On Tuesday's MTP Daily, MSNBC host Chuck Todd again put on display the fact that journalists are so far to the left on abortion that they actually sometimes press Democrats to go even further left instead of making an effort to look balanced.
As Emily's List president Stephanie Schriock appeared as a guest, Todd repeatedly suggested that Democrats should be more strident about pushing abortion rights, even hinting Democrats should cut funding for rare pro-life Democratic candidates.
He even suggested Democrats should be more aggressive in defending late-term abortion to counter conservatives who are "unabashed" on the issue.
At 5:38 p.m. Eastern, after introducing his guest, Todd immediately asked: "Let me just be blunt about this: Can the Democratic party at this point, considering what's at stake on the issue of Roe, can it still be comfortable using resources to help pro-life Democrats? Where are you on this?"
As Schriock resisted giving a direct answer, rejoicing that pro-life Democratic candidates are so rare, Todd jumped in to make a reference to Louisiana Democratic Governor Bel Edwards who has indicated he would sign a heartbeat bill into law. The MSNBC host injected: "And Louisiana has been an outlier for years -- actually, you guys never supported Mary Landrieu."
Schriock recalled that Emily's List had endorsed Landrieu in one of her campaigns, and then noted that Illinois Congressman Dan Lipinski is one of the few prominent pro-life Democrats. Todd reiterated his suggestion of abandoning pro-life Democrats as he followed up: "Is it worth the fight inside the party to protect a Dan Lipinski or not?"
The liberal guest sidestepped the question and responded that Democrats would have to "make that decision," and then alluded to misleading polling that claims 70 percent of Americans support keeping Roe v. Wade in place, leading Todd to nod in agreement.
On his Meet the Press show on NBC last Sunday, Todd notably repeated his misleading claim from last week that a solid majority of the public support Roe v. Wade. Speaking with Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Todd posed: "Do you want Roe completely overturned? Or do you want it done in such a way where there is still a basic protection? I mean, you talked about a democratic process -- it is nearly 2-1 in the exit poll in 2018, folks favoring keep Roe as is."
Back to Tuesday's show, the MSNBC host then wondered if Democrats need to be more aggressive on the abortion issue as he posed his next question:
If you look at the sort of the last 20 years -- the right side of the abortion debate -- the pro-life side of the abortion debate has been aggressive in trying to pass laws to support their side of the issue, the pro-choice side almost sometimes runs away from codifying laws in states and instead plays defense. It does seem as if some -- you have some of the presidential candidates say, "Why don't you codify Roe?" And you've seen a couple of states -- New York and Virginia. Is the strategy changing? Do you think you have to change your strategy and be more on offensive on these laws?
A bit later, Schriock brought up the recently passed Alabama law against abortion that does not make exceptions for rape, and declared: "They accidentally let the curtain move open so the rest of America can see exactly what the core of the Republican party wants to do, which is completely ban abortion, which is not where the American people are."
Todd responded by suggesting that Democrats need to be more aggressive in defending late-term abortion:
Where Democrats get tripped up is they basically -- they get caught up on the late-term issue, right, as some have outlined. But it does seem to me that that -- the right is unabashed. They sort of plow right through it. Should Democrats push harder and say, "Look, if you think this is an issue that belongs between a woman and her doctor, then it doesn't matter how you personally feel -- it's an issue between a woman and her doctor in week one of the pregnancy or in week 32 of the pregnancy"?
The remaining portions of the nine-minute segment consisted of Todd asking neutral questions about how Emily's List decides whether to endorse a candidate, and whether the group would be endorsing one of the candidates in the Democratic presidential primaries.
At no point was the Emily's List president challenged by Todd from a conservative point of view. You'd never expect to hear Todd or any other journalist in the dominant liberal media ask conservative guests if they should move even further to the right on abortion any issue.
