MSNBC's Morning Joe hosts frequently bash Fox News for spewing lies and putting President Donald Trump in a positive light, but on Tuesday they praised one host on the conservative network for telling the truth about a Central American caravan of migrants that Republicans have cast as a threat to the U.S.
Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday said that what Trump and Fox News are doing is like the movie Idiocracy.
"They think that they're base, they think that Republicans are so stupid that they are going to believe all of this. I guess you know what though, not everybody in Fox News would have been allowed to star in film," Scarborough said. "[Host] Shep Smith once again told the truth as Shep Smith always seems to tell the truth, about this so-called fantasy caravan."
Morning Joe then aired a segment from Fox News the previous night in which Smith fact-checked the reporting of his own colleagues.
"Tomorrow the migrants, according to Fox News reporting, are more than two months away if any of them actually come here. But tomorrow is one week before the midterm election which is what all of this is about," Smith said. "There is no invasion, no one's coming to get you here, nothing to be worried about."
Smith pointed out that similar rhetoric was used to rile up Americans in April and the result was 14 arrests. "We're America we can handle it. But, like I said, a week to the election," he concluded.
Shep Smith on the migrant caravan: "There is no invasion. No one is coming to get you. There is nothing at all to worry about." pic.twitter.com/4dLmPuZem0
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) October 29, 2018
Scarborough then told his co-host Mika Brzezinski that he had two words to describe Smith: "Hotty Totty." He added that people in Smith's home state of Mississippi "have to be proud" of him "because while people are spewing B.S. all around him, lying," Smith is not.
The Morning Joe hosts weren't the only members of non-conservative media outlets who praised Smith.
MSNBC Live anchor Stephanie Ruhle on Tuesday morning tweeted compliments to Smith.
"Don't ever let anyone tell you unicorns aren't real. Thank you for being your magnificent self every damn day @ShepNewsTeam," she wrote.
Trump on Monday tweeted that "many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border." The president wrote: "Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!"
Several Fox News commentators also characterized the caravan of migrants fleeing violence as a threat to the U.S. Last week, Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins hid in the bushes waiting for migrants to cross the border illegally into the U.S. and claimed to have busted the attempt.
