Shep Smith shuts down former Trump advisor for politicizing the Manchester attack

2025-04-27 06:42:42admin

Shep Smith has absolutely no time for people looking to talk politics in the face of tragedy.

This became abundantly clear when James Woolsey, a former Trump advisor attempted to use the the deadly attack at an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night as a means to bash Barack Obama's time in office. Woolsey's efforts were swiftly shut down by the Fox News anchor, who adamantly reminded him the investigation had not yet determined the cause of the explosion.

SEE ALSO: Several dead after explosion reported at Ariana Grande concert

When Woolsey, a former CIA director who advised President Trump during his campaign, spoke with Smith about the heartbreaking explosion that left 22 dead and 59 people injured near in Manchester Arena in the United Kingdom, it quickly became clear he was looking to politicize the incident.

"Things are kind of coming to a head. I think the radical Islamists ― and I would call them that ― have decided to pick up the pace with the terrorist attacks, and I think we’ll probably see some more. And we now have a president who is pretty straightforward that he is at war with them," Woolsey said, referencing Trump. "He’s not going to soft-pedal that. He calls them evil. And we haven’t had a situation like that. We did not have in the eight years of the Obama administration a president who wanted to fight and win a war."

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Smith quickly interrupted Woolsey to address his comments about Obama and his hasty political assumptions, saying, "President Obama fought a number of wars and certainly didn’t say that he didn’t want to win them. It’s very early, Mr. Woolsey, with great respect, it’s very early to make this a political matter."

Woolsey then went on to clarify, further explaining, "He didn’t say that he didn’t want to win them, but I think that’s the way he behaved. Seems to me that’s pretty straightforward."

According to The Washington Post, Woolsey resigned from his position as a senior advisor for Trump back in 2016, prior to his White House transition due to "growing tensions over Trump’s vision for intelligence agencies."

In the wake of the explosion Ariana Grande has offered fans her deepest apologies, and James Corden and other celebrities have flooded social media with messages of support and solidarity for those impacted.

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