NBC’s Chuck Todd Blows Up on Hannity For ‘Personal’ Attacks: ‘He’s Bringing My Wife Into This!
NBC’s Chuck Todd tore into Sean Hannity in an interview Friday over the Fox News host’s “personal” attacks on him and invoking his wife to call into question his “conflicts of interest.”
Todd has been critical of Fox’s decision not to take disciplinary action against Hannity despite his failure to disclose his connections to Trump-lawyer Michael Cohen. The Meet the Press anchor spoke about this on The Bernie & Sid Show today.
Todd eventually focused his attention on Hannity’s personal website, where former CNN contributor Jeffrey Lord wrote a column accusing Todd of failing to disclose that his wife is a Democratic strategist. Todd retorted that Lord “did no research” because he has disclosed who his wife and her company have worked for in the past.
“What I take offense to on that is that’s my wife, that not me,” Todd said. “I think it’s a ridiculous place that we’re in in society that it’s guilt by association.”
As Todd continued to make his argument, he compared it to the “ridiculous” scrutiny Andrew McCabe has faced over his wife Jill’s work with Democratic political candidates.
“Personally and professionally, Sean and I, I thought, had a very nice cordial personal relationship,” Todd said. “It’s always bothered me, he’s has gone personal at me.”
“I’ve never gone personal at him,” he continued. “And he’s gone heavy personal at me in ways that I thought were unprofessional.”
“When he points out that your wife donates to Tim Kaine, you consider that personal?” host Bernie McGuirk asked.
“Yes I do, because he’s bringing my wife into this!” an exasperated Todd shot back. “What is it his business what she does? I don’t control her political opinions and she doesn’t control mine.”
“No, no, no, you’re trying to sully me because my wife is an individual thinker in her life?” Todd continued.
When McGuirk explained that he was trying to discern what Hannity’s personal attack on Todd was, the NBC host remarked, “go look at his Twitter feed over the last five years and you’ll see how many times he’s come after me.”
Todd proceeded to slam Hannity’s “lackey” Lord for invoking his wife in order to make personal attacks against him. Todd argued that there’s a big difference between his public disclosure about his wife, and how Hannity’s secret connection with Cohen was outed in court after several months. He also concluded that Hannity accusing other media people of worse behavior doesn’t actually do anything to solve the problem.
Listen above, via WABC.
[Image via screengrab]
— —
>> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter
New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!
Comments
↓ Scroll down for comments ↓