In an attempt to make the Republican presidential race appear chaotic, on Friday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry turned to White House correspondent Chuck Todd and declared: "Even the word 'tumultuous' seems inadequate to describe what has happened to the GOP race in the last 24 hours." The on-screen headline screamed: "Campaign Craziness."
Todd saw only problems for the Republican candidates: "Mitt Romney still has an inability to win over conservatives and what does the party establishment do if Gingrich indeed does win South Carolina.... Do they try to rally around Romney one more time? Or do they try to say, 'You know what? Maybe it's time to look for somebody else again, because we don't think Gingrich is electable but now we're worried that Romney's not nominatable.'"
On the issue of Romney releasing his tax returns, Todd argued: "It's become a liability because he's made it a liability....it only adds to this sort of head-scratcher, you're like, 'What's going on here? Do you guys have your stuff together to be the nominee and go up against Obama?'"
Read the complete transcript of the January 20 segment.
