Before chastising President Trump for being on the wrong side of the issue in regards to professional athletes kneeling during the national anthem on NBC’s Sunday Today, Meet the Press Moderator Chuck Todd rebuked the President’s handling of North Korea. “This back and forth and it's an escalation of rhetoric, but at the same time, it's devaluing potentially what this rhetoric means with this schoolyard taunt,” he bemoaned to Anchor Willie Geist about Trump’s tough talk with the North Korean regime.
After claiming he spoke with “some diplomatic folks,” who he didn’t name, Todd explained how they were worried about America’s role in the world under Trump:
The biggest concern they have now in all of this, besides the big concern is that somehow one of these taunts leads to a hot war or some sort of military confrontation, but that the other fear is that it's inviting another country to basically bring peace to the world.
“It's inviting China to play the role of mediator. That the unintended consequence will be to lower the stature of the United States around the world,” Todd asserted.
He went on to whine about how:
Normally, it's the United States that's brought into de-escalate tensions and yet we're on the side of escalating and now we're looking for someone else or I think we're all hoping for emergency diplomacy, that something, something inserts themselves here.
Todd added that, “we're leaving ourselves open to losing our stature around the world and handing it off to somebody else.”
Those assertions came after Geist questioned Todd about the danger of Trump’s taunting of Kim Jong-un. “These are taunts of the leader of North Korea who is developing a nuclear weapons program,” Geist said. “And now going so far Chuck, as to say we will eliminate your country effectively if this continues.” He omitted the fact that former President Barack Obama was on record as taunting the regime in an identical way.
NBC clearly peddles in doom and gloom premonitions absent of historical context.
Transcript below:
NBC
Sunday Today
September 24, 2017
8:07:02 AM EasternWILLIE GEIST: I want to underline and read this tweet one more time from the President tweeting overnight. Quote, “Just heard foreign minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of little rocket man, they won't be around much longer.” We're not in the election anymore. We’re not talking about little Marco and low energy Jab. These are taunts of the leader of North Korea who is developing a nuclear weapons program. And now going so far Chuck, as to say we will eliminate your country effectively if this continues.
CHUCK TODD: Right. This back and forth and it's an escalation of rhetoric, but at the same time, it's devaluing potentially what this rhetoric means with this school yard taunt. Look, I was talking to some diplomatic folks around Washington. The biggest concern they have now in all of this, besides the big concern is that somehow one of these taunts leads to a hot war or some sort of military confrontation, but that the other fear is that it's inviting another country to basically bring peace to the world. It's inviting China to play the role of mediator. That the unintended consequence will be to lower the stature of the United States around the world.
Normally, it's the United States that's brought into de-escalate tensions and yet we're on the side of escalating and now we're looking for someone else or I think we're all hoping for emergency diplomacy, that something, something inserts themselves here. We're leaving ourselves open to losing our stature around the world and handing it off to somebody else.
GEIST: And Chuck, some of those same foreign policy leaders that you and I talked to were actually praising the Trump administration and the President for those sanctions this week that put the screws a little bit to China and its banking system as an effective means. So, you have to wonder why the President if it's working that way diplomatically or beginning to work, why go down this route again? Maybe there's not an answer to this question.
TODD: There's not, other than that this is how he rolls at the end of the day. He just can't help himself and I think he believes it is effective. You know, he will -- one of the rationals he'll say is, “Hey, if it moves and motivates China to do something finally, maybe this was all worth it.”
