swinging punches

Shep Smith kicks off his new show by ripping into Trump and the gloves are definitely off

Shep Smith’s new show on CNBC debuted last night and he kicked off things off with quite a wallop.

The former FOX News anchor spent several minutes at the top of the hour railing into Donald Trump and his disastrous debate performance on Tuesday evening.

“Right now, on a brand-new newscast, we’d normally play the best sound and video from the debate, right?” Smith said at the top of the episode. “That’s the lead, the back and forth from the president and the man that wants to replace him.”

However, that couldn’t happen, Smith said, because, well, we all saw the debate and it was an absolute debacle.

Related: Last night’s disastrous presidential debate as told in memes

“In the debate, the president told a group of white supremacists–some of whom stood by those in Charlottesville with their torches–to ‘stand back and stand by’,” he told viewers.

Joe Biden declared the duly elected president of the United States unfit to lead, called him a racist, a liar, a clown, and told him to shut up. We’ve never seen any of this. Not in America.”

Smith then promised viewers that his new show would “lay out the facts to the best of our ability in context and with perspective,” a clear dig at his former network, Fox News, which does the exact opposite.

Speaking the The Hollywood Reporter last week, Smith said he was glad to be free from the chains and fetters of Fox News so he could finally offer viewers a “facts only newscast.”

“What we want to do, and what I have long wanted to do, is a just-the-facts newscast,” Smith explained.

“I have no issues with opinion people, especially if they begin with fact and opine from there, but there is an absence from my perspective in a fact-based news-only hour, where we lay out the facts, we bring in experts to help understand them better, we add context and perspective, but we don’t opine on them.”

As for joining CNBC, which, of course, is under the same umbrella as MSNBC, Fox News’ liberal counterpart, Shep said he’s “proud” to be with a more friendly and welcoming network.

“I am proud to wear these colors,” he said. “I am just so excited to be back in the game.”

He continued, “Ours is an industry that is known over time to be a very backstabbing thing. You have a bunch of high-profile people who are public figures and, you know, the knives come out. It is not like that here.”

“I have been here for months now, and it is the most warm and welcoming place I have ever experienced.”

Reviews of Smith’s new CNBC show have been mostly positive. Here’s what folks on Twitter are saying…

Related: Shep Smith tears into Puerto Rico’s homophobic governor in cringeworthy interview

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