Trump Calls for NBC to ‘FIRE’ Chuck Todd After Meet The Press Admits to Airing Barr Comments Without Full Context
President Donald Trump is calling for the dismissal of Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd after the program apologized for airing remarks from Attorney General William Barr without full context.
“Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd should be FIRED by ‘Concast’ (NBC) for this fraud,” Trump wrote late Sunday. “He knew exactly what he was doing.”
Trump went so far as to tag FCC chairman Ajit Pai in his tweet.
Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd should be FIRED by “Concast” (NBC) for this fraud. He knew exactly what he was doing. Public Airwaves = Fake News! @AjitPaiFCC @FCC https://t.co/fLTDhjMXo4
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2020
On Sunday, Meet the Press played an excerpt from Barr’s interview with CBS, in which the attorney general said — when asked how the Michael Flynn case will be viewed in the future — that “history is written by the winner.” However, they did not air the rest of Barr’s comment.
“But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law,” Barr said. “It helped, it upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice.”
After the edited version of Barr’s remark was played, Todd criticized the attorney general.
“I was struck … by the cynicism of the answer,” Todd said. “It’s a correct answer. But he’s the attorney general. He didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law. He was almost admitting that, yeah, this is a political job.”
Barr’s spokesperson, Kerri Kupec, called out Meet the Press and Todd on Twitter.
“Very disappointed by the deceptive editing/commentary by @ChuckTodd on @MeetThePress on AG Barr’s CBS interview,” Kupec wrote – including side-by-side transcripts for the purpose of comparison.
On its Twitter account, the program replied directly to Kupec, and conceded that it erred in not showing the full remarks.
You’re correct. Earlier today, we inadvertently and inaccurately cut short a video clip of an interview with AG Barr before offering commentary and analysis. The remaining clip included important remarks from the attorney general that we missed, and we regret the error.
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 10, 2020
By their own admission, Meet the Press and Todd badly botched their critique of Barr. Of course, the president might not be the best arbiter to call him on it — given his own tendency for factual errors. At last count in mid-April, Trump – according to the Washington Post — has made 18,000 false or misleading claims during his presidency.
Nonethless, the president continues to rage about Todd.
@FCC THIS IS A DISGRACE, EVEN WORSE THAN @NBC USUALLY IS, WHICH IS REALLY BAD. SLEEPY EYES MUST BE FIRED! https://t.co/NWy7WTxH8e
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2020
