Republican strategist Brad Todd got called out on CNN Monday morning after he praised President-elect Donald Trump for openly embracing nepotism.
During a discussion about Trump's decision to appoint Charles Kushner, the father of son-in-law Jared Kushner, to be ambassador of France, Todd claimed that voters connected with Trump's authenticity in appointing family members to important government positions despite apparently lacking any other qualifications for the job.
"Donald Trump just says it out loud," said Todd. "And of course he wants people around him who are loyal to him, who are close to him. Every president has. We keep skipping over the fact that one of the reasons Donald Trump is popular with swing voters who are cynical about politics is he says things out loud that other people just do and then act like they're not going to do."
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This got some pushback from CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere, however.
"Though we've talked about Hunter Biden on this panel already this morning, in the Biden administration itself we did not see nepotism like this," he said. "In the Obama administration, in the same way, we did not have family members in positions."
He then added that while there was a long tradition of presidents of both parties appointing unqualified political allies to ambassadorships, he said that "I don't think anybody could argue that Donald Trump took a view of all the people who are qualified for these positions who could possibly be ambassador to France and just happened to find Jared Kushner's father."
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