NEW YORK — Fox News Channel analyst Brit Hume has deleted a Fourth of July tweet that suggested Democrats "sure don't love" America.
Hume had referred to a Gallup poll that said 47 percent of Americans said they were "extremely proud" to be Americans, the lowest percentage in the 18 years that the polling company has been asking that question. Among Democrats, 32 percent of poll respondents said this.
In his since-deleted tweet, Hume had linked to an article about the poll in a conservative blog that was titled, "Why do Democrats hate America?"
"Hate may be too strong a word but they sure don't love it," Hume wrote.
Hume later wrote that some people thought that wasn't a fair conclusion from the poll. "I agree and thus the deletion," he said. A former ABC News correspondent, Hume anchored Fox's evening newscast before retiring to an analyst's role.
Gallup said that 85 percent of Democrats reported that they were extremely, very or moderately proud of America.
Only 4 percent of Democrats said they were "not at all" proud of the country, Gallup said.
Fox has taken heat for a number of statements made by its personalities and guests in recent weeks. Prime-time host Laura Ingraham likened detention centers where migrant children were separated from their parents to summer camps, and guest Ann Coulter called some of the children "child actors." Guest Corey Lewandowski made noises belittling a story about a 10-year-old girl with Down's Syndrome held by authorities.
Contributor David Bossie said on the air to a black Democratic strategist that "you're out of your cotton-picking mind." Bossie later apologized and Fox condemned his remarks, calling them "deeply offensive and wholly inappropriate."