During a live NBC special report minutes after Pope Francis concluded his address to Congress on Thursday, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd hailed the speech and hoped it would prevent a possible government shutdown over defunding Planned Parenthood: “I can’t help – and I apologize for bringing in crass politics into this, but we are six days from the government possibly shutting down and I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear the Pope give these words.”
Todd continued: “And maybe it changes the tone, even for a week, which could save us a sort of silly political fight in a week. These members of Congress needed to hear something like this.” Today co-host Matt Lauer fretted: “...there have been other moments in history where messages like this have been delivered in Washington and all too often they seem to last only momentarily.”
Todd never explained that the upcoming budget fight would be specifically focused on the issue of abortion, something strongly condemned by the Catholic Church.
Later on MSNBC, Todd continued to use the Pope to scold Congress:
But I thought the larger message that he was bringing was using the greatness of America's democracy and the history of America's great democracy as a way of lecturing these current legislative bodies and our current state of politics....And I wonder, six days before this place gets shut down – and I'm sorry to introduce that kind of politics into this – but I wonder if it will have an impact on those 535 people who listened to that today.
Anchor Brian Williams recalled Todd’s prediction “two days ago that this would perhaps change the nature of the debate if only for a short window of time.”
Todd declared: “That's right. And by the way, just this short window would be enough to sort of save us from a silly season.”
Here is a transcript of Todd’s exchange with Lauer on the September 24 NBC special report:
11:05 AM ET
(...)
MATT LAUER: He said, “The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States. The complexity, the gravity, the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents and resolve to support one another with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.”
CHUCK TODD: And that, Matt, is, to me, the overarching – again, you know, everybody is looking at a specific issue that they wanted the Pope to talk about. And he certainly, I think, laid out many issues. But using the greatness of America’s democracy almost as a way to lecture America’s most democratic bodies to almost get it together, set aside these differences.
You know, I can’t help – and I apologize for bringing in crass politics into this, but we are six days from the government possibly shutting down and I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear the Pope give these words. And maybe it changes the tone, even for a week, which could save us a sort of silly political fight in a week. These members of Congress needed to hear something like this.
LAUER: You know, Maria, we spoke on the lawn of the White House yesterday that there have been other moments in history where messages like this have been delivered in Washington and all too often they seem to last only momentarily.
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