Herbert Hoover’s great-granddaughter is fed up with the former president’s name being used as political cannon fodder, telling Democrats to “just bury the 90-year-old talking point.”
Political pundit Margaret Hoover, who was born more than a decade after her famed relative’s death, made the statement during CNN’s Thursday’s episode of “OutFront” while weighing in on a recent interview where Donald Trump said the “one president” he doesn’t want to be is Herbert Hoover.
“When there’s a crash, I hope it’s going to be during these next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover,” Trump said earlier this month.
Trump was responding to a jibe made by Biden, his probable rival in November’s presidential election.
“In the four years Donald Trump was president — and he’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover who actually lost jobs in a four-year period. And that’s why I often…think of him as Donald ‘Herbert Hoover’ Trump,” Biden had said earlier that day.
Hoover’s term began in 1929 when the economy was hot, but quickly descended into turmoil with the Great Depression.
The comments by both 2024 presidential candidates came up during the segment on Thursday, and “OutFront” host Erin Burnett acknowledged Hoover’s relation to the 31st president.
“I never knew him,” Hoover responded.
“He died in ’64. I was born in ’77. But will Democrats just bury the 90-year-old talking point from the early 20th century and recognize the Great Depression was a unique event in American history?” she continued.
“FDR couldn’t solve it, Hoover couldn’t solve it. We’ve learned a lot about macroeconomics since then.”
CNN contributor David Axelrod chimed in, joking that “wherever he [Hoover] is, he should be happy that Donald Trump doesn’t want to be him.”
The exchange was earlier reported on by Mediaite.