Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume said Monday that President Trump’s rapidly growing wealth, and his family’s business dealings, fed voters’ concerns about government corruption as Republicans suffered sweeping midterm losses.
Hume appeared on “Special Report,” where anchor Bret Baier highlighted a Fox News poll showing 55% of respondents said government corruption was crucial to their congressional vote. Baier noted that roughly nine in 10 voters called it important or a factor.
Hume said the issue mattered to voters one way or another, pointing to economic strain.
“When times are tough, and we’re going through an economic transformation of an extraordinary degree, and prices are high, even though jobs are plentiful, people are hurting,” Hume said.
He said voters look to Washington and see a president who was already rich and never shy about saying so, now several billion dollars richer, according to Forbes. Hume added that voters also see Trump’s sons involved in cryptocurrency businesses that are bringing in large sums, and they don’t like the looks of it.
Hume also addressed allegations from Calley Means, who has claimed people around Trump corruptly influenced policy to satisfy campaign donors. Hume said he is suspicious of those claims, but that they may ring true to voters already disillusioned with Washington.
Baier then played a clip of Trump’s Sunday interview on “60 Minutes” with Ross Douthat, who asked why the president had not divested from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures, including World Liberty Financial, which has attracted foreign investment. Trump responded by asking how one divests from cash.
Hume said Trump never really answered the question, which he said Douthat put to him well. He noted the president is in a tight spot because he says his sons run the business and that, although he is a part owner, he has no say and isn’t aware of what they are doing.
Trump has not shied away from discussing his wealth. At a rally in Georgia last month, he acknowledged he would be accused of bragging while people were suffering at the pump, and did it anyway.
The comments add to a growing chorus of conservatives examining what went wrong for Republicans in last week’s elections, which handed Democrats control of both chambers of Congress.
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