Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Wednesday joined a growing chorus in Trumpworld calling for President Donald Trump to stop focusing his attention on Hunter Biden, saying it is a “mistake” and “doesn’t matter” to voters.
Over the past week, Fox News has devoted countless hours of coverage to materials found on a laptop purportedly belonging to the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden—despite the network reportedly passing on the story when Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani first approached them with it.
Other media outlets, meanwhile, have shown restraint in covering the story, largely due to questions surrounding Giuliani’s reputation for peddling dirt, the provenance of the laptop itself, and concerns that the materials could be part of a targeted disinformation campaign. Even at the New York Post, which first reported the story, concerns over credibility led the lead reporter on the story to reportedly decline to have his byline added.
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With the president and his loudest boosters continuing to hammer away at Hunter Biden’s emails, Huckabee—an early and passionate supporter of Trump’s—took to the president’s favorite morning show on Wednesday to tell him that this is a losing closing argument for the 2020 election.
After discussing the robust early voting totals with the Fox & Friends hosts, Huckabee quickly pivoted to giving the president some advice through the television screen.
“In these final days, what the president has to do is forget about Hunter Biden,” the Fox News contributor said. “Forget about all the distractions of everything except one thing: Remind the American people that it is their lives that really on the mark right now.”
Co-host Brian Kilmeade then wanted to know whether it was a “mistake” for Trump to lead his campaign message with Hunter Biden.
“Yeah, it is a mistake,” Huckabee declared. “Because the average person doesn’t understand it. It’s too complicated. And frankly, it doesn’t matter to them.”
“They care about their healthcare costs,” he added. “They care about their taxes. They care about safety in their neighborhood on their block and in their art. Focus on that and he wins the election by a landslide.”
While many of Fox News’ pro-Trump opinion hosts have obsessively covered the Hunter Biden emails, some of the network’s personalities have said it would behoove the president if he concentrated on kitchen-table issues.
Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy, for instance, said earlier this week that Trump should spend his time talking about the economy. Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen, meanwhile, pleaded with Trump to stop talking about Hunter, noting that voters don’t care about it and the “election is not going to turn” on the younger Biden.
