A war of words between two Fox News personalities escalated when Tucker Carlson hit back at Shepard Smith after the daytime host characterized Carlson’s handling of one of his guests as “repugnant.”
The feud began Tuesday when Carlson brought former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova on his opinion show after Democrats announced they had begun an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. DiGenova ripped Fox News contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano, calling him “a fool” for saying during an interview with Smith that Trump had already admitted to committing a crime.
Smith on Wednesday expressed pointed disapproval that Carlson did not challenge diGenova over the statement, and said, “Attacking our colleague who is here to offer legal assessments on our air, in our work home, is repugnant.”
During Wednesday night’s episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, diGenova returned to defend himself, while Carlson took swipes at Smith.
“Well, 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 said before showing a clip of Smith’s show.
“Repugnant! Not clear if that was you or me but someone is repugnant,” Carlson exclaimed.
“Now, unlike maybe some dayside hosts, I’m not very partisan,” Carlson said with a smile, before asking diGenova once again if he thought Trump had committed a crime.
DiGenova went on to discuss how he did not believe the president to have committed any crimes and criticized Napolitano once more.
“Why do we find ourselves in a situation where people aren’t willing to admit that their passions are guiding their news coverage?” Carlson said. “Wouldn’t it be better if we just said out loud, you know, ‘This is what I think.’”
“When you dress up news coverage, when you dress up rather partisanship as news coverage and pretend that your angry political opinions are news, people tune out. They know dishonesty when they see it,” he added.
