Chuck Todd: WH Aide Said ‘There Would Still Be Slavery’ If Lincoln Governed During Today’s Gridlock

NBC News’ Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd related an interesting bit of information from his recent discussion with an unnamed White House aide regarding the administration’s thinking at this stage in negotiations to avoid the upcoming fiscal cliff. Todd said that this aide finds Republicans so unwilling to negotiate that, if this sort of gridlock had been in Congress during the Civil War, “there would still be slavery.”

RELATED: Joe Scarborough Slams Obama’s Fiscal Cliff Offer: Was It Necessary To Be So ‘Provocative’?

TIME Magazine columnist Joe Klein said that earmarks were an essential way in which Abraham Lincoln brought members of Congress to the negotiating table during the Civil War.

Chuck Todd noted that he made a similar analogy about Lincoln’s presidency to a White House aide recently.

“He said, ‘You know, with this Republican – with the way politics are today — there would still be slavery,’” Todd said, relating the mood in the White House. “It was an interesting and depressing observation from this very smart White House aide.”

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

h/t The Gateway Pundit

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Editor’s note: This post has been edited since its original posting – Jon Nicosia

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