Fox News analysts Laura Ingraham and Brit Hume weren’t fans of Stacey Abrams‘ version of America, but they seemed pleasantly surprised at how “articulate” she was while delivering the official response to President Donald Trump‘s 2019 State of the Union address.
“Well, it certainly was a contrast in message from the president’s optimistic report on the state of America and the quite grim picture that Abrams painted of where Americans are and how they’re living,” Hume said after the Georgia politician and activist wrapped up her rebuttal.
Abrams, a former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives whose unsuccessful 2018 run for Georgia governor sparked claims of voter suppression, is the first African-American woman to deliver the official Democratic response.
“From what she seemed to be saying about race, you would think that it was 1963,” Hume added.
The political commentator was alluding to a portion of Abrams speech where she addressed the issue of racism, arguing, “We fought Jim Crow with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, yet we continue to confront racism from our past and in our present, which is why we must hold everyone from the very highest offices to our own families accountable for racist words and deeds, and call racism what it is. Wrong.”
Hume gave the potential 2020 Senate candidate credit for her on-screen “presence,” and beamed that she “certainly speaks very ably and well.” Hume still had his doubts about how effective her speech was, however.
“I just wonder how her message will resonate with people out there living with record low unemployment, even among a number of minority groups where unemployment tends to stay high,” he said. “So I think it was a nice try .
Ingraham also weighed in on the matter and acknowledged Abrams “did have presence.”
“She did much better than some people in the past,” she said, with her fellow panelists agreeing. “It’s never easy to do these speeches.”
In the same breath, Ingraham accused Abrams of “presenting an alternative universe to what really is going on” in the U.S.
Watch more in the clip below.
