Amid the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase-like idiocy on the broadcast and cable networks Thursday afternoon surrounding former President Trump’s third criminal arraignment, NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd suffered a near-emotional, weapons-grade meltdown seething at the Republican Party for putting America on the precipice of collapse because the GOP “refused to do” what was right and remove Trump from office in 2021 so he can never run again.
Worse yet, he claimed that, by not listening to “the Founders” who “created a process” to do right, Republicans (and not Democrats running urban hellscapes) are the reason there could be an irreparable “erosion of the rule of law”.
Todd first made this claim on NBC News Daily when he said “this goes to 11” in terms of seriousness with “the stakes...so high” as Special Counsel Jack Smith “[l]osing this case” would trigger an “erosion of the rule of law.”
He then made the pivot to hurling invective at half the country:
We shouldn’t be here. This is — it’s unfortunate this is the venue we’re having to do this in. The Founders created a process to do it, but the elected Republican Party refused to do it. We’re only here because Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate, decided that the impeachment trial was not the venue for this.
Sounding like he was near tears, the former Senate Democratic staffer blasted the GOP as having made “the wrong call for the Republican Party,” “the American public,” and “the justice system.”
Todd also praised Trump being charged and voiced support for Smith, saying charges “needed to be bought” because Trump’s actions after the 2020 election were a “crime against the country, but, unfortunately, we’re only here because the elected Republican Party in Congress was afraid to deal with it and I do think we cannot let that go.”
“History — it’s only a historical stain now, but that stain belongs where it’s at. We are only here and we shouldn’t have to be in this precarious situation that the country is in, if not for the lack of leadership of the Republican Party in the United States Senate during the second impeachment trial,” he added.
Later on the NBC News Special Report, he doubled down and invited colleagues to respond, including Today co-host Savannah Guthrie, senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson, and his soon-to-be replacement, Kristen Welker (click “expand”):
TODD: [W]e shouldn’t even be here. This should have been done with the impeachment trial, but Mitch McConnell decided that this was the better place. What’s — the Founders knew what the right venue was, Mitch McConnell decided otherwise and here we are.
(....)
GUTHRIE: I think what Chuck is introducing for all of us to consider is the Founders in the Constitution contemplated impeachment as the remedy for a president who did wrong —
JACKSON: That’s right.
GUTHRIE: — not a criminal trial. There was an impeachment proceeding. Chuck is saying that Mitch McConnell and the Republicans did not convict in the Senate when they had the chance, hence now we are left to the legal — this other branch, the judiciary.
(....)
JACKSON: [Y]ou heard Republican senators say actually the proper venue is not in Congress. It is in a court of law. Well, look where we are now. Look at what’s happening at this point — right — just to show how that — that needle, that thread get sort of pulled through the needle here.
WELKER: I’ve been talking to top Republicans who have expressed frustration with the timeline of all of this. They make that same point. If we had dealt with this at the time, we wouldn’t be here now because they want to hold on to the House. They want to win back the Senate and yet, what are they doing? They’re having to answer questions about former President Trump and about January 6th, not what they want to be talking about and they wish that the legal proceedings had gone more quickly and based on your interview with Trump’s attorney on the Today show, it seems the strategy there is to potentially run out the clock, Savannah, because there is a scenario where he could be potentially convicted and also elected president.
Todd wasn’t alone in his smugness. Over on CBS, longtime liberal journalist John Dickerson similarly called on Americans to reject Trump and the GOP.
Referring to justice and the legal system as “the vital beating heart of our democracy,” he said questions of Trump’s actions on January 6 and views about the legitimacy of the 2020 election “are vital questions.”
He then called on Americans to reject “conspiracies,” “partisanship,” and “violence” (aka Trump and most of the Republican Party) in favor of “facts,” “country,” and “the system...going into the election next year” (aka Joe Biden and the Democrats).
Later, he blasted Trump attorney Alina Habba invoking allegations of Biden family corruption as dangerous because they don’t pertain to “the central point” of bringing Trump to justice (click “expand”):
What Alina Habba was doing just right there is what I was talking about earlier. The issues at stake here happened two and a half years ago. But we see in just this moment, claiming things that are not true or — or talking about things that are over here and not focusing on the central point.
That’s what happened two and half years ago and we see happening afresh. And that’s why this discussion of what happened to a half years ago, whether we can look at the facts as they are is a still a live one and is — is being presented right there before us in terms of whether we can seriously adjudicate this moment that one was one of the most serious in American history.
Since these were network special reports, there were no advertisements.
To see the relevant transcripts from August 3, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC).
