Chuck Todd has tapped out. On Sunday, the moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press announced he’ll step down in September making way for current White House correspondent Kristen Welker to take over.
Todd has been moderator of the Sunday roundtable show since 2014 and in that time he put down a pretty big stamp of his own liberal bias on NBC’s political programming.
During his tenure Todd called the conservative Supreme Court “rigged,” attacked Republicans for having “blood on their hands” on COVID and blamed 2nd Amendment supporters for mass shootings.
Todd also repeatedly pushed progressive takes and promoted liberal heroes like former Vice President Al Gore.
NewsBusters Media Editor Bill D’Agostino did his best to condense the worst of Todd in this brief montage.
It was a tough job sorting through his large file on NewsBusters but the following are just a few of his most egregious attacks on conservatives and his praise of progressives since 2014:
Teaching Dangers of Communism is “Politicizing”
Clip of Governor Ron DeSantis: “We’re also the first state in the country to establish every November 10, the day in our schools is earmarked to teach our students at all grade levels about the evils of communist regimes throughout history we’re going to tell the truth about Marxism and Leninism.”...
Moderator Chuck Todd: “Being a Floridian, I sort of know what he’s trying to play there and all of that. But I would tell him, I went to Florida public schools, we were taught this. It was called history. It just seems like a weird politicizing — you know he’s going out of his way to politicize something.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press, March 12, 2023.
Worried About IRS Expanding? You Must Be a Tax Cheat
“I have never understood the resistance of extra IRS agents unless you knowingly cheat on your taxes.”
— Moderator Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, May 21. 2023.
Todd Claims Scientific Research Proves There’s More Than Two Genders
Host Chuck Todd: “How do you know? Are you confident that you know that gender is as binary as you’re describing it? Are you confident?”
GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy: “I am.”
Todd: “That there isn’t a spectrum?”
Ramaswamy: “I am.”
Todd: “Do you know this as a scientist?”
Ramaswamy: “Well, there’s two X chromosomes if you're a woman, and an X and a Y that means you’re a man.” …
Todd: “There is a lot of scientific research that says gender is a spectrum.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press, April 30, 2023.
Republicans Putting “Party Over Country”
“He [Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin] was specifically asked by my colleague Garrett Haake about your critique of Republicans that were campaigning with [Arizona gubernatorial candidate] Kari Lake….A lot of Republicans in the last three weeks that I would describe as empathetic to what you’ve been doing, have suddenly found themselves deciding, hey party over country. What do you make of those decisions?”
— Moderator Chuck Todd to Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney on NBC’s Meet the Press, October 23, 2022.
Even Al Gore Was Surprised by Chuck’s Plea for Him to Run Again
Host Chuck Todd: “I’m not going to let you go without asking you this: Australia’s election was a climate change election. And you talked about, ‘In order to get that political will.’ Jay Inslee tried to run a climate-focused campaign, and it didn’t get off the ground. Why not you, Al Gore?
Former Vice President Al Gore: “Why not me, as a candidate?”
Todd: “Leading a climate change presidential campaign in the future.”
Gore: “Oh, well, thank you for making the suggestion. You know, I’m a recovering politician. And the longer I go without a relapse, the less likely one becomes.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press, July 24, 2022.
The Court Is “Rigged,” Not “Representative” of the “Country”
“There are no more black robes….the robes are red and blue….What’s striking about Roe is it’s the first time in my lifetime that I can think of where a Supreme Court took away a right…I can’t think of another court in the last hundred years that has done this. A right that was there, taken away….We’re used to the Supreme Court granting rights….Making it [the Court] be viewed as an extraordinarily partisan institution….There really is a lot of people who believe this is a rigged Court....This Court’s make-up isn’t quote ‘fair and square.’ It isn’t really representative of where the country is and even was.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on NBC News live coverage of the Supreme Court abortion decision, June 24, 2022.
Todd Mocks Prayer, Denies “Absolute Right” to Self Defense “Does Not Exist”
“It’s become our uniquely American ritual of words after each episode of this uniquely American serial tragedy. ‘Thoughts and prayers, nothing we can do. No law would have stopped this. The real problem is mental illness. If only the victims had been armed.’...No member of Congress has been voted out of office for being too pro-gun. Not one! So until the majorities who claim they want tougher background checks and to get assault weapons off the street, vote like they mean it, we can expect to hear more calls for thoughts and prayers and that’s it. Because this current version of the Republican Party is being held hostage by a vocal minority obsessed with an absolute right that does not exist.”
— Moderator Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, May 29, 2022.
“One Party” With Its “Religious Tenet” of Gun Rights
“You have one party that has decided that the Second Amendment is almost a religious tenet and there is such a fervor on it that you cannot have sort of a logical and rational conversation.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s Katy Tur Reports, May 25, 2022.
Buffalo Shooter Is “Chickens Coming Home to Roost” for GOP’s “Rhetoric”
Host Chuck Todd: “Look at the way the right tried to weaponize the idea that the DHS was going to essentially try and attempt to monitor hateful rhetoric, right?...They want to make it seem as if it’s some sort of Big Brother….This is always what the right does to appease the white supremacist movement by saying ‘Hey, free speech. Don’t touch speech.’”...
