"Meow!"
That was the sound you could almost hear coming from Chuck Todd after immediately backing down when challenged with the "false equivalency" shtick by Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown on Sunday's Meet The Press. What started as a good interview question to Brown fizzled out as soon as there was just a bit of pushback.
Democrats have long maintained that vote fraud is "as rare as an asteroid strike" so when Brown charged that the gubernatorial election in Georgia was stolen from Democrat candidate Stacey Abrams, Todd felt compelled to all too briefly challenge Brown on his charge.
Watch how quickly Chuck Todd folded under just a bit of pressure from Brown:
CHUCK TODD: Let me start with you were out this week, talking about another race in 2018. And it was in Georgia and Stacey Abrams. It was before she had acknowledged her defeat. She has now admitted defeat, didn’t call it a concession. But I want to ask you about something you said this week about Georgia. Let me play it.
[BEGIN TAPE]
SEN. SHERROD BROWN: If Stacey Abrams doesn’t win in Georgia, they stole it. It’s clear. It’s clear. And I would say, I say that publicly. It’s clear.
[END TAPE]
CHUCK TODD: Strong language to throw that out there. You believe, today, that this is a stolen race, that basically, Brian Kemp is, is somebody who’s illegally governor right— or governor-elect of Georgia?
SEN. SHERROD BROWN: Well, I think you look at the lead-up to this election as secretary of state — and I was the secretary of state in Ohio 30 years ago. I know what you do, as secretary of state. You encourage people to vote. You don’t purge millions of voters. You don’t close down polling places in rural areas where voters have difficulty getting to the polls, which were mostly low-income areas. You don’t do what Republicans are doing all over the country. And you’ve seen it, Chuck. You’ve seen the kind of voter suppression that, all over this country. And you end with the secretary of state of Georgia should have recused himself from running that election, as Jimmy — as former — Georgia resident, former-President Jimmy Carter said he should. And clearly, he did everything he could to put his thumb on the scale and won that election, quote unquote, “won” that election by only about a point.
CHUCK TODD: I guess I would ask this. Couldn’t you bring up all of those, all of those issues, lay all of that out, without using the word, stolen? And I throw that out there, because we have enough distrust in our institutions as it is.
Because then you would sound like a yahoo Republican who won't admit that vote fraud is "rarer than an asteroid strike" (except maybe in Broward County where it just appears that way due to very convenient accidents and incompetence that always seems to favor the Democrats):
SEN. SHERROD BROWN: Well — don’t, wait, don’t —
CHUCK TODD: —Does that add to it?
SEN. SHERROD BROWN: Okay, Chuck. Don’t do the false equivalency of, of, of, the, you know, the lack of respect in institutions. I mean, we have a president that attacks your profession day after day after day. You, if you saw the earlier part of my election-night speech, you would’ve heard me thank the media. And you would’ve seen hundreds of people in Ohio, on the Democratic — at this election-night gathering, turn around and clap for the media. We see a president that goes after the courts, that goes after the judicial system, a president that says, as the votes were counted, that something’s been wrong with the elections. He criticizes the elections that way. So don’t play this false equivalency. Because a former secretary of state, like me, said that about this election, which clearly is an effort to suppress the vote, not of people that look like you and me, Chuck—
This had the makings of a really interesting interview. Unfortunately that didn't happen due to the Big Fold by Todd when faced with the "false equivalency" charge which is a major meme of the left in order to put themselves on a higher moral plane that those nasty evil Republicans:
CHUCK TODD: Right.
SEN. SHERROD BROWN: —but people of color especially. And it’s happened. Now spend your air time— I don’t mean to lecture—
CHUCK TODD: No, no, no, I, look —
SEN. SHERROD BROWN: — but spend your airtime critical of those people who are trying to suppress the vote.
CHUCK TODD: And we spend a lot of time criticizing that, too. I’m just asking you about choice of words and language.
SEN. SHERROD BROWN: Sure.
CHUCK TODD: But I take your point. Let’s talk about the presidency.
Meow!
