On Thursday’s MTP Daily, host Chuck Todd fulfilled his role as Democratic Party hack by trying to blame President Biden’s failures on COVID and the economy on Republican governors across the country, particularly Florida’s Ron DeSantis. The NBC News political director wailed that GOP state leaders had “sabotaged” the President and were responsible for his declining poll numbers.
“If it’s Thursday, President Biden battles a rising COVID threat which is taking its toll on this White House politically now,” Todd warned at the top of the 1:00 p.m. ET hour show. Moments later, he worried: “I’ve been saying it for months now, how COVID goes in the United States, so goes the Biden presidency. As pandemic numbers increase, the President’s numbers are starting to decrease.”
Noting that “the writing is on the wall politically” for Biden, Todd reported:
A brand new CNBC poll shows his approval rating dropping on two huge issues. On the coronavirus, approvals are now down nine points, and on his handling of the economy, is down four points. All of this, of course, is COVID related. For now, his overall job rating is at a sluggish 48%. Now, those numbers are a stark reminder, President Biden’s political situation and political fortunes of the party he leads likely won’t improve until COVID does.
Turning to correspondent Josh Lederman, Todd whined that everything was “COVID, COVID, COVID, no matter what the administration would like to accomplish outside of COVID.” Lederman agreed and sympathized with the administration: “I think the White House feels like there is a gap between what’s actually under their control and the way that the President’s leadership is gonna be perceived.”
The reporter perfectly echoed talking points from the President’s communications team:
You know, they’ll point out, “Look, we got the vaccines out to everyone, it’s not a problem about did the federal government fall asleep on the job with vaccines or other measures, but now it’s up to Republican governors, it’s up to companies to mandate this.” And that’s where they feel like they are getting punished in the political arena for something that’s outside of their control.
Todd chimed in with frustration that administration officials “haven’t made anything a mandate” with regard to COVID and were “backing off almost for fear of the right wing.” He bitterly concluded: “And yet, they’re being sabotaged anyway by some Republican governors.”
Talking to The Washington Post’s Phil Rucker later in the discussion, Todd complained: “...there’s only so much the White House can control, right?...This seems to be the sort of circular problem that they’re running into, they’re only as effective as their governor partners allow them to be.”
Rucker commiserated:
That’s exactly right, Chuck. And it’s a political nightmare for the Biden White House right now because there’s nothing more treacherous for a politician than parents worrying about whether their kids are gonna be safe in school or worrying about the virus spreading because of policies at the state and municipal level in these communities.
When a Republican is in the White House, the left-wing media try to blame them for every failure in the country, no matter how local. Yet suddenly when a Democrat assumes the presidency, they’re blameless in the eyes of the sycophantic press.
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Here is transcript of the August 5 segment:
1:00 PM ET
CHUCK TODD: If it’s Thursday, President Biden battles a rising COVID threat which is taking its toll on this White House politically now, as the administration is about to roll out more efforts to get more people vaccinated, starting with kids in school.
Plus, pandemic politics is spreading far beyond Washington as Republican governors, like Florida’s Ron DeSantis, try to pin the record-setting surges on an all-too-common skateboard – scapegoat for the right wing, migrants at the border.
(...)
1:01 PM ET
TODD: I’ve been saying it for months now, how COVID goes in the United States, so goes the Biden presidency. As pandemic numbers increase, the President’s numbers are starting to decrease. A little more than a month ago, as President Biden declared independence from the virus, COVID cases in the United States had flat-lined to an average of about 10,000 a day. Now we’re averaging more than 100,000 cases a day, a 10X jump. Cases are rising in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and especially in places with low vaccinations rates.
(...)1:02 PM ET
TODD: And for President Biden, the writing is on the wall politically. A brand new CNBC poll shows his approval rating dropping on two huge issues. On the coronavirus, approvals are now down nine points, and on his handling of the economy, is down four points. All of this, of course, is COVID related. For now, his overall job rating is at a sluggish 48%.
