Brit Hume Warns Republicans Could Face 1994-Style Midterm Wipeout

Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume issued a stark warning to Republicans ahead of next month’s midterm elections, cautioning that the party could be headed for a major defeat.

Hume’s comments come as a new Fox News poll shows clear majorities of Americans believe Democrats would do a better job than Republicans on several key issues. Democrats lead Republicans on foreign policy, 54% to 45%, on gas prices, 55% to 43%, and on inflation and prices, 57% to 41%.

Republicans are widely expected to lose their narrow House majority, and could potentially lose control of the Senate, where Democrats would need a net gain of four seats.

President Donald Trump’s approval rating, which hovers in the 30s depending on the poll, has weighed on many Republican candidates. Even so, the president has insisted on making the midterms a referendum on his performance.

Appearing on Wednesday’s “Special Report,” Hume told Bret Baier that Democrats could pull off the kind of sweeping victory Republicans achieved in the 1994 midterms.

“Well, I think the Republicans have to be concerned that this might turn out to be a little bit like 1980, where the Republicans won landslide and nobody expected it and Ronald Reagan became president,” Hume said.

He then pointed to 1994, noting that then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, had campaigned in much the same way Trump is now, crisscrossing the country. Hume recalled that Republicans that year ran on a program they called the Contract for America, which Clinton dubbed the “Contract on America.”

Hume, who was covering the White House at the time, said he briefly thought Clinton might be gaining ground.

“He had the biggest megaphone as presidents always do. He got big crowds and the Democrats and the president’s party absolutely got slaughtered in that race,” Hume said, adding that Republicans won control of the House for the first time in decades.

“The Republicans have to worry that something like that might happen to them in this race, where not only do they lose the close ones but they lose a lot that weren’t even thought to be close and you get a big washout,” he continued. “I’m not saying it’s gonna happen, but I think it could happen.”

Hume later addressed Trump’s decision to place himself at the center of the GOP’s election strategy, offering a word of caution.

“Well, that’s fine if you’re simply trying to turn out Republicans,” Hume said. “But the polling that we now have shows that his support among Republicans has diminished since election day.”

He pointed to the president’s approval numbers as a serious concern for the party.

“And they’re also showing that his approval rating is, what? Thirty-six percent? That means he might get 36% of the vote out, but 64% disapprove,” Hume said. “That is really bad at this stage, when he’s out there front and center.”

Hume suggested the numbers could lead some to question the president’s role on the campaign trail.

“And it may raise the question in the minds of some people whether he should be out there front and center the way he is, given his standing,” he said.