Chuck Todd Calls Out Mark Meadows for Saying ‘Most of Donald Trump’s America Is Peaceful’: Is He Not Responsible for Portland, Kenosha?
NBC’s Chuck Todd put White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows through a series of questions on whether Donald Trump bears responsibility as president for the increasing unrest the country has seen in Kenosha and Portland.
As the two spoke on Sunday for Meet The Press, Todd began by noting that Trump used his speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention to attack Joe Biden and connect him to recent, violent incidents around the country. To that point, Todd said “Mr. Meadows, this is in Donald Trump’s America. How much responsibility should voters be giving the president for his inability to, to keep the streets safe?”
Meadows pushed back on the implication of the question, saying the Trump administration repeatedly offered to send federal law enforcement to Kenosha and Portland as protests there became increasingly intense. As he brought up the news that a man was fatally shot in Portland last night, Meadows slammed the notion that most protests were peaceful, and then he pivoted to say violence keeps happening “in Democrat cities.”
You want to talk about Donald Trump’s America? Most of Donald Trump’s America is peaceful. It is a Democrat-led city in Portland that we’re talking about this morning, who just yesterday denied help once again from the federal government. And so listen, we need to get to the bottom of this. We need to make sure that we hold people accountable. And, ultimately, we need to make sure that these people that are conducting these acts go to jail.
Todd followed up Meadows’ remarks about “Democrat cities” by asking if Trump, as leader of the country, gets to politically disown unrest taking place in areas where people don’t support him.
“Are there parts of the country that the president doesn’t govern?” Todd asked. “Is the president only in charge of places where he has supporters?…Does the president not believe he has responsibility of governing and leading the entire country?”
“Chuck, you’re smarter than that,” Meadows responded. “When we look at that as we look in Portland, it’s not Donald Trump’s DA that’s saying to stand down, it’s not Donald Trump that is saying that we need to look the other way, it’s the mayor of Portland. So let’s at least have a true version of what’s happening in these cities.”
The interview continued with Todd grilling Meadows on why Trump keeps condemning protesters, but hasn’t tried to deescalate national tensions nor denounced Kyle Rittenhouse’ alleged vigilante killing of two people in Wisconsin.
Watch above, via NBC.
