‘Biden Really Needs Donald Trump To Be The Nominee!’ Chuck Todd Asks Is POTUS ‘Co-Dependent’ With Trump

NBC’s Chuck Todd claimed President Joe Biden’s campaign launch was centered around ex-President Donald Trump, and said “He really needs Donald Trump to be the nominee!”

On Tuesday morning, President Biden officially launched his long-teased 2024 reelection campaign with a campaign video that hit a lot of familiar notes, and whose title may end up serving as a de facto campaign slogan: “Let’s Finish the Job.”

“But you know, around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting social security that you’ve paid for your entire life, while cutting taxes from the very wealthy, dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books and telling people who they can love all while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote,” Biden said in that video.

On Sunday morning’s edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, Todd argued the focus was all on Trump, and that Trump was focusing on Biden in return. He asked his panel —  NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles, Lanhee Chen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, and former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill — if the two are “in a codependent relationship”:

CHUCK TODD: When we saw the announcement video from Joe Biden, it was not about what he did. It felt like it is about who he’s running against again. And it felt very much almost like a, they even reference the first video. He really needs Donald Trump to be the nominee! And Donald Trump responded this Thursday by sort of focusing on him. Are they in a codependent relationship?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: There is definitely benefits to having both of those men run against each other in both of their minds. I also think Democrats are really coming to the realization that the culture wars that we talk so much about Republicans for waging also is something that Democrats should be robustly talking about because their voters are mobilized by that.

The first few minutes of that video were January 6, abortion, and then you got into book banning having talked to voters. Democrats are very worried about their own freedoms. And really want to wrestle that word back from Republicans.

So I think you see Joe Biden in that video making that case and making sure that people say, okay, you might have done something for the inflation or the bills, but your life is at stake. And I think there’s a little bit of a fear, frankly, that that’s being leaned into there, which we also saw on the Republican side.

Watch above via NBC’s Meet the Press.