On Thursday’s MTP Daily, MSNBC host Chuck Todd tried to blame Washington “dysfunction” solely on Republicans and even suggested the GOP was attempting to “sabotage” Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterms. He later concluded that the “propagandist media...on the right” was to blame for Republican senators standing on principle and opposing government spending legislation.
“Color us Claude Rains ‘shocked,’ but dysfunction is threatening key deadlines that are fast approaching in Congress,” Todd bitterly whined at the top of the 1:00 p.m. ET hour segment. After citing Republican objections to aspects of bills funding the government, authorizing defense spending, and raising the debt ceiling, Todd bemoaned:
Folks, all three of these issues are pieces of common sense legislation that rational lawmakers know they have to pass. The consequences of missing these deadlines have real impact. We are flirting with awfully close to these deadlines. We may be numb to it, but this is not how government is supposed to work. I know we’ve said it this year, last year, five years ago. It’s like government dysfunction, you think it’s at 11, 12, 13, 14, how much higher does the Spinal Tap amp go?
Turning to congressional correspondent Ali Vitali, Todd sneered: “The political theatrics of the Senate, what’s the time line here to get through – to get through what some of the senators are trying to – are trying to do? I guess it’s for Twitter mentions or something.”
Vitali wailed: “Yeah, well, it is in the name of the conservative ideology that people like Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and Roger Marshall espouse. This is something that would shut down the government....just because if these conservative senators don’t get what they want...”
This coming from the same media outlet that steadfastly defended radical, left-wing members of Congress holding up bipartisan infrastructure legislation for months.
Minutes later, a visibly frustrated Todd complained: “Do they realize, though, they’re just diminishing the entire institution and themselves? I mean, what political benefit is any of them getting out of this?” In response, Vitali parroted Pelosi: “What it does do, and you’re right on this, is lend to the idea of dysfunction. Speaker Pelosi was talking about this earlier. This is silly, the idea that Republicans could shut down the government, even briefly, over vaccine mandates.”
The Capitol Hill reporter then speculated:
What this does is it lends to the idea of dysfunction. And also, going into a midterm year, you have Democrats in control of both Houses of Congress. It doesn’t benefit Republicans to do this, but it definitely doesn’t benefit Democrats either as they’re trying to show that they are the party that’s in charge here. They do have the majorities in these both houses of Congress, plus the White House, and this is still happening.
Todd seized on the notion and hyped it as “sabotage”: “Are you suggesting this is – this is a sabotage strategy? Just make the Democrats look more dysfunctional? Is that an actual Republican strategy out there?”
Wrapping up the discussion, he ripped into the media – only conservative media of course: “It’s our broken incentive structure system. The way the propagandaist media works on the right, the incentive is to do political theater.” Vitali chimed in: “Obstruct.”
When things are a mess in Washington with Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and the White House, MSNBC decides GOP “sabotage” must be to blame.
This wildly partisan coverage was brought to viewers by ServPro and HughesNet. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a full transcript of the December 2 segment:
1:22 PM ET
CHUCK TODD: Color us Claude Rains “shocked,” but dysfunction is threatening key deadlines that are fast approaching in Congress. With government funding set to expire tomorrow, the House will soon pass legislation that funds the government through mid-February. But it may take some time to make it through the Senate, where Republican Senator Roger Marshall plans on blocking quick consideration of the bill. It’s simply a means of protesting President Biden’s employer vaccine soft mandate, which appears likely to lead to at least a short-term – or could lead to a short-term government shutdown.
And that’s not all, an essential defense funding bill was blocked last night when Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio objected to moving forward because one of his own bills was not included as and amendment. And with less than two weeks before we’re projected to hit the debt ceiling, conversations between Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell on raising it appear to have gone nowhere.
Folks, all three of these issues are pieces of common sense legislation that rational lawmakers know they have to pass. The consequences of missing these deadlines have real impact. We are flirting with awfully close to these deadlines. We may be numb to it, but this is not how government is supposed to work. I know we’ve said it this year, last year, five years ago. It’s like government dysfunction, you think it’s at 11, 12, 13, 14, how much higher does the Spinal Tap amp go?
