During the political panel discussion on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, moderator Chuck Todd fretted that the removal of an FBI agent from Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation for sending anti-Trump text messages might be “bordering into thought police territory.” The group proceeded to worry that the President would use the incident to discredit the probe.
“Horrible 48 hours for the President with this investigation, but he was handed one helpful PR moment here....an FBI agent was just removed from Bob Mueller’s team for anti-Trump texts,” Todd proclaimed. He revealed his concern over the move: “I have to say, part of me thought, wait a minute, are we bordering into thought police territory?”
Todd again sneered about how it would help Trump: “But it does give the President a PR tool here and to at least throw to his supporters saying, ‘Aha! Bias in the Mueller probe.’”
Moments later, political analyst Mike Murphy complained that the President would rightfully point out the removal:
The President is a genius at taking something like this and blowing it up to titanic size. We are going to hear so much about this now. It will eclipse the investigation for a while, at least on the conservative side of the media.
Liberal Princeton University Professor Eddia Glaude Jr. chimed in with his own whining: “And it’s always designed to really undermine the value – the truth value of the press, the truth value of the investigation, to leave doubt once the conclusions are drawn.”
Speaking of undermining “the truth value of the press,” the Sunday show completely ignored reporter Brian Ross being suspended from ABC News for getting a scoop about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea completely wrong. Monday’s network morning shows all avoided reporting on their colleague’s temporary dismissal.
In these two instances, federal authorities and the liberal media discredited themselves, regardless of Trump’s remarks.
On Monday’s Today show, reporter Hallie Jackson immediately attempted to discredit the President’s reaction by citing an Obama administration official blasting Trump:
Now, it’s another tweet from the President raising eyebrows, after reports an FBI agent was taken off Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation for reportedly sending anti-Trump texts, President Trump tweeting, “The agency’s reputation is in Tatters – worst in History!” That’s not sitting well with Eric Holder, the former attorney general, firing back, “You’ll find integrity and honesty at FBI headquarters and not at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue right now.”
Meanwhile, ABC’s Good Morning America skipped the news completely.
The biased conversation on Meet the Press was brought to viewers by Merrill Lynch, Neutrogena, and FedEx.
Here is a full transcript of the December 3 segment:
11:01 AM ET
(...)
CHUCK TODD: Horrible 48 hours for the President with this investigation, but he was handed one helpful PR moment here. Let me throw up these headlines, an FBI agent was just removed from Bob Mueller’s team for anti-Trump texts. Now, when you read the details of this, Danielle, I have to say, part of me thought, wait a minute, are we bordering into thought police territory? Number one. But we can set that aside here. But it does give the President a PR tool here and to at least throw to his supporters saying, “Aha! Bias in the Mueller probe.”
DANIELLE PLETKA: He just tweeted about it this morning.
TODD: Shocking! I’m shocked.
PLETKA: I know, shocking to see, maybe his lawyer tweeted that too. I’m not sure who tweeted it, but you know. No, look, this is, though, a problem because you want the perception, just as Dianne Feinstein was extraordinarily careful to preserve that impartiality, “I’m waiting for the evidence.” When you have an investigator who obviously has an axe to grind against the president, you want to get rid of him. Mueller is being very careful and I applaud him for doing that.
TODD: I was just going to say, if he made one error here, Doris, it was it seems as if they just didn’t let everybody know immediately that they had done this, that they discovered it.
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: Right, after the fact.
TODD: It was after the fact that the public learned.
MIKE MURPHY: The President is a genius at taking something like this and blowing it up to titanic size.
TODD: Yeah.
MURPHY: We are going to hear so much about this now. It will eclipse the investigation for a while, at least on the conservative side of the media.
EDDIE GLAUDE JR. [PRINCETON UNIVERSITY]: And it’s always designed to really undermine the value – the truth value of the press, the truth value of the investigation, to leave doubt once the conclusions are drawn.
(...)
