shepard smith
Fox News Broke Into Donald Trump's Environmental Speech to Fact Check It Live On Air, and They Didn't Hold Back
A pleasant surprise.
President Donald Trump's favorite network, Fox News, often hesitates to correct the president on his incessant lies. In fact, the network all too often helps perpetuate them.
But when Trump took the podium for a speech on the environment on Monday, the network took the extraordinary step of fact checking the president live on air.
As Trump touted all the so-called improvements made by his administration in the area of environmental policy, Fox News anchor and Trump critic Shepard Smith cut into the speech to list all of the green regulations slashed by Trump, including endangered species protections and water quality regulations.
Watch below:
President Trump left out quite a few facts when talking about his environmental record today – but @ShepNewsTeam fi… https://t.co/QZYIFzzrpo— Sen. Maggie Hassan (@Sen. Maggie Hassan) 1562618359.0
Smith pointed out that
"The administration withdrew requests for oil and gas companies to report methane emissions data, it loosened decades old rule designed to limit toxic emissions from major industrial polluters, it stopped enforcing a 2015 rule that would've phased out the use of hydrofluorocarbons..."
The administration also removed clean power plans that would have limited the use of coal and it sought to weaken Obama-era fuel economy standards.
People were pleasantly surprised that Fox News was willing to dispute the president's narrative rather than acquiesce to it, and only days after Trump railed against the network on Twitter for its weekend coverage.
@SenatorHassan @ShepNewsTeam @FoxNews Holy crap! Am I dead? Fox is using facts and exposing Trumps blatant lies abo… https://t.co/O0ao2YDcDk— John Gibson (@John Gibson) 1562672450.0
@SenatorHassan @ImProud2Resist @ShepNewsTeam @FoxNews Is FOX tv ' woke ' ? They are pissing DJT off more than once… https://t.co/CzNIPh7X9a— 🇨🇦🇺🇸 Hounding Fake 🍄45🍄 (@🇨🇦🇺🇸 Hounding Fake 🍄45🍄) 1562675748.0
@SenatorHassan @ShepNewsTeam @FoxNews Haha great to see this coming from Fox. Finally some honesty! Way go to! Let’… https://t.co/DDcb8uuFfm— Sir Logic (@Sir Logic) 1562680315.0
@SenatorHassan @ShepNewsTeam @FoxNews Thank you Shepard Smith for telling it like it is. Your integrity says a lot… https://t.co/d6d61RWhSm— Lise Courtois (@Lise Courtois) 1562670971.0
Smith wasn't the only one to point out Trump's reckless environmental policies in the time of a worldwide climate crisis.
Trump: “We want the cleanest air, we want crystal clean water, and that's what we're doing.” Facts: There’s been a… https://t.co/ahSyUK7Nr4— Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 #DemCast (@Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 #DemCast) 1562654889.0
The facts are clear: @RealDonaldTrump’s only environmental priority is to stuff the pockets of Big Oil & Big Coal c… https://t.co/0CxbqaApmW— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1562615434.0
trump just said he’s ”THE CLIMATE PRESIDENT”, & BECAUSE OF HIM.🇺🇸WATER IS CRYSTAL CLEAR,& OUR AIR IS CLEANEST IN T… https://t.co/oBPWhij5zC— Cher (@Cher) 1562637655.0
Very clear that Trump people have polling that shows that people care A LOT about clean air and water ,which is why… https://t.co/DJhuJatstt— Chris Hayes (@Chris Hayes) 1562614446.0
In addition to lying about water quality and rolling back crucial regulations, Trump backed out of the Paris Climate accord—the landmark international agreement designed to offset the climate crisis—in 2017.