Chuck Todd

A Mexican President praises Governor Rick Perry for offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in Texas.  Mitt Romney uses footage of it in a campaign ad.  Something wrong with that?  Apparently yes--in the eyes of Chuck Todd.

The host of MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" critically quizzed Romney campaign strategist Russ Schriefer over the ad today.  Video after the jump.

On Friday's NBC Nightly News, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd portrayed audience members at recent Republican debates as unruly and an embarrassment to the GOP: "Some Republicans are concerned these audience moments might send the wrong message to swing voters."

Wrapping up a report on Thursday's Republican debate, Todd declared: "These three September debates have also exposed just how stark some of the cultural divides are between left and right. From the cheering of Perry's death penalty record....To the shouts from the audience about whether emergency rooms should treat the uninsured....To last night's jeers of a question about gays in the military."

Even Chuck Todd thinks President Obama's new tax plan is a joke.

When asked on MSNBC Monday if the White House believes "tax reform in the context of the Super Committee is a realistic goal," NBC's chief White House correspondent broke out laughing followed by the entire "Morning Joe" panel (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The story broken by NewsBusters last week involving Chuck Todd saying NBC's pollsters were "concerned" about President Obama's poll numbers has brought some scrutiny on the Peacock Network's chief White House correspondent.

After radio's Laura Ingraham questioned Todd about this issue Thursday, Fox News's Bill O'Reilly brought her on his program Friday saying, "We did a little research on Mr. Todd...His wife makes a living working for the Democratic Party. There is a report that Chuck Todd actually worked for Senator Tom Harkin, very liberal Senator from Iowa" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC's "Lean Forward" advertising campaign has been a way for the network to unapologetically display the overt liberal bias of its extended prime time hosts.

This marketing strategy is being expanded to now include "Daily Rundown" host Chuck "Our Pollsters Are Concerned About Obama's Poll Numbers" Todd who also happens to be NBC's chief White House correspondent (video follows with commentary):

As first reported by NewsBusters, NBC's Chuck Todd told Brian Williams Tuesday that their network's pollsters were "concerned" about President Obama's recent poll numbers.

When this came up on radio's "Laura Ingraham Show" Thursday, the host said to Todd, "I don’t remember you saying that pollsters were concerned about Bush’s poll numbers dropping" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Is NBC News employing Democrat pollsters?

Consider Chuck Todd's revealing statement about the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll made to Brian Williams on Tuesday's "Nightly News" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Things must be really going bad for Barack Obama if even members of the liberal media are admitting the fact, which is what NBC News political director Chuck Todd did on Tuesday's Today show when he revealed the president has sunk to a "record low."

On to analyze results from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Todd told Today co-anchor Matt Lauer that "Just forty-four percent of the job the President is doing" and added he was at a "record high disapproval number at 51 percent." However, before he let any Republicans in the Today audience get too giddy, Todd warned that for the "first time" the poll "recorded a disapproval rating for Congress over 80 percent" as seen in the following exchange:

(video after the jump)

The NBC and ABC morning shows on Friday indicated a growing impatience with not knowing Sarah Palin's presidential plans. NBC's Chuck Todd declared of the Labor Day holiday, "I think one thing about Sarah Palin is that this is her last weekend to cry wolf, essentially."

Over on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos talked to reporter John Berman and insisted, "But, as you point out, the longer she stays out [of the 2012 race], actually, the less relevant she becomes."

Broadcasting & Cable magazine published a cover story in its August 22 issue [not available online] complaining that the stakes are too high in the 2012 campaign to just let (Republican) candidates get away with their own talking points. The headline was "Just Say Something! Candidates have been dodging questions for decades, but with astronomical stakes this election cycle, it's more prevalent than ever."

Right underneath this headline was a picture of Rep. Michele Bachmann wih the headline in capital red letters "The Queen of the Page." It continued: "As in the ones Rep. Michele Bachmann's talking points are written on, as she may be the most well-coached candidate to come along in years -- and certainly in this election cycle -- according to national news anchors." Is that an insult to Obama? Or does it simply mean he doesn't need to have his talking points questioned?  Underneath were the analysis of network hosts on Bachmann's slipperiness:

At the top of Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer declared: "In your face. The Tea Party puts its confrontational style on display during a stop on President Obama's bus tour." Later, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd lamented how "uplifting moments" of Obama's Midwest tour were interrupted by "a bitter taste of the energy and confrontational style of the Tea Party."  

Throughout Todd's report, the headline on screen read: "The Politics of Anger; Tea Party Tactics Change Race for President." Todd noted how: "For their part, the leading Republican presidential candidates are going out of their way to defend the Tea Party's in-your-face tactics." In a sound bite, The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza explained that Republicans, "want a candidate who is willing to fight President Obama on all fronts at all times. They want confrontation, not conciliation."