Ali Vitali joins us now from Capitol Hill. So, Ali, we have a framework to avoid the government shutdown. The political theatrics of the Senate, what’s the time line here to get through – to get through what some of the senators are trying to – are trying to do? I guess it’s for Twitter mentions or something.
ALI VITALI: Yeah, well, it is in the name of the conservative ideology that people like Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and Roger Marshall espouse. This is something that would shut down the government, if it were able to go forward, for a brief period of time, basically over the weekend, potentially into early next week, just because if these conservative senators don’t get what they want, which is amendment vote, simple majority, on this vaccine mandate funding, then they say they won’t agree to speed up this process in the Senate.
And just on the timing of this, a government shutdown would be the casualty of Senate procedure going as it normally would without anything in it to speed it up. You talk about where we are on the amp scale of dysfunction, this is it. It’s really just a quaint way of saying this is a time management thing. We knew all of these deadlines were coming at the end of September, the last time that we did all of these news cycles around the debt ceiling and around government funding.
On the Defense Authorization Act, this is something that comes up every year that the Senate has known that they have to deal with for weeks.So all of these things were seen in the future. We’re journalists, we know deadlines, we have a love/hate relationship with them, clearly that’s the same thing in Congress. But when you talk about what the actual implication of this is, again, we have never defaulted on our debt in this country. That’s a deadline that’s just under a week and a half away.
On government funding, I have covered these things out in America talking to people who aren’t getting their paychecks, who are cancelling their kids’ birthday parties, who are already in debt because of health crises. Those are the things that are the fallout of these political gambits and it’s really important to keep that in mind. Even if it’s just a shutdown for the next few days, there is an implication to that.
TODD: A little bit of this is there is sort of this exhaustion from “sky is falling” coverage, right? And I understand it. Like, look, I roll my eyes at this. Everyone, “Oh, my God, this is” – no, we know you guys, even if you flirt with it, you’re not gonna do it. Do they realize, though, they’re just diminishing the entire institution and themselves? I mean, what political benefit is any of them getting out of this?
VITALI: Well, that’s exactly right. If you talk to almost every other Republican and Democrat on this – and I’ve been spending that time on the Hill going back and forth between lawmakers, everyone agrees it doesn’t benefit anyone politically right now to shut down the government.
What it does do, and you’re right on this, is lend to the idea of dysfunction. Speaker Pelosi was talking about this earlier. This is silly, the idea that Republicans could shut down the government, even briefly, over vaccine mandates. But at the same time, it could happen. And Americans don’t necessarily care how the government is funded. They don’t care about raising or suspending a debt limit. They just care that it happens. Because they’re busy going about their lives.
What this does is it lends to the idea of dysfunction. And also, going into a midterm year, you have Democrats in control of both Houses of Congress. It doesn’t benefit Republicans to do this, but it definitely doesn’t benefit Democrats either as they’re trying to show that they are the party that’s in charge here. They do have the majorities in these both houses of Congress, plus the White House, and this is still happening.
TODD: Are you suggesting this is – this is a sabotage strategy? Just make the Democrats look more dysfunctional? Is that an actual Republican strategy out there?
VITALI: I’m not sure that it’s the strategy of the full party. Because you talk to Republicans and they agree that politically for them there’s no appetite on this either. They would rather make the messaging points about inflation and about the economy. But at the same time, if this is one of the unintended consequences of it or, for the small minority here that are forcing this shutdown issue, that it’s an intended consequence, sure, all the better. But, again this all leads to this is going to be the last vestige of 2021, politically, that people have in their mouth as you turn the calendar page to 2022.
TODD: It’s our broken incentive structure system. The way the propagandaist media works on the right, the incentive is to do political theater.
VITALI: Obstruct.
TODD: Anyway, Ali Vitali, appreciate it, thank you.
