Fox News’ Brit Hume Warns Trump He’s ‘Not Winning the PR War in Minnesota’

Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume warned President Donald Trump and his deputies that they’re “not winning the PR war in Minnesota” during a Monday evening appearance on Special Report.

After noting that a government funding fight looms after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent over the weekend, anchor Bret Baier asked Hume for a “30,000-foot political look at what happened over the weekend,” while noting that there is “deep frustration” within the Trump administration over the Department of Homeland Security’s reaction to Pretti’s death.

“‘Some of those sources, these sources, have described DHS’s response to the shooting as a case study on how not to do crisis PR. Another added that DHS is wrong and we are losing this war. We are losing the base and the narrative,” said Baier, quoting Bill Melugin. “What do you make about all of this?”

“Well, I’ll tell you who I think agrees with that, and that’s the congressional Democrats, Senate Democrats in particular, who think that they might even, you know, be willing to do another government shutdown, poorly though they did in the last one, to keep up the fight on this whole issue of DHS and its excesses, or its alleged excesses, anyway,” answered Hume. “So I think that’s kind of where we are. It’s all, to some extent, a subset of the never-ending struggle against Donald Trump. But I think the extravagant statements by these DHS officials, ICE officials, and the DHS secretary over the weekend didn’t play well. And such polling as there is, Bret, suggests that people think ICE and DHS have gone too far, and they’re not winning the PR war in Minnesota.”

“Well, it seems like President Trump acknowledges that to some extent as well, sending Tom Homan in, having these conversations with the Minnesota governor and Minneapolis mayor as well,” replied Baier.

“O  yeah, I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s taken quite a different posture from DHS officials and was, and from Kristi Noem in particular out there,” agreed Hume. “He-,you know, he did, after the first person was killed out there, he talked about how tragic he thought it was. And he’s withholding judgment on this one, and waiting for the end of the investigation, which is what a great many people, including some, obviously, in DHS according to Bill, think that the officials on the scene out there should have done as well, is to wait for this and for a full investigation to be done on this to conclude what exactly happened out there.”

Watch above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!