Studio B With Shepard Smith
FNC (FNC) National Programming, DMA: 0
03:17PM Eastern D.S., January 3 2008
Programming Type: Talk News Public affairs

shepard: the thompson campaign is on the warpath, all but blaming romney' s people for a story he calls all light. we have been telling you about that story on the website. the writer of this article is a good reporter. it basically says that thompson will drop out of the presidential race if he does poorly tonight. thompson disputed this claim and said "new wave." >> people dropped these things on the eve of the election and try to depress the other guys vote. whatever genius activities these guys and cajun, with more money than judgments sometimes. that is what we are seeing. hepard: thompson never names of romney or his campaign our right. here is the executive director of the thompson' s campaign. shepard: the buzz has been that for weeks he would drop out. the timing makes a lot of people wonder what has happened. >> i grew up on a dairy farm in northeast iowa and i know when i step in something that does not smell good. the story does not smell good. it violates every rule of journalists to put out that story with no sources. it is false. shepard: why would this leak happen? >> i do not think it was a leak. i think was a planted story. shepard: why would that happen? >> to damage our campaign. to benefit one of the other candidates. i cannot say which one. shepard: all of you say behind- the-scenes, say that you think of romney people di this. you think that his campaign feels like they need a couple points. they feel like they can get it by putting this out there. i do not know what happened. >> the facts are, that it has shown positive growth in the past couple of weeks. we are in a commanding position in third. we have raised almost $2 million since the christmas holidays. we have great events and heat. we' re finishing hour bus tour. 53 cities, 4,000 miles. shepard: another theory -- you did not have any life, you have very low numbers, and the buzz about your candidate has been that he is not in it to win it. he is not working hard, taking it seriously. now you have this article in "politico" ith a reporter who goes out on the edge and says it. thompson needs to go on air and say he is not dropping now. >> he may not ever go out on the edge. the reporter never goes to our events. thompson was hollering this morning at an event. shepard: are big political correspondence were saying it would not have gone with the source unless the unnamed source happened to beat mccann did it or the chairman. is it possible that your side set him up to get the boys out? >> i do not believe it. we are in the middle of our more than 50 city bus tour, so much handshaking over the past couple of weeks. our candidates -- are candid it is working on only about four hours of sleep tonight. shepard: to go. >> thank you. shepard: the romney camp has just weighed i