- The Fox News anchor Shepard Smith discredited the Uranium One "scandal," a theory his network has promoted about Hillary Clinton.
- Republicans have aggressively promoted the unsubstantiated theory and pushed for a special counsel to investigate the claims.
- Fox News viewers attacked Smith, suggesting he should work for another network.
The Fox News anchor Shepard Smith discredited an unsubstantiated theory that his network and other conservative media outlets and Republican politicians have aggressively promoted as Hillary Clinton's Uranium One "scandal."
During Tuesday night's broadcast, Smith succinctly debunked Republicans' claims that the Obama administration and the Clinton-led State Department approved a deal allowing a Russian company to buy a Canadian company with mining interests in the US in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation.
Smith's report came as Republican calls for a special counsel to investigate the deal are mounting. President Donald Trump has called the issue "Watergate, modern-age," and his surrogates and supporters say it amounts to the "real Russia scandal." Smith played a clip of Trump making the allegations — which were first promoted by a Breitbart News editor named Peter Schweizer — on the campaign trail in 2016 and then called Trump's statement "inaccurate in a number of ways."
Smith pointed out that the Uranium One deal was unanimously approved by representatives of nine government agencies, just one of which was the Clinton-led State Department. And there is no proof that Clinton personally approved the deal, as one of her deputies officially signed off on it.
"The accusation is predicated on the charge that Secretary Clinton approved the sale. She did not," Smith said. "A committee of nine evaluated the sale, the president approved the sale, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and others had to offer permits, and none of the uranium was exported for use by the US to Russia."
Smith's segment was met with harsh criticism from many Fox News viewers who suggested he should leave the network for CNN or MSNBC.
"The worst part of a relaxing day is when Shepherd Smith starts talking. He is a smartass that needs to be on CNN. @FoxNews," one viewer, Jana Jo, tweeted.
Watch the clip below:
Shep Smith just took apart the Uranium One conspiracy theory in what amounts to a methodical annihilation of his own network's coverage of the story. pic.twitter.com/D439QyIBWU
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) November 14, 2017
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