Fox News' Shepard Smith denounced President Donald Trump's treatment of the media and his failure to address concerns about Russia following Trump's contentious press conference on Thursday afternoon.
"It is crazy what we're watching every day. It's absolutely crazy," Smith said on the network. "He keeps repeating ridiculous, throwaway lines that are not true at all and sort of avoiding this issue of Russia as if we're some kind of fools for asking the question. Really? Your opposition was hacked and the Russians were responsible for it, and your people were on the phone with Russia on the same day it was happening, and we're fools for asking the questions? No, sir. We are not fools for asking this question, and we demand to know the answer to this question. You owe this to the American people. Your supporters will support you either way. If your people were on the phone, what were they saying? We have a right to know. We absolutely do, and that you call us fake news and put us down like children for asking these questions on behalf of the American people is inconsequential. People deserve that answer, at very least."
On Thursday, Trump called allegations that members of his administration had contact with Russian officials "fake news" and defended former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who resigned this week after it was revealed he had lied about the contact he made with the Russian ambassador.
"He didn't have to do that because what he did wasn't wrong - what he did in terms of the information he saw. What was wrong was the way that other people, including yourselves in this room, were given that information, because that was classified information that was given illegally. That's the real problem," Trump claimed of the leaks which led to Flynn's resignation. (Trump has long praised leaks, and even said in October of last year in reference to Hillary Clinton, "I love WikiLeaks . It's amazing how nothing is secret today when you talk about the internet.")
He later added, "Russia is fake news. Russia - this is fake news put out by the media. The real news is the fact that people, probably from the Obama administration because they're there, because we have our new people going in place, right now."
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