In a tacit admission of how the Democratic Party thinks of the black community on Friday, presumptive nominee Joe Biden exclaimed that if a black person had to think about voting for him or President Trump, then their blackness was in question. By Sunday, NBC was tired of hearing the outrage at Biden’s blatantly racist remark with Sunday Today host Willie Geist huffing that Biden had to apologize for “two days,” and Political director Chuck Todd lamented that the former Vice President was being held to account at all.
After huffing about “two days” of walking back the comments, Geist admitted “Obviously, that was offensive to a lot of people.” But he immediately wrote it off and boasted about how well Biden was doing in the polls despite himself:
It gets to the kind of campaign he's trying to conduct from his home, doing it virtually through these interviews. And yet, he's doing well in the polls. A Quinnipiac poll and a Fox News poll showing him opening up leads among many important groups. What is the state of this campaign for Joe Biden right now?
Prefacing it as “just a quick side observation,” Todd responded by whining that Biden had to answer for his racist comment. “I'm struck about if Donald Trump makes the same type of gaffe he blows through it, plows through it, pretends it never happened. Joe Biden, the expectation is he has to deal with it and he tried to deal with it,” he said.
When Biden’s comments were fresh, Todd had noted that Biden had a history of making racially charged comments. But on Sunday, he was trying to smooth that over. “It's a reminder this is not the first time that he's sometimes gotten loose with his words, particularly when it comes to feeding into old stereotypes at times,” he massaged.
Further contradicting his previous admission of Biden’s past bolstering of stereotypes, Todd brushed off Biden’s “You ain’t black” exclamation, claiming: “So look, at the end of the day, it's a bad one-day story.” But it wasn’t, and shouldn’t be.
He went on to suggest that the incident was a “reminder of the risk/reward of this Biden-in-the-basement strategy.” And according to him, that strategy was paying off despite Biden’s racist comments:
I think there's some on his team that think it's better to keep him to stay in the basement, make this Trump versus Trump. You know, Trump desperately wants to make this Trump versus Biden. The less you're out in public, the harder that will be.
At the same time, he was able to sit here and make a gaffe while in his basement. That isn't a good sign for Biden. So look, at the end of the day, it's a bad one-day story. But the polls are the poll. And we're seeing the more this is Trump versus Trump, the better it is for Biden.
“Yeah. The Biden campaign is happy to let Donald Trump have the stage for the most part when they look at their poll numbers,” Geist agreed.
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.@NBCNews political director @chucktodd laments that @JoeBiden has to answer for his racist #YouAintBlack comment https://t.co/J1jvnAaW1M
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 24, 2020
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC’s Sunday Today
May 24, 2020
8:08:23 a.m. Eastern(…)
WILLIE GEIST: I was struck watching that piece from Kelly [O’Donnell]. The ad from Tommy Tuberville, the Senate candidate in Alabama included an interview from you and President Trump, where you asked President Trump if he could have one do-over in his administration, he said, ‘I wouldn't have hired Jeff Sessions. I wouldn’t have appointed Jeff Sessions.’
Now calling him a slime. Telling him to get out of the race. The difference is, as Kelly pointed out, this time, Jeff Sessions is punching back. I would point out also that Jeff sessions was the first United States senator to endorse Donald Trump back in 2015 during his run for the presidency.
CHUCK TODD: It was. Look, this is a bitter primary. Tommy Tuberville is ahead. And he’s ahead in some polls by a significant margin because of the Trump base. The President's most -- biggest defenders even in Alabama are showing a preference of Tuberville over Sessions, but there's a part of Session if he fights back.
Look, if he gets through the primary, I’ll tell you this, if you're Doug Jones, the Democratic senator who holds that seat right now, the person you don't want to face is Jeff Sessions. Because Jeff Sessions is now able to show some Independence from Trump, from some of those moderate Republicans who voted for Jones the last time. Sessions is a guy those moderate Republicans will come right back and vote for him. So, in some ways, this divisive end to this runoff campaign, if Tuberville is a nominee, it could give Democrats a slightly better chance than I think they’ve ever had in that seat anyway. They're still the underdog, but maybe slightly better because of this feud.
GEIST: That race really does have everything down in Alabama including a front runner who is the former coach at Auburn.
Chuck, let's talk about this presidential race between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Joe Biden was on the popular radio show -- over zoom this time -- called the breakfast club. Charlemagne tha God interviewed him. And Joe Biden made a comment that he's been having to walk back for two days where he said effectively if you're considering voting for Donald Trump, quote, “you ain't black.”
Obviously, that was offensive to a lot of people. It gets to the kind of campaign he's trying to conduct from his home, doing it virtually through these interviews. And yet, he's doing well in the polls. A Quinnipiac poll and a Fox News poll showing him opening up leads among many important groups. What is the state of this campaign for Joe Biden right now?
TODD: By the way, just a quick side observation. I'm struck about if Donald Trump makes the same type of gaffe he blows through it, plows through it, pretends it never happened. Joe Biden, the expectation is he has to deal with it and he tried to deal with it. It's a reminder this is not the first time that he's sometimes gotten loose with his words, particularly when it comes to feeding into old stereotypes at times.
Look, I think it's a reminder of the risk/reward of this Biden-in-the-basement strategy. Okay? I think there's some on his team that think it's better to keep him to stay in the basement, make this Trump versus Trump. You know, Trump desperately wants to make this Trump versus Biden. The less you're out in public, the harder that will be.
At the same time, he was able to sit here and make a gaffe while in his basement. That isn't a good sign for Biden. So look, at the end of the day, it's a bad one-day story. But the polls are the poll. And we're seeing the more this is Trump versus Trump, the better it is for Biden.
GEIST: Yeah. The Biden campaign is happy to let Donald Trump have the stage for the most part when they look at their poll numbers.
