the show is going to be all news, and we’ll be — we’ll be in the circle.”
Baier later called it “a problem” that President Trump refers to portions of the media as “the enemy of the people.”
