Chuck Todd Fears Trump Winning Key States Would Be ‘Nightmare Scenario’

November 2nd, 2020 12:19 PM

Appearing on NBC’s Today show Monday morning, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd channeled the Biden campaign’s worst fear – that President Trump would win several key battleground states and make the election competitive. Despite Halloween being over, Todd scared left-wing viewers by outlining the “nightmare scenario” in which Democrats don’t automatically win in a landslide and possibly even lose.

Standing in front of an interactive electoral map, Todd started filling in toss-ups states in favor of Trump or Biden based on the latest polls:

So this, to me, is what we’re staring at here, we’re staring at basically a five-state race left. And as you can see, the good news for Joe Biden is he just needs one and it would hit him at 270. Arizona would give him 270, but let’s say the President holds on to that. Florida would do it, but let’s say the President holds on to that. Georgia would do it, alright, but maybe he holds on to that. North Carolina, maybe he holds on to that....And look what this does. This puts us right here.

 

 

The new map showed Trump and Biden tied at 259 electoral votes each and only Pennsylvania left undecided. Like a good Democrat, Todd wailed: “This is the nightmare. Joe Biden does not want us – if this is what we’re waiting for, it’s going to be a long month. Not a long night, not a long week, but a long month.” While he assured that the Biden campaign was “very confident” that “they can win this without having to wait for Pennsylvania,” Todd warned that the scenario he outlined would lead to “lawsuit-apaloosa” in the Keystone State.

After co-host Savannah Guthrie noted that polls in Pennsylvania had the presidential race “within the margin of error,” Todd repeated: “This is the nightmare scenario for the country, let’s just be honest. That’s what this is.”  

If Trump does well on Election Day and the race is close, it’s a leftist media “nightmare.” Only Joe Biden winning in a landslide can assuage Todd’s terror.

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Here is a full transcript of the November 2 segment:

7:10 AM ET

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Let’s take a closer look at where the race stands and our new polls from the battleground states. Chuck Todd is NBC’s political director, moderator of Meet the Press. And Chuck is with us this morning, good morning.

So you spend all of your years, all of the last four years poll obsessed. Everyone is poll obsessed right there with you right now. And you’ve got a new poll from the battlegrounds. Let’s put it up on the screen. These are the states that ultimately are likely to decide the election and they show Joe Biden with a six-point lead – five-point lead.  

CHUCK TODD: Essentially it’s taking a poll just of the 12 battleground states. And one of the things – our lesson learned from four years ago, don’t stop polling. We stopped polling the Saturday before the election in 2016, a lot of movement happened. So this time, we’ve kept polling overnight, it shifted one point. So yesterday in our national poll that we unveiled on Meet the Press, we had a six-point lead for Joe Biden in the battlegrounds, 51-45.  Overnight, it moved to 51-46. Five points in the battlegrounds. And five points in the battlegrounds, yes, that’s within the margin.

Now, the President’s job rating among these voters is 47%, so his number’s at 46. And I keep bringing this up because ultimately that job rating is going to be his ballot number. So what his job rating is tomorrow and when we see those exit polls, I promise you, it’s all going to be within a point. So that’s what we’re staring at. But it also means that every one of these battleground states are going to be extraordinarily close tomorrow night, even if they all end up moving in one direction.

GUTHRIE: And just real quickly, our national poll showed a ten-point spread.

TODD: Yes.

GUTHRIE: Let’s go to the map, then, Chuck.

TODD: Alright.

GUTHRIE: Let’s show us, what are the paths?

TODD: Well, look, there’s one basic path here that is – there we go. This is what we’re staring at from over the weekend. Over the weekend, we got news out of the Iowa that seems to be leaning red. We’ve got news from the Trump campaign that says they don’t feel good about Wisconsin and Michigan. Ohio, we’re going to go ahead and assume Trump hangs on to that. So this is – and we’re going to go ahead and give him Texas, that he assumes he hangs on to that. So this, to me, is what we’re staring at here, we’re staring at basically a five-state race left. And as you can see, the good news for Joe Biden is he just needs one and it would hit him at 270. Arizona would give him 270, but let’s say the President holds on to that. Florida would do it, but let’s say the President holds on to that. Georgia would do it, alright, but maybe he holds on to that. North Carolina, maybe he holds on to that. And by the way, I have a theory here, these sunbelt states, evangelical white women are the one group of women that have not softened on the President and it has kept him in the game down there.

And look what this does. This puts us right here. This is the nightmare. Joe Biden does not want us – if this is what we’re waiting for, it’s going to be a long month. Not a long night, not a long week, but a long month. This is why the Biden campaign, they’re very confident, they think they can win this without having to wait for Pennsylvania. As you can see, if we’re waiting for Pennsylvania, it’s lawsuit-apaloosa.

GUTHRIE: Yeah, that’s the issue. I mean, it’s because actually what is – the state polls in Pennsylvania do show Biden with a lead, but it’s within the margin of error?

TODD: It’s at five. And I’ll tell you, you see there’s one play where the Republican ticket did well with party registration was in Pennsylvania, the other state being Florida. So there’s a lot of thought that Election Day vote – and more than half the vote is gonna vote tomorrow. So this is all a turnout game. And by the way, there are a lot of questions I have. You know, when you’re playing a turnout game like this, when you’re the President, he is really relying on Election Day votes, how do weird incidents like picking a fight with Fauci on the last day or these – what we saw on the New Jersey Turnpike that has influence on Pennsylvania voters, what does that do in this last 24 hours?

GUTHRIE: Well, it’s gonna be interesting. Democrats have certainly leaned into having the vote banked early. The President waiting for Election Day, but we’ll see how it all shakes out.

TODD: This is the nightmare scenario for the country, let’s just be honest.

GUTHRIE: Okay.

TODD: That’s what this is. So, good luck.

GUTHRIE: Yeah, no offense, Pennsylvania. Good luck? You’ll be there right with me.

TODD: All of us.

GUTHRIE: We’ve got our whole coverage planned for tomorrow night, it’s going to be a long one. We also have a live blog filled with last minute election information, NBCNews.com/2020. And of course, as mentioned, complete coverage starts tomorrow. As America heads to the polls, we’ll start right here on Today, we’ll be on throughout the night, our special election coverage begins at 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific. Right here on NBC.