NBC News senior political analyst Chuck Todd told the Morning Joe crew that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus’s plan to boycott the CNN and NBC debates was “smart,” as it would weed out the 2016 primary field of non-serious candidates.

“About half the Republican field from 2012—if they didn’t have the debates they wouldn’t have run, right?” Todd said. “They simply ran for exposure to get a talk show, or for exposure to get a radio deal, or a column, or a deal with Fox, or whatever. Whatever it is, their reasons for running, it wasn’t really because they thought they had a viable shot.”

“One of the things on the celebrification of the presidential cycle is that it has allowed for this underbelly of candidates,” Todd continued. “Whether it’s Herman Cain or Dennis Kucinich, people like that say, ‘I can show up, I get to be on national television, on various cable networks.’ So if you do that, then that is smart, tactical politics.”

RELATED: NBC’s Chuck Todd: Hillary’s 2016 Campaign Could Damage Obama’s Second Term

Todd also pointed out that if the RNC had devoted as much time and media capital to passing immigration reform as they had to making a fracas about the Hillary Clinton film projects, the legislation would be signed by now.

Watch the full clip below, via MSNBC:

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