Following what’s become a persistent narrative from the liberal media, Chuck Todd declared on Friday’s MTP Daily that the midterm message put forth by President Trump (and, by extension, the GOP) has been “a heavy dose of a bit of fear-mongering, conspiracy theories and even some mob-style antics.” Ah yes, so Todd is going to insinuate that Trump’s GOP are the real mob and not the left.
Accompanied by the chyron “Pres. Trump’s Conspiracy-Heavy Midterm Message,” Todd declared after a report on a Russian woman charged with midterm election meddling that “[t]he other big midterm election story today, President Trump's closing argument, which features a heavy dose of a bit of fear-mongering, conspiracy theories and even some mob-style antics and folks, it just might work.”
Todd suggested that if someone woke up from a coma in 2014, they’d be appalled by Trump as President and his behavior, “reviving chants of lock up his defeated political opponent and there’s the President cheering the assault of a reporter by a Congressman Greg Gianforte and doing so at the same time the murder of a Washington Post journalist is dominating the headlines.”
Neither was acceptable, but it sure seems as if journalists want to go down this path of invoking murdered Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi in the same conversation as The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs being body-slammed in 2017 by Gianforte.
Todd played the first of four Trump clips in his monologue and responded to the first by fretting: “Yeah there's the President telling that same crowd of people who cheered the assault of a reporter and the jailing of their political opponent that it’s the other side who has turned into the angry mob.”
Ah, so it sure sounds like the Antifa-accepting liberal journalist has either ignored or omitted the threats and violence against Republicans.
After the second set (which touched on leftists having morphed into a mob), Todd sighed amidst his heavy cold that Trump has been “pushing any number of conspiracy theories about rigged elections, paid protesters, and a caravan of immigrants he says were maybe dispatched to the border just to make him look bad.”
And then prior to Trump telling his Montana rally that the election will come down “Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense,” Todd continued to follow the narrative already employed by the likes of CNN’s Chris Cuomo and MSNBC colleagues Chris Hayes and Chris Matthews.
“Folks, these are antics that might be typically called off the rails by traditional political standards but in this environment, the President might actually be putting the GOP back on track,” he opined.
On a separate note, Todd dropped a juicy detail about his travels throughout the country this past week in which “no Democrat would say it on the record,” but many admitted to him that “the Democrats really messed up this Kavanaugh thing” with some being “name-checked.”
In another interesting take from the lead panel, the USA Today’s Susan Page framed the importance of health care to voters this way:
People can be told things about Russian meddling, that they'll believe or won't believe, but the things that is affect them in their lives, they know when it happens...It’s in their daily lives and I guess it should not a surprise that voters care more about their daily lives than they care about what we’re talking about here.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s MTP Daily on October 19, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s MTP Daily
October 19, 2018
5:04 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Tonight’s Take; Pres. Trump’s Conspiracy-Heavy Midterm Message]
CHUCK TODD: The other big midterm election story today, President Trump's closing argument, which features a heavy dose of a bit of fear-mongering, conspiracy theories and even some mob-style antics and folks, it just might work. If you woke up from a coma and saw the President for the first time at the rally in Montana and you were in this coma going back to 2014 you would probably say, “oh, this is off the rails.” There's the President reviving chants of lock up his defeated political opponent and there’s the President cheering the assault of a reporter by a Congressman Greg Gianforte and doing so at the same time the murder of a Washington Post journalist is dominating the headlines.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Greg is smart and by the way, never wrestle him. You understand that? Never. Any guy that can do a body slam, he's my kind of [BODY SLAM MOTION] [SCREEN WIPE] I had heard that he body slammed a reporter. [SCREEN WIPE] I said, oh, this is terrible. He's going to lose the election. I said, well, wait a minute. I know Montana pretty well. I think it might help him and it did.
TODD: Yeah there's the President telling that same crowd of people who cheered the assault of a reporter and the jailing of their political opponent that it’s the other side who has turned into the angry mob.
TRUMP: The Democrats have truly turned into an angry mob bent on destroying anything or anyone in their path. [SCREEN WIPE] The shameful, Democrat mob. They were calling it a mob now. Now, a lot of people are calling it. These people are starting to think of it as a mob. [SCREEN WIPE] The choice could not be more clear. Democrats produce mobs. Republicans produce jobs.
TODD: And there's the President pushing any number of conspiracy theories about rigged elections, paid protesters, and a caravan of immigrants he says were maybe dispatched to the border just to make him look bad.
TRUMP: A lot of money's been passing through people to come up and try and get to the border by election day because they think that's a negative for us. [SCREEN WIPE] But they wanted that caravan and there are those that say that caravan didn't just happen. It didn't just happen.
TODD: Folks, these are antics that might be typically called off the rails by traditional political standards but in this environment, the President might actually be putting the GOP back on track.
TRUMP: This will be an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense. That’s what it’s going to be. It's going to be an election of those things.
TODD: Susan Page is the USA Today Washington bureau chief. George Will is an MSNBC contributor and a syndicated columnist and Donna Edwards is a former Democratic congresswoman from Maryland. The President's closing argument, could it be effective?
SUSAN PAGE: Not just his closing argument for 2018. His opening argument for 2020. This is very similar to the campaign he ran last time. A campaign he's going to run next time and one cannot point out too often that he is making assertions for which there is no evidence, including the idea that somebody is paying migrants to join this caravan and try to get into this country.
TODD: I got multiple e-mails from viewers who just said I hope you investigate this story of these people paid by George Soros.
PAGE: And it's — and some people believe it and there's zero evidence of it. It's made up out of whole cloth.
TODD: Could it work, George?
GEORGE WILL [LAUGHS]: Look. Susan says here's the man sowing division with fact-less assertions and we began the program talking about this little pop gun — digital pop gun from Russia. What are they doing? Sowing discord with fact-free assertions. What the Russians are doing is nothing compared to what’s done on a daily basis by the president of the United States. So why are we so exercised about the Russians? I don’t get it.
(....)
5:12 p.m. Eastern
TODD: In my travels this week, no Democrat would say it on the record. It was amazing how consistent some of them were people running, people advising, voting. All of them are going, boy, the Democrats really messed up this Kavanaugh thing. Those Washington Democrats messed up this Kavanaugh thing. Some of them by name and name checked some of the Democrats but these were Democrats out in the campaign trail frustrated that Kavanaugh stopped momentum.
(....)
5:16 p.m. Eastern
PAGE: You know, you can — people can be told things about Russian meddling, that they'll believe or won't believe, but the things that is affect them in their lives, they know when it happens.
TODD: There’s common sense with it. They dealt with it.
PAGE: It’s in their daily lives and I guess it should not a surprise that voters care more about their daily lives than they care about what we’re talking about here.