Now, those numbers are a stark reminder, President Biden’s political situation and political fortunes of the party he leads likely won’t improve until COVID does. And it should be worth noting that while Biden’s 48% doesn’t look great compared to his numbers, it’s still above where President Trump ever was in his four years.
So joining me now at the White House is Josh Lederman for us, Heidi Przbyla is at the Department of Education here in Washington, D.C., and senior Washington correspondent for The Washington Post, Phil Rucker.
You know, Josh, it’s interesting today, your primary beat for us is climate. And in many ways, on any other day, if we were at 10,000 cases a day, we might be leading with your beat on climate. But as this White House press briefing is gonna be on COVID – you know, COVID, COVID, COVID, no matter what the administration would like to accomplish outside of COVID, until this virus is tackled and pushed out of here, it means all these other proposals have to take a back seat.
JOSH LEDERMAN: That’s exactly right. I mean, it’s kind of the dichotomy here, where, you know, the line you hear from the White House is, you know, walk and chew gum at the same time. Substantively, they feel like they’re doing a pretty good job of being able to stay focused on getting the things that they want to get done. White House officials will point to the fact that the bipartisan infrastructure deal, you know, still on track, not an easy lift. The Democrats’ only massive spending bill, you know, still looks like it’s gonna happen, along with the major climate components of the President’s agenda.
But politically, that’s where they have less control over, you know, what the message is and what the country is talking about. And that’s where I think the White House feels like there is a gap between what’s actually under their control and the way that the President’s leadership is gonna be perceived.
You know, they’ll point out, “Look, we got the vaccines out to everyone, it’s not a problem about did the federal government fall asleep on the job with vaccines or other measures, but now it’s up to Republican governors, it’s up to companies to mandate this.” And that’s where they feel like they are getting punished in the political arena for something that’s outside of their control.
TODD: Well, you know, it’s interesting, Josh, though, I want to dig in on that a second. Which is, in some ways, there’s some that would argue that they actually have too light of a touch when it comes to they haven’t made anything a mandate, they haven’t made anything – you know, they’re backing off almost for fear of the right wing. And yet, they’re being sabotaged anyway by some Republican governors.
LEDERMAN: Yeah, I mean, I think there’s two concerns here. One are legitimate legal concerns about exactly how far you can go. And we’ve seen the Biden administration wrestle with that kind of out in the open, even, on, for example, the eviction moratorium and what the Constitution will allow, and then there’s the other part of this, Chuck, which is that I don’t think the White House thinks that it’s in their best interest, for example, to be in this escalating tit for tat with Governor DeSantis in Florida. They know that that backlash actually makes it harder for them to do their job of getting more folks vaccinated. And so, they don’t really want to go down that path.
TODD: Well, especially since he [DeSantis] is just looking for material to fundraise off of, which was clearly yesterday’s political theater.
(...)
1:08 PM ET
TODD: Let me bring in Phil Rucker. And Phil, this gets into, you know, there’s only so much – and we were getting into this with Josh a little bit – there’s only so much the White House can control, right? This is a crisis where even if it’s not in their power, talk about vaccination of kids, this has to be led by the states. You want to get high school sports associations to essentially tie vaccination with participating in sports. There’s nothing a federal government mandate can do to make that happen. You’re gonna have to get governors to sign off on stuff like that. This seems to be the sort of circular problem that they’re running into, they’re only as effective as their governor partners allow them to be.
PHIL RUCKER: That’s exactly right, Chuck. And it’s a political nightmare for the Biden White House right now because there’s nothing more treacherous for a politician than parents worrying about whether their kids are gonna be safe in school or worrying about the virus spreading because of policies at the state and municipal level in these communities.
And the central tenet of Biden’s campaign for president was that he was gonna tackle COVID, he had the skills and also the bipartisan relationships to effectively cut through the crap and address the pandemic in a way that Trump did not. And the fact that COVID numbers are rising now, the fact that this delta variant is so potent, and the fact that getting the vaccines into some of these communities has been such a challenge is really spelling political trouble for Biden at this hour.
(...)