On Monday's CBS Evening News and Tuesday's Early Show, CBS failed to cover an Iowa Tea Party activist's confrontation with President Obama. Both ABC's GMA and NBC's Today mentioned the encounter. Just days earlier, CBS and ABC spotlighted how left-wing protesters heckled Mitt Romney at an Iowa appearance and how the Republican apparently made a "gaffe" in reply.

NBC correspondent Chuck Todd noted the "heated exchange" between Tea Partier Ryan Rhodes and the President midway through his report just after the top of the 7 am Eastern hour of Today:

The Obama-lovin' at NBC News is becoming a thing of legend.

On Monday, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, during a discussion with a caller about David Gregory's grilling of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on "Meet the Press" said, "Next time Obama has a colonoscopy, I wonder who they'll find in there. Which NBC personality will show up first?" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

On Monday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd described liberal wishful thinking as "conventional wisdom" as he explained how: "The Obama team has been taking comfort in the fact that they believe this Republican race is moving to the Right, that it's a race to the Right. And they take comfort in that and they think that's going to help them long term."

At the same time, Todd seemed perplexed that the President's poll numbers had fallen despite the conservative values of the Republican 2012 contenders: "But as that happened – and it was a lot of attention over the last four or five days....the President's numbers have still gone down. And that Gallup number, where it dropped in the daily tracking below 40 for the very first time in the presidency."

At the top of Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer declared: "President Obama faces new criticism from members of his own party, is he doing enough to manage the [economic] crisis?...Should he, for example, demand that Congress cut short its summer vacation to address the situation?" In the segment that followed, the headline on screen read: "Dems Urge Obama to Get Tough With GOP & Congress."

Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd explained that "there are a lot of Democrats out there that believe this is a leadership test for President Obama....And many Democrats are increasingly upset about the way the President negotiates with Republicans." A sound bite was included from left-wing Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank fretting: "The Democratic base is as furious as they've been at any point in the last 16 years....they can't challenge Barack Obama because that would hand the presidency to the Republicans."

Update: According to the Library of Congress website, July 28, 1868 was the day when Secretary of State William Seward "issued a proclamation certifying without reservation that the Fourteenth Amendment was a part of the United States Constitution." Todd told his viewers that July 28, 1868 was the day the amendment "officially became part of the U.S. Constitution" although Article V of the U.S. Constitution states that amendments "shall be valid to all intents and purposes...when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths" of the states, which in the case of the Fourteenth Amendment would be July 9, 1868.

Wanted: Better fact checkers for MSNBC.

For today's "Flashback" feature on the "Daily Rundown," anchor Chuck Todd misinformed viewers by noting that on July 28, 1868, the 14th Amendment went into effect.

In fact the amendment went into effect when South Carolina ratified it on July 9, 1868.

But not only was Todd off by 19 days, he selectively quoted a passage of the 14th Amendment that has some relevance to the debt ceiling debate:

Appearing on Thursday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd lamented no deal being reached on the debt ceiling and solely blamed House Republicans: "Nobody has a plan that can get through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives....that's the issue. House Republicans don't like any of these ideas that are coming out of the Senate."

Co-host Matt Lauer wondered if a plan being worked out between Senators Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid was "now dead" because of House GOP opposition. Todd floated a theory on how conservative members of Congress might fall in line: "...some sort of TARP-like moment...where the House voted down the big bailout of the banks, the markets reacted and then Congress voted again....that might be the only way something gets through the House....it actually probably would lead to the bigger deal after the near catastrophic financial reaction."

On Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd promoted the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, declaring that when it came to raising the nation's debt ceiling, "...it was a landslide as far as what the public preferred. 58% preferring the President's vision on that front versus 36% [for the Republican proposal]."

Todd went on to conclude that "most of this poll shows that the middle of the country and a majority of Americans basically don't like the Republican position on this debt plan." He blamed conservatives for GOP stubbornness: "But who does like the Republican position right now on all of these fronts and, you know, sticking to their guns on taxes? Tea Party supporters. And that is why you're seeing Republicans, they're caught between their Tea Party supporters who want them to do one thing and frankly independents who want them to do another."

On Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry admonished Republicans for trying to pass a balanced budget amendment as part of a debt ceiling agreement: "Tea Party conservatives love this plan. The President has already said that he's going to veto it. Do we really have time for a plan that is really just show?" [Audio available here]

In response, congressional correspondent Kelly O'Donnell touted White House reaction: "They issued the veto threat, and they also said that this would really force the government to not be able to spend on things like Medicare, Social Security, prevent spending for future disasters. And they even renamed it...The White House is calling it 'duck, dodge and dismantle.'"

View video after the jump

During the roundtable discussion on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson claimed the fight over the debt ceiling would be a political "winner" for President Obama, prompting host David Gregory to declare that the commander in chief would look like "the debt slayer."

