WATCH: Chuck Todd Accuses Joe Biden of Making Cabinet Picks to ‘Placate’ Certain ‘Constituencies’

MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd accused President-elect Joe Biden of making certain cabinet picks to “placate” what he referred to as certain “political constituencies.”

Todd spent a good chunk of an MTP Daily segment trying to get former Senator and current MSNBC analyst Claire McCaskill to agree with his own critiques of Biden’s cabinet picks, first telling her that the selection of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as defense secretary — in the context of past Democratic selections of Republicans for that post — constitutes an admission that “Democrats can’t run the Pentagon.”

McCaskill pushed back on that notion, so Todd moved on to suggest that Biden is making some of his cabinet picks based on his own assessment of their merits, but not others.

“What do you make of what is clearly a pattern here?” Todd asked McCaskill, adding that “There are people that Joe Biden can’t be talked out of, and there is clear, you can tell where his picks are his picks, and then you can tell the ones where they feel like they have to placate.”

He went so far as to say, “It’s a little obvious which positions they view as ‘placate political constituencies,’ versus ones that the president-elect says ‘No, no, no. You’re not talking me out of this.'”

Todd cited Gen. Austin as a pick that Biden wouldn’t be talked out of, a pick that has rankled progressives like Senator Elizabeth Warren. Still, he did not specify which picks were being made to placate which other “constituencies.”

McCaskill gently but forcefully pushed back, telling Todd he was being “way too cynical,” and went on to say, “I think all of the people he selected — I don’t think Joe Biden is being forced to take anybody that he is not comfortable with.”

“I think he is trying to find good qualified people and have his cabinet look like America,” McCaskill said.

Todd still wouldn’t let it go, telling McCaskill, “Right. But, at the same time, it does seem as if you could tell… Look, you can make a political argument on some, but he is not listening on all of them is my point.”

He never spoke the end of that thought, how it is “you could just tell,” or specified which picks Biden was being forced into by unidentified constituencies, but the cautiously-delivered remarks — coupled with a list of cabinet-level appointments that is overwhelmingly comprised of women and people of color — carry an unmistakable overtone. Let’s say “you could just tell” what he’s talking about.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.