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Brit Hume: Many Republicans privately want Jan. 6 hearings to take Trump out of running

June 14, 2022 | | Print Article

While Democrats clearly hope the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot will negatively impact Donald Trump and his supporters, there are some even in the Republican Party who would “privately be very glad” if it damages the former president’s 2024 prospects.

This was the view expressed by Brit Hume, Fox News senior political analyst, in a discussion about the circus act that is the House committee which held its second public hearing on Monday, rolling out former Trump advisers and presenting “testimony” designed to give the 45th president a political black eye and, ostensibly, keep him from running for office again.

Hume told Fox News anchor Bret Baier that if Democrats succeed in knocking Trump out of contention for office, they may actually be doing the Republican Party “a great service.”

“I guess the question still is, are they moving towards trying to make a legal case against Donald Trump, or one that is a political case to somehow prevent him from being a factor in 2024?” Baier asked Monday on “Special Report.”

“Well, I think they’re doing both,” Hume replied.

“Jamie Raskin, one of the committee members has said, you know, part of what they’re doing is to create something that can be referred to the justice department for possible prosecution,” he added, referring to the Maryland Democrat.

The Jan. 6 committee is comprised of seven Democrats and two very vocal anti-Trump Republicans ― Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)

“What strikes me about this, Bret, is that if they succeed – either by damaging him or staining him such that he is either unable or for legal or for political reasons to run again – they might end up finding out that they’ve done the Republican Party a great service,” Hume continued.

“Because I think a great many Republicans think they can’t win with Trump at the head of the ticket again. They are afraid of his supporters and don’t want to come out against him directly. But they’d like him to go away,” he surmised.

“If the effect of this committee is to make his possible candidacy go away, I think a great many Republicans would privately be very glad,” Hume concluded.

The political analyst had, in a separate Fox News appearance, called out the committee hearing as a “televised press release with soundbites.”

“I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my life, and I certainly never imagined back in the day when I was working for one of the broadcast networks’ news divisions, that such an event would ever be put on primetime television by one of the networks. And in this case, it was done by all of them. Quite remarkable,” he said on “America’s Newsroom.”

Hume’s take on “many Republicans” secretly being glad if the partisan committee inflicts permanent damage on Trump and his reelection chances sparked heated criticism on Twitter where many of the former president’s supporters disagreed – and many also took Hume to the woodshed for his analysis.

Frieda Powers
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