Last Updated on October 11, 2019
Shepard Smith, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump who was accused of sexual assault by a man who claims he awoke to find Smith in the same bed with him with his tongue down his throat, is resigning from Fox News amid a growing feud between him and Tucker Carlson.
This afternoon Smith released a statement explaining that he is resigning from Fox News effective immediately. Smith explains that he asked Fox News to be released from his contract so he can pursue other opportunities, and Fox News first asked him to stay before releasing him.
Smith’s departure comes months after Patrick Howley broke the accusations against Smith from a man who says he was molested by the former Fox News anchor.
“I wake up, and Shepard is on top of me, like, in a towel or a bathrobe. And he’s got his tongue down my throat and his hands all over me. Completely uninvited. I mean, I gave him no signal. There was nothing,” John Doe #1 says in the interview — excerpts of which are presented in audio form above.
“I had also volunteered to sleep in the spare, so it wasn’t — I never invited myself to his bedroom,” John Doe #1 said.
“I pushed him off. I was like, ‘Dude what are you doing?’ And he’s like, ‘what you don’t like it?’ There was like this, kind of like No!, and he kept going, he kept pushing. Like, pushing his hands on all these spots,” John Doe #1 said.
The departure also comes after weeks of feuding with Carlson, who anchors Tucker Carlson Tonight, one of the network’s most highly viewed programs.
Carlson had bashed Smith for what he considered to be a partisan attack on President Donald Trump regarding the recently released transcript of a conversation between the American president and his Ukrainian counterpart.
Smith and his guest both agreed that the conversation was an impeachable offense, and could spell the demise of the Trump administration.
Following an outburst from Smith the following day, Fox News reportedly threatened to suspend Smith should he publicly continue the feud with Carlson.
Vanity Fair reported:
Yesterday, Smith lashed back, calling Carlson “repugnant” for not defending Napolitano on air. (Trump himself is said to turn off Fox at 3 p.m., when Shep Smith airs.) Seeking to quell the internecine strife before it carried into a third day, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace communicated to Smith this morning to stop attacking Carlson, a person briefed on the conversation said. “They said if he does it again, he’s off the air,” the source said.
It is unknown if Smith has secured an on-air position at another network or what direction his career may take after departing Fox News.
