Fox News host Shepard Smith gave White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest a sustained grilling on the Obama administration's ISIL strategy and congressional authorization to arm "moderate" Syrian rebels.
Smith posed several difficult questions to Earnest during the Press Secretary's inaugural Fox News appearance, and when Earnest provided unsatisfying answers, Shep went on a tirade:
When the Bush administration was doing this, these questions were asked from this desk and now that you are doing it, these are fair questions that deserve answers. We have a coalition of the Muslim world? I don't see it.
No one from Saudi Arabia, no one from Jordan--it has its own problems, Turkey has its own problems. We are not getting help from any of those nations, and to suggest that these people, with great respect, from Syria, who are not organized, and the Pentagon says it will take a year to train, and the Iraqi army, which has already folded and given away the weapons, are going to come together and fight ISIL for us and with us seems like, as the president once put it, something of a fantasy.
Smith not only expressed doubt that the Obama administration's 'fantasy' strategy would not work, he said "I will bet every penny that I ever make at this network" that Saudi Arabia and Jordan would not commit to a coalition.
"That's a substantial bet," Earnest said.
"It is a big bet," Smith said. "And it's a good bet, because it's not gonna happen, and the whole world knows it."