Gregory then turned to chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd and wondered why debt ceiling negotiations broke down. Todd placed the blame squarely on Republicans: "Well, it broke down because Speaker Boehner couldn't get an agreement on taxes. Let's remember, he was not – he did not believe he was politically strong enough in his own caucus to remain leader of the House Republicans....Eric Cantor said no."

David Gregory decided to have a very fair and balanced roundtable discussion at the conclusion of Sunday's "Meet the Press" exclusively with the perilously liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and the equally left-leaning Chuck Todd of NBC News.

With the subject being Newsweek's new cover story about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Todd mysteriously made the case for how slim her chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination were by claiming, "Rush Limbaugh is an incredibly influential figure in the Republican Party, and he could never win the Republican nomination" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

While NBC's Today on Thursday characterized President Obama's attacks on congressional Republicans as "feisty," on Friday, correspondent Kelly O'Donnell appeared on the broadcast and declared that "Republicans made it unusually personal" in responding to the White House  criticism.

Despite the President's claim in his Wednesday press conference that his daughters worked harder than GOP members of Congess, O'Donnell focused on Republican mudslinging: "The summer heat must really be getting to them around here with more than the usual frustration in both parties over the debt limit showdown and more personal comments directed to the President from Republicans."  

At the top of Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry proclaimed: "President Obama calls out Congress to strike a deficit reduction deal during a feisty news conference." Moments later, fellow co-host Matt Lauer added that the President "gave Congress a pretty good tongue lashing on Wednesday."

Curry further described how Obama "rebuked Congress for taking recesses instead of tackling legislation to try to help turn around the economy." In a later report on the press conference, White House correspondent Chuck Todd announced: "On issues ranging from taxes, the debt ceiling, even Libya, President Obama issued a blistering critique of Republicans in Congress. And essentially in blunt terms said it's time to step up and stop complaining."

“The problem is this issue with the House Republicans,” NBC’s Chuck Todd declared Wednesday night in naming the culprit blocking help to Americans whom anchor Brian Williams asserted “are hurting every day and hoping for a result to make their lives better.”

In a story on President Barack Obama’s press conference, Todd maintained Obama and the Senate could come together, but he blamed the conservatives for preventing a debt ceiling deal, fretting over “that new conservative, the Tea Party caucus” which rejects “anything that even remotely looks like a tax hike on anybody.”

The "NBC Nightly News" mentioned the corporate jet tax loophole twice in its report concerning Barack Obama's press conference Wednesday.

Unfortunately, Brian Williams and Chuck Todd neglected to inform viewers that this loophole was part of the President's stimulus package in 2009 (video follows with commentary):

On Thursday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd recited Obama administration spin as he gave a fully positive assessment of the President's Wednesday announcement of an Afghanistan troop withdrawal: "The President went with the most aggressive compromised withdrawal plan he could get commanders at the Pentagon to sign off on."

Moments later, Todd declared: "It was a sober sounding president, not a triumphant one, who announced from the White House that he's fulfilling his promise to begin the drawdown of U.S. forces next month." The headline on screen throughout the report touted a line from the speech that the White House was probably pleased with: "'A Position of Strength'; Obama Defends Plan For U.S. Troop Withdrawal."

As news broke Thursday morning of Congressman Anthony Weiner's upcoming resignation, congressional correspondent Luke Russert appeared on NBC's Today and sympathetically declared: "...this is really a sad ending, a lot would say, to what was once a bright, promising political career."

Moments later, NBC political director and chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd similarly touted Weiner's role in Democratic politics: "...he was serving as sort of the bombastic angry progressive, you know, trying to almost be the anti-Tea Party liberal in Congress taking on these folks. He'd become sort of a hero to the more progressive left, who were always upset that Democrats don't stand up for themselves. So here was the guy that had all this potential to become a huge political figure..."

Trying to play up the idea of chaos in the Republican 2012 field, on Thursday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd argued Sarah Palin's bus tour making a stop in New Hampshire on Thursday was "a little bit of a slap in Mitt Romney's face" on the day he was planning to announce his candidacy.

Co-host Meredith Vieira had asked Todd about Romney's upcoming announcement and claimed the former Massachusetts governor would have to "steal back the spotlight" from Palin. Todd declared that Palin was "not even giving him [Romney] one news cycle to make his case."

At the top of Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Meredith Vieira worried about the impact of the Twitter photo scandal on Congressman Anthony Weiner's career: "Will the scandal and his response to it derail his political ambitions?"

Talking to chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd later, Vieira pointed out how "the people who write the headlines in New York City are obviously having a heyday with this" but then soberly added, "beyond the laughs here, this guy is a rising star in this state, especially in the city of New York, considered a front-runner for the next mayoral campaign....What about the political toll?"

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) made a blatantly inaccurate statement on the "Daily Rundown" this morning that MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd should have, but failed to, call the House minority whip out on.

"We went from a $5.6 trillion surplus that George Bush inherited to over a $11-plus trillion debt when George Bush left office," asserted Hoyer.