Sen. Orrin Hatch says the current scandal engulfing President Donald Trump and fired FBI Director James Comey is “overblown.”
Hatch appeared on Bloomberg TV Wednesday morning and said most of the latest controversy hitting Trump is the fault of Democrats and the media.
“I personally think it’s overblown like everything they do against Trump,” said Hatch. “There’s so much bitterness that he won the election against the favorite Hillary Clinton. A lot of the media takes a lot of effort to pick on him all the time.”
News broke on Tuesday that Trump reportedly asked Comey to back off the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his connections to Russia. That was on the heels of news that Trump divulged highly classified information to two Russian diplomats during an Oval Office meeting last week.
Hatch says he’s not convinced that the reports are accurate, calling the allegations against Trump “pretty thin.”
“I’ve actually said what is the big deal? This is way overblown, but I haven’t seen all of the information. I’ll have to see all of the information before I make a final decision.”
Hatch’s main complaint is the constant drumbeat of scandal distracts from the efforts to enact tax reform.
“Virtually everybody realizes this is a year we need to get both parties on the same page on tax reform,” says Hatch. “That will help businesses explode and help get this economy going again. It hasn’t been going as well as it should, although I think Trump has added a lot to it and it’s done better than people thought it would.”
