Chuck Todd went off the rails on the Tuesday installment of MTP Daily on MSNBC where he declared that the GOP chickens are “coming home to roost” after years of appeasing white supremacists because they refuse to get onboard with the Democrats’ domestic terrorism bill.
During a segment with senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garret Haake, Todd claimed that GOP efforts to protect free speech are really about appeasing white supremacists: “Well, Garrett, look at the way the right tried to weaponize the idea that the DHS was going to essentially try and attempt to — to monitor hateful rhetoric, right? They want to make it seem as if it's some sort of Big Brother. And it's like, this is always what the right does to appease the white supremacist movement by saying ‘hey, free speech. Don’t touch speech.’”
Haake then seemed to conflate that issue with the infamous disinformation board, “Yeah, right, the Ministry of Disinformation they called it.”
Getting back on topic, Haake reported:
I had, kind of, a classically frustrating conversation with Mike Braun, the Republican senator from Indiana this morning, where I asked him, okay what should Congress do? He said, “Well, we should do something about mental health. We should try to find the people who, you know, want these weapons, who might do something dangerous, we should — we should be monitoring them.”
I said, “Well, there's a bill in the House that would monitor people, but it calls it domestic terrorism.” “Oh well, no, we can't do that.” The attaching of labels or to make it right-wing domestic terrorism, because that's what we're talking about, at least in this specific case, all of a sudden changes the conversation that Republicans are willing to have about this and we’re right back at square zero.
Todd concluded by returning to his previous and inflammatory point, “Well, look, this is, sort of, the chicken’s 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. Garrett Haake, thank you.”
While Todd baselessly accuses Republicans of appeasing white supremacists today, tomorrow he may be thanking them, for as CBS’s Ed O’Keefe reported, “there were disagreements among Democrats exactly on how amid concerns that those offices, once established, might end up targeting groups like Black Lives Matter or other more liberal organizations that are out there trying to raise their concerns.”
Before hurling nasty attacks against the GOP, Todd should work through the logical implications of his proclamations.
This segment was sponsored by HughesNet.
Here is a transcript for the May 17 show:
MSNBC MTP Daily
5/17/2022
1:13 PM ET
CHUCK TODD: Well, Garrett, look at the way the right tried to weaponize the idea that the DHS was going to essentially try and attempt to—to-- monitor hateful rhetoric, right?
GARRETT HAAKE: Right
TODD: They want to make it seem as if it's some sort of Big Brother. And it's like, this is always what the right does to appease the white supremacist movement by saying “hey, free speech. Don’t touch speech.”
HAAKE: Yeah, right, the Ministry of Disinformation they called it. I had, kind of, a classically frustrating conversation with Mike Braun, the Republican senator from Indiana this morning, where I asked him, okay what should Congress do? He said “well, we should do something about mental health. We should try to find the people who, you know, want these weapons, who might do something dangerous, we should—we should-- be monitoring them.”
I said, “well, there's a bill in the House that would monitor people, but it calls it domestic terrorism.” “Oh well, no, we can't do that.” The attaching of labels or to make it right-wing domestic terrorism, because that's what we're talking about, at least in this specific case, all of a sudden changes the conversation—
TODD: Yeah.
HAAKE:-- that Republicans are willing to have about this and we’re right back at square zero.
TODD: Well, look, this is, sort of, the chicken’s 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. Garrett Haake, thank you.
