A Fox News host slammed Trump's false claims Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama, the latest episode in the war between Fox and the president
- Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on Thursday slammed President Donald Trump for sharing aan altered weather map to support his claim that Hurricane Dorian once threatened Alabama.
- "The president said that Alabama was at risk from Hurricane Dorian. It wasn't. Maybe he made a mistake. Maybe he was confused. We don't know. But he was wrong," Smith said.
- He went on to describe Trump's false claims about the path of Hurricane Dorian as "fake news defined."
- Smith's criticism of Trump is the latest attack in a continuing battle the president and the network that was once his favorite source of news.
- Trump has repeatedly criticized Fox News in recent months, saying in August: "There's something going on at Fox ... and I'm not happy with it."
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Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on Thursday slammed US President Donald Trump for sharing an apparently doctored weather map to support his false claim that Hurricane Dorian was originally set to hit the state of Alabama.
The episode is the latest in a long series of confrontations between Trump and the network.
Speaking on his show "Shepard Smith Reporting" Thursday night, Smith launched into a lengthy monologue criticizing Trump, asking: "Why would the President of the United States do this?"
"Some things in Trumplandia are inexplicable," Smith said. "The president said that Alabama was at risk from Hurricane Dorian. It wasn't. Maybe he made a mistake. Maybe he was confused. We don't know. But he was wrong."
Controversy over the path of the hurricane began on Sunday when Trump claimed that Dorian was forecast to hit Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama.
At the time, the first four states were in the hurricane's predicted path, but Alabama was not. Trump's message led to a swift correction from the National Weather Service's Alabama office.
Trump then doubled down on his claims throughout the week, and on Wednesday produced an outdated version of a National Hurricane Centre map, altered via Sharpie marker pen to extend its predicted track to Alabama.
On Thursday, Smith called this "fake news defined."
"That map was from the day the hurricane became a hurricane. Eight days ago. August 28. It was four days old at the precise time he said Alabama would likely be hit harder than anticipated," he told viewers. "By then, it was fake news defined on a very serious subject."
Smith's attack on Trump was the latest salvo in a growing war on words that has seen the president increasingly turn on his former favorite news network.
"Fox is a lot different than it used to be," Trump told reporters in August after the network produced a poll that found he had less national support than four Democratic contenders for the presidency in 2020.
"Fox has changed, and my worst polls have always been from Fox," he said. "There's something going on at Fox, I'll tell you right now. And I'm not happy with it."
Read more: Trump is reportedly worried that Fox News is being taken over by liberals trying to undermine him, as his war on the network escalates
Fox anchors have hit back at the president's criticisms, with host Neil Cavuto saying in late August that Fox News staff "don't work for you."
"Well, first of all, Mr. President, we don't work for you. I don't work for you. My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you, just report on you," Cavuto said on air.
Although he did not respond directly to Smith's criticism, Trump continued to push his false claims about the trajectory of Hurricane Dorian, tweeting about it twice on Thursday.
In one tweet, he shared a message from the Alabama National Guard on August 30 saying that Dorian was "projected to reach southern Alabama by the early part of the week."
In another tweet, Trump shared several hurricane trajectory projections from Thursday and Friday last week, saying: "Just as I said, Alabama was originally projected to be hit. The Fake News denies it!"