Russia hoaxer Shep Smith shuts down Notre Dame fire speculation on his show

Fox News host Shepard Smith made waves Monday afternoon when he immediately cut off a French media analyst and former elected official who came on his show in the wake of the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral.

The guest explained to Smith that churches are "desecrated each and every week in France, all over France.” There is plentiful evidence to back up his statement.

“Sir, sir, sir, we’re not going to speculate here of the cause of something which we don’t know," Smith interjected. "If you have observations or you know something, we would love to hear it."

Following the French commentator’s insistence that viewers “need to be ready” for the possibility of unsavory news, Smith again cut off his guest, exclaiming:

“No, sir, we’re not doing that here, not now, not on my watch.” 

Churches are regularly targeted throughout France. Last year, some 875 churches in the country were vandalized, which include regular acts of arson and desecration, according to French police figures reported by The Sun. 

Officials have not determined the cause of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. Paris Prosecutor Remy Heitz suspected Tuesday that the fire was likely an accident, but there was no evidence to determine anything just yet. He added that a team of 50 people were investigating the cause of the blaze, according to Reuters.

For the past few years, Smith has regularly peddled Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theories on his Fox News show.

In July 2017, Smith described the White House’s actions related to the Mueller probe as “deception” and “mind-blogging.”

“Why all these lies? … Why is it lie after lie after lie,” Smith added. 

In February 2018, he castigated the president for describing the Russia hoax accurately. Smith took to the airwaves to declare the investigation “the opposite of a hoax.”

As evidence for his Trump-Russia conspiracies, Smith attempts to point to apparent evidence of wrongdoing by calling out the president for not personally insulting Russian President Vladimir Putin to his satisfaction.

“Shameful, disgraceful, treasonous: Three of the descriptions of what President Donald Trump did today in Helsinki,” Smith, who posits himself as an objective journalist, commented in response to the president’s July 2018 meeting with Putin. “President Trump declined to stand up for his own people and instead embraced Vladimir Putin,” Smith added.

The Fox host has also regularly dismissed the mountains of evidence that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, among other Trump-tied individuals, were set up by the FBI and other elements of the Obama Intelligence Community.

As we now know, thanks to a four-page summary of the Robert Mueller report that is due out Thursday, there was never any Trump-Russia collusion or criminal deception in the form of obstruction.

Smith has never apologized for promulgating the debunked Russia collusion hoax since the beginning of the Trump presidency. And given his smug and dismissive attitude concerning the ongoing arson epidemic against churches in France, we shouldn’t hold our breath expecting an apology in this case anytime soon.

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