Morning Joe offered some rare praise of a rival network on Wednesday morning, hailing the news side of Fox for rejecting President Donald Trump‘s “spy gate” theory and his outlandish claims that special counsel Robert Mueller is “meddling” in the midterm elections.

While Trump’s unfounded claims were taken as gospel on Fox & Friends and other Fox News opinion programs, anchor Shep Smith offered a forceful rebuke of them on his show, calling them “unfounded, not based in fact or reason with no evidence.” Andrew Napolitano, Fox News’ judicial analyst, called Trump’s “spy gate” claims “baseless.”

On MSNBC Wednesday morning, host Joe Scarborough introduced a clip of Smith’s segment, referring to him as “Shep Smith Superstar, soon to be a musical.”

“Thank god for him,” co-host Mika Brzezinski said after the clip.

“Well, for Fox News,” Scarborough added. “Judge Napolitano, Fox News’ news-gathering force. Doing what I thought Republicans always did, and that’s stand up and defend the rule of law, stand up and defend the FBI.”

“And the factual record as we go. Defending real facts as opposed to alternative facts. It’s admirable,” the Washington Post‘s Eugene Robinson said.

Scarborough went on to thank the various Fox News hosts debunking Trump’s conspiracies, going back to when he was suggesting Ted Cruz’s dad assassinated JFK.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

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