Correspondent Garrett Haake: “Right, the Ministry of Disinformation they called it.”...
Todd: “This is, sort of, the chickens coming home to roost. They’ve been appeasing this wing of the party for years and years and years. And now they are stuck with this group.”
— Host Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s MTP Daily, May 17, 2022.
Not Logical! Voters Believe Putin Wouldn’t Have Invaded Ukraine, If Trump Was Still President
“Swing voters, Trump/Biden voters, they seem to buy the idea that [Vladimir] Putin wouldn’t have done this if [Donald] Trump was President. How does the Democratic Party answer for that? I don’t buy that, I don’t think that that matches logic, but voters do.”
— Moderator Chuck Todd on NBC’s MTP Daily, March 4, 2022.
Biden’s Low Approval Ratings? Trump’s Fault!
“It seems as if there’s nothing the White House can do to improve their political standing, these days. It does feel like every week there’s another poll, a new bottom….and some of it is out of their control....His two big promises were to get COVID behind us and to get rid of Donald Trump. COVID’s not behind us and Donald Trump’s still lurking. It’s not his fault.”
— Host Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, December 12, 2021.
Right-Wing Media “Misinformers” Have “Blood on Their Hands”
“The pandemic has been relentless. And since Biden tried to declare independence from it on July 4th, more than 160,000 Americans have been added to our death toll, despite vaccines being widely available. Obviously, most of those recent deaths are the unvaccinated. So the folks with blood on their hands there are the misinformers, particularly in right-wing media….The unfortunate dark reality is they [Biden administration] are fighting some powerful forces of defiance and disinformation, which have only worsened the partisan gap and human suffering.”
— Host Chuck Todd on MTP Daily, November 19, 2021.
Republicans Are Usually Wrong, But There’s No Liberal Bias
“We should have fought back better in the mainstream media. We shouldn’t [have] accepted the premise that there was liberal bias. We should have defended. I hear the attacks on fact checkers where they ‘fact-check Republicans six times more than they fact-check Democrats.’ Yeah. Perhaps the Republicans are being factually incorrect more often than the Democrats. We ended up in this both-sides trope. We bought into the idea that, ‘oh my God, we’re perceived as having a liberal bias.’ And I think for particularly the first decade of the century, I’d say mainstream media overcorrected. And we bought into the Fox motto of ‘balance.’ And it’s like, Jesus, there’s no balance, they need the truth.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd in July 27, 2021 interview with TheVerge.com.
Biden Might Be Too Forgiving!
“He is the better angel President….Joe Biden is a forgiver. And it’s going to frustrate some Democrats at times. Because I think some of the – he is going to be more – he is going to want to figure out a way to put his arm around some of these folks in a way – even frankly when they don’t deserve it.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s live coverage of Joe Biden Inauguration, January 20, 2021.
Presenting Limbaugh with Medal of Freedom = “Finger-In-the-Eye” to Democrats
“It [presenting Rush Limbaugh with Medal of Freedom] was the President trolling the Democrats....Honoring Rush Limbaugh, in that moment....to do it on the House floor was definitely a finger-in-the-eye of [Nancy] Pelosi, a finger-in-the-eye of the Democrats.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd during NBC News post-State of the Union coverage, February 4, 2020.
Trump Voters Believe in Biblical “Fairy Tales,” “Want to Be Be Lied To”
“I want to read you guys a letter to the editor that we found in the Lexington Herald-Leader. It was a fascinating attempt at trying to explain why some people support President Trump. Here’s what he says. ‘Why do good people support Trump? It’s because people have been trained, from childhood, to believe in fairy tales. This set their minds up to accept things that make them feel good. The more fairy tales and lies he tells, the better they feel. Show me a person who believes in Noah’s Ark, and I will show you a Trump voter.’ Look, this gets at something...that my executive producer likes to say, is ‘Hey, voters want to be lied to, sometimes. They don’t, they don’t always love being told hard truths.’”
— Host Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, December 29, 2019.
Chuck Todd Aids in Promotion of Antifa Violence
“Mark Bray, you are writing this book Antifa, the Anti-Fascist Handbook. Explain this movement and its roots....What do you say to those that are concerned that: ‘Hey, you’re handing – you’re allowing this – these white supremacists to claim victim hood here....What do you say to that criticism since the President is trying to essentially create a false equivalency here?... The historical aspect of fascism has only been defeated with violence. I assume this the argument you’d make, right, Mark?”
— Host Chuck Todd to Antifa supporter Mark Bray on MSNBC’s MTP Daily, August 16, 2017.
Likening Trump to Hitler
Host Chuck Todd: “David, the visual, the hands go up, Trump [at rally] asks for a pledge. I was flabbergasted.”
New York Times columnist David Brooks: “If we’re going to get Trump, we might as well get the Nuremberg rallies to go with it.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press, March 6, 2016.
