After Brett Kavanaugh offered a vigorous defense of his character, and Senator Lindsey Graham condemned the “despicable” attacks on the Supreme Court nominee, NBC journalist and self-described referee Chuck Todd on Thursday finally decided that the hearings were “as bad as I forced” and a “divorce.”
Todd complained, “This is irreconcilable differences.... This is turning out to be as bad as I feared.” Sanctimoniously, the man who has hammered Kavanaugh feared for the country: “This irreconcilable differences mean, how are we going to a point where a majority feels comfortable about either conclusion? And I don’t think we’re going to get there.”
Again, all of this happened only AFTER Kavanaugh’s defense of himself. NBC journalist Savannah Guthrie reacted by calling it “nuclear winter.” Todd upped his chiding by comparing it all to McCarthyism:
There were times in the '50s.... It was McCarthy, Roy Cohn, that era, that was an ugly era of American politics. We can get through it, but we’re in a rough moment.”
Todd concluded, “It is like watching a divorce.”
Of course, it’s a bit much for Todd to lament the nastiness of the hearings. On September 25, he slammed Kavanaugh as a “partisan warrior” for having the nerve to defend himself on Fox News.
On September 18, he suggested that the judge should withdraw to spare the country.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more:
NBC Supreme Court hearings
9/27/18
5:13 p.m. EasternCHUCK TODD: Speaking of being realistic, this is irreconcilable differences. Okay? We’re picking apart — We're going bit by bit and we’re looking at it as if it’s a trial. How’s he doing here? How’s he doing there? I'm trying to look at I from how is this country reacting to this? This is turning out to be as bad as I feared.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Even worse.
TODD: It was this moment where I felt, if this hearing happened, it could break us. We've been saying is the Senate broken? All this stuff. This feels, look, judicial nominations have been the bane of the Senate’s existence now for the last, oh, I would argue you could go back to Bork in this modern era. There's enough. This back and forth, it’s ugly. And everybody has escalated into and ugly way. This irreconcilable differences means, how are we going to a point where a majority feels comfortable about either conclusion? And I don’t think we’re going to get there.
...
5:23
TODD: where do we go tomorrow? Forget the vote. Where do we go tomorrow?
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Nuclear winter.
TODD: This is scar tissue, we've been talking about the scar tissue that goes back to Bork and to Thomas and to Garland. It’s — This one — I don’t know? This one will calcify.
LESTER HOLT: I hope people can take some moment in all of this and feel sad and to feel ill by all of this on some level. It’s one of those pinch you moments and no matter where you come down, this is ugly. It’s brutal. I’m sitting here like the rest of you sending messages back and forth with folks saying, “I can’t watch anymore.”
TODD: It is like watching a divorce.
...5:25 p.m. Eastern
TODD: I will say this. It’s never permanent. There were times in the ‘50s. We weren’t there. It was McCarthy, Roy Cohn, that era, that was an ugly era of American politics. We can get through it, but we’re in a rough moment.
