One of Fox News’ most familiar faces went down the list of President Donald Trump’s midterm troubles on live television, and it was not a short one.
Brit Hume, the Fox News chief political analyst, 83, told viewers of “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Monday, Oct. 19, that he cannot tell whether the president’s campaign blitz is doing Republicans any good with two weeks left before the Nov. 3 election.
“The president has been out campaigning vigorously, but I’m not sure it’s making any difference, and what difference it makes, I’m not sure is helping,” Hume said on the program.
The numbers behind that judgment arrived the same day. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday, Oct. 19, put Trump’s approval at 31 percent, the lowest of either of his terms, and gave Democrats a 12-point lead on the generic congressional ballot, 47 percent to 35 percent. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos survey conducted Oct. 9-13 put his approval at 33 percent. That result, published Sunday, Oct. 18, formed part of a run of record-low ratings. Early voting is already under way in several battleground states.
Hume had sounded a warning five days earlier. He told host Bret Baier, 56, on Oct. 14 that Republicans risked a “big washout,” one in which they lose races nobody thought were close.
Not a Good Fit, But Ahead
Hume turned first to Texas, where Trump has taken to calling Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico “Tala-freak-o.” The president explained the coinage by saying Talarico is “a little freaky.”
A former teacher and now an Austin-area state lawmaker, Talarico has built a following among Democrats as a progressive populist. His opponent is Ken Paxton, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee, who beat Sen. John Cornyn for the nomination in a May 26 runoff. A Fox News poll published Oct. 2 showed Talarico narrowly ahead, 51 percent to 49 percent.
Exotic positions, as Hume called them, have drawn Talarico’s backing over his years in public life, and the analyst allowed that the nominee is not, on paper, a good fit for the state. What the analyst saw on camera was something else: a mild-mannered, pleasant Democrat who does not come across as an unappealing candidate, whatever voters make of his politics.
But “what he does not seem to be is a freak,” Hume said.
Putin Polls ‘Just Terrible,’ Hume Says
Hume then questioned whether Trump has helped himself with his warm turn toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and his apparent cold shoulder for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Congress had passed a sweeping package of Russia sanctions the month before, and Trump suspended it late on Friday, Oct. 16, drawing fire from both parties. That followed an Oct. 9 deal to import Russian diesel, which the president pitched as a way to ease fuel prices that have surged since the war with Iran began. Doubts about Zelenskyy surfaced next: over the weekend of Oct. 17-18, Trump questioned whether the Ukrainian leader wants the war to end at all. On Monday, Oct. 19, he told reporters he is open to meeting Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping about ending it even without Zelenskyy at the table.
The American public is not really sold on Zelenskyy, Hume said, but still favors him “by some margin.” Putin’s numbers, he added, are “just terrible.”
The ‘Fiasco’ Hume Wouldn’t Name
Hume reserved the word “fiasco” for the White House press secretary episode. Somebody sent a person out with only a day or two to prepare, it went badly, and doing that was a crazy thing to do, he said. He never used her name on air.
Trump terminated Katie Zacharia’s employment on Friday, Oct. 16, five days after appointing her. Chief of staff Susie Wiles reportedly engineered the dismissal. Zacharia’s only briefing ran under 15 minutes, and she took three questions.
“Susie gave Fox News the kill order, but Zacharia was an obviously bad choice. This was totally predictable,” a senior administration official said.
Zacharia told Fox News host Sean Hannity she had little time to prepare for her debut briefing and that her materials arrived that morning. Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary, said the episode was botched from the start and that the blame does not all belong to her.
Zacharia has since posted a photo of herself with boxer Floyd Mayweather aboard Air Force One on Instagram and X, captioned: “You can either be a fighter or a marshmallow.”
As of Tuesday, Oct. 20, Trump had named no replacement.
Damaged Landmarks, an Ocean Away
Students in France began the protests as a push for better school conditions, and Baier steered the segment there. The demonstrations have since turned into some of the worst unrest the country has seen in years, damaging historic landmarks and businesses while drawing criticism of French President Emmanuel Macron’s response.
If that kind of chaos reached American soil, Hume said, it might change the political atmosphere here. Short of that, he is unsure how much it would matter to the election.
“I don’t see this White House and this campaigning by the president as having made much headway so far,” Hume said.
