Fox News analyst: Jan. 6 panel could be doing GOP ‘a great service’ by damaging Trump

Fox News political pundit Brit Hume argued Tuesday that many in the GOP may appreciate any damage the House Jan. 6 committee is able to inflict on former President Trump.

“If they succeed either by damaging him or staining him such that he is either unable or for legal or political reasons to run again they might end up finding out that they’ve done the Republican Party a great service, because I think a great many Republicans think they can’t win with Trump at the head of the ticket again,” Hume said during an appearance on Fox’s evening newscast “Special Report.”

“They are afraid of his supporters and don’t want to come out against him directly. But they’d like him to go away. 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.”

The panel investigating the attack on the Capitol has held a pair of hearings over the last several days laying out the findings of its investigation, in an effort to show that Trump incited the attack by falsely claiming widespread voter fraud had led to a “rigged” election against him in 2020.

Using witness testimony, never-before-seen video from the day of the attack and a number of visual presentations, the committee has painted Trump as a rogue president ignoring his advisers in a desperate bid to hold on to power following his election loss.

Publicly, most congressional Republicans have dismissed the hearings as partisan and amounting to a “witch hunt” against the former president, arguing that Democrats on the committee are attempting to distract from Biden’s low popularity and sky-high inflation.

Since leaving office, Trump has focused his energy on endorsing and campaigning for Republicans in state primary races that are loyal to him and his policies, with a mixed rate of success in the first few months of 2022.

Earlier this week, Trump released as 12-page response to the committee’s various findings. Another hearing is scheduled for later this week.