Todd Grills Manchin, Domenech Attacks Veterans, Trump Team ‘Quietly Preparing’ | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room
MEDIA WINNER: Chuck Todd
Chuck Todd grilled Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on whether or not he wanted to see his own party win the midterm elections in a stunning exchange on Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press.
While Todd was one of five hosts to virtually sit down with Manchin on Sunday, he secured the senator’s most newsworthy comment on the midterm elections.
Despite a pointed grilling from Todd, the West Virginia Senator refused to say that he wanted his own party to win the midterm elections.
“Do you hope Democrats keep control of the House and Senate?” Todd asked Manchin.
“I think people are sick and tired of politics, Chuck,” Manchin replied.
“I really do. I think they’re sick and tired of Democrats and Republicans fighting and feuding and holding pieces of legislation hostage because they didn’t get what they wanted, or something or someone might get credit for something.”
Manchin then refused to “predict what’s going to happen,” prompting Todd to ask what result the senator wants.
But Manchin, for a second time, twisted himself in knots to avoid the question.
Todd took one final shot at getting a response, asking, “You don’t care about the outcome this year of the election?”
“Whatever the voters choose,” Manchin said — dodging one more time.
Similarly, Manchin also refused to commit to supporting President Joe Biden in a separate interview Sunday with ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
While Manchin appeared on five shows Sunday, Todd’s interview stood out above the rest, as Manchin’s silence on the topic was deafening.
The anchor also managed to corner Manchin into refusing to support his own party shortly after he had reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a reconciliation bill this week.
MEDIA LOSER: Ben Domenech
Fox News contributor and Spectator editor-at-large Ben Domenech went after service members in a heated Twitter spat with a veteran on Saturday.
Domenech’s outrage was triggered by a Fox News opinion piece from Lucas Kunce, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran and Democratic Senate candidate in Missouri.
Kunce’s piece argues that Republicans “turned their backs on veterans like me” by delaying the PACT Act, a bill to care for veterans and 9/11 first responders exposed to toxic chemicals.
“Many struggle with chronic respiratory issues. Migraines. Cancer,” Kunce wrote.
“So imagine how we all felt on Thursday, watching all these Republicans, most of whom have never even worn the uniform, throw us a giant middle finger?”
Domenech went after the column on Twitter, calling it “authoritarian horsecrap” to use a vote on burn pits to try and get rid of the filibuster.
“You do not get to sweep away the tenets of government because it doesn’t accord to your wishes,” he added.
The tweet prompted an intense Twitter exchange, with Kunce responding, “I got sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, so I’ll be damned if some Bush White House toady is going to lecture me about democracy.”
“I don’t think we needed to pay you to travel across the world and murder brown people, Lucas,” Domenech shot back.
“You should probably send that money back.”
While Domenech held several mid-level positions in the Bush administration, he clarified that he “left the GOP in 2006 over Iraq.”
Regardless of one’s stance on the Iraq War, going after veterans burdened with health complications is a grossly misguided way to criticize pretty much anything — especially if done in an attempt to defend a Senate procedure.
Links We Like:
What’s going on between the Murdochs and Trumps?
– Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr, Washington Post
Can Biden’s highs overshadow the lows?
– Michael D. Shear, New York Times
Buzzbee on her first year at the Washington Post
– Charlotte Klein, Vanity Fair
How Weinstein got away with it
– Jonathan V. Last, Bulwark
Read the full Mediaite Green Room Newsletter here, including how Trump’s legal team is reportedly “quietly preparing” for potential criminal charges to be filed by the Department of Justice, including searching for one or more “fall-guys” to take the blame.
