Full disclosure right up front: I don’t like Meet the Press host Chuck Todd. I didn’t like him when he was one of the primary hosts on daytime MSNBC shows, and when he took over from David Gregory on MTP, I stopped watching the show.
But I did go back and watch the exchange between Todd and 2016 Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders which took place on yesterday’s show. And it was a beautiful sight.
Todd brought up the shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, and said this to Senator Sanders:
“You’ve continue[d] to walk, straddle a line here. You talk about how your sort-of-pro-NRA votes in Vermont having to do with being about Vermont, not about the nation as a whole.”
Sanders wasted no time in setting Todd straight, and lashed back with:
“Chuck that’s not what I said. I come from a state that has virtually no gun control. And I voted to ban certain types of assault weapons. And I voted to close the gun show loophole. And I voted for instant background checks. And what I said is that as a nation we can’t continue screaming at each other or else we have to find common ground.”
Todd then pivoted to race relations and played a clip of the Vermont Senator attempting to speak at the NetRoots conference and being interrupted by protesters in the audience. Todd painted this encounter as a racial confrontation, and that led Sanders to say:
“It wasn’t a ‘confrontation,’ I was there to speak about immigration reform. And some people started disrupting the meeting. And the issue that they raised was in fact a very important issue, about black lives matter, about Sandra Bland, about black people getting yanked out of, in this case of Sandra Bland, getting yanked out of an automobile, thrown to the ground and ending up dead three days later because of a minor traffic violation. This is an issue that is a very important issue, an issue of concern that I strongly share.”
Let’s all call it like we see it: Chuck Todd is a hack reporter who is in way over his head as host of one of the most important Sunday news shows in television history. Perhaps it’s time we tell NBC that they need to replace Chuck Todd ASAP. If you’d like to do so, click this link and leave them a message.
Watch Bernie Sanders Take On Chuck Todd
Meet the Press, Courtesy of NBC News.