Whatever': Fox's Shep Smith Can't Contain Frustration While Talking About 'Fiscal Cliff

Fox News' Shep Smith during a Wednesday broadcast had a mini-meltdown while discussing the impending “fiscal cliff” with Democratic campaign consultant John Rowley and Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus.

They started by discussing House Majority Leader John Boehner's offer yesterday to find common ground with the president so as to avoid going over the “fiscal cliff.”

“I’m not really sure what we heard from the speaker,” said Rowley, “frankly, he spoke in such an elliptical way that this could be the beginning of a new era of bipartisanship or it could be he’s exactly the same place he was when he walked away from the table a year ago.”

Just to be clear, Speaker Boehner saying he’d consider tax increases only "under the right conditions" is nothing new. In fact, as TheBlaze noted yesterday, the Majority Leader has openly stated this on numerous occasions.

“There’s nothing in that speech that indicated gridlock,” Jacobus interjected. “He’s talking about closing some loopholes … that’s going to hurt a lot of people on the right. But both sides are going to have to compromise, the president is going to have to compromise on entitlement reform, and he’s going to have to take very seriously the fact that half the country – probably more than half the country – is not with him on raising the tax rates.”

This is the point where Shep Smith becomes exasperated (to put it politely):

See?

Watch the discussion [via Fox News]:

“Everybody needs to [reach across the aisle]. You’re right, Cherri. You couldn’t be righter. You know, I don’t mean to get riled up, but it’s serious, isn’t it Cherri?” a slightly calmer Smith asked.

“It’s very serious,” the Republican strategist responded.

“Nobody wants their loophole cut out, nobody wants to pay more,” Smith said in reference to the fact that House Republicans might agree to a deal involving just that.

“And we don’t want class warfare either,” Jacobus continued, “and if we start hearing that language again from the president, you know, he’s going to lose a lot of people.”

“Class warfare ... c’mon, now,” a tired-looking Smith muttered. "Whatever."

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

--

RELATED:

• The Morning After: Something Huge Is Happening to World Stocks