Fox News chief anchor Shepard Smith on Thursday roasted President Trump for repeatedly backing his own forecast about Hurricane Dorian’s path that incorrectly included Alabama.
“Some things in Trumplandia are inexplicable,” Smith said. “Maybe he got some bad info from somebody, maybe he made a mistake, maybe he was confused, we don’t know. But he was wrong. And since, for days and days, he’s been insisting — with fake visuals in hand — that he was right.”
Trump tweeted on Sunday that “in addition to Florida – South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated” by Hurricane Dorian. Trump repeated the statement later that day while at a briefing at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters.
The National Weather Service in Birmingham quickly corrected the president, saying this was not the case, and meteorologists have since called him out for his assertion.{mosads}
Trump later attacked ABC News for reporting that he made an error and continued to defend his statements.
“That could’ve been it — the end of it. Everybody makes mistakes,” Smith said. “Instead, the next day, the president blamed the media for his own inaccurate warning and then started to rewrite history on the matter.”
On Wednesday, the president referred to a seemingly doctored map of Dorian’s original path that looped in Alabama with black marker.
Trump then doubled down on his remarks Thursday, insisting on Twitter that “certain models strongly suggested” Alabama and Georgia would be hit by the hurricane and that “what I said was accurate!”
“Why would the president of the United States do this?” Smith said. “He decries fake news that isn’t and disseminates fake news that is. Think China pays the tariffs. The wall is going up. Historic inauguration crowds. Russia probe was a witch hunt. You need an ID to buy cereal. Noise from windmills causes cancer. It’s endless.”
The map Trump tweeted Thursday afternoon shared a forecast on Twitter from days earlier that showed a potential path to Alabama — “four days old at the precise time he said Alabama would likely be hit harder than anticipated,” Smith said.
“By then,” Smith said, “it was fake news defined.”