President Trump called on NBC News to fire Chuck Todd after his show acknowledged airing a shortened clip of Attorney General William Barr discussing the Justice Department’s decision to drop its criminal case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn that skewed the meaning of his remarks.
“Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd should be FIRED by ‘Concast’ (NBC) for this fraud. He knew exactly what he was doing. Public Airwaves = Fake News!” the president tweeted late Sunday night. He also tagged the Federal Communications Commission and its chairman, Ajit Pai.
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’s edition of Meet The Press, which Todd has hosted since 2014, the show aired a clip of Barr being asked in a CBS News interview about how history would remember the Justice Department moving to drop criminal charges against the president’s first national security adviser.
“Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history,” Barr said.
The clip stopped there, but as critics pointed out, there was more to the answer.
“But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law. It helped, it upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice,” Barr went on to say.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec called out NBC for shortening Barr’s response.
“Very disappointed by the deceptive editing/commentary by @ChuckTodd on @MeetThePress on AG Barr’s CBS interview,” Kupec tweeted Sunday. “Compare the two transcripts below. Not only did the AG make the case in the VERY answer Chuck says he didn’t, he also did so multiple times throughout the interview.”
Following Kupec’s response, the network issued an apology on Twitter.
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
“You’re correct,” the Meet The Press account tweeted. “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.”
The apology was met with skepticism from the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, whom the president retweeted in his call for the outlet to fire their political director for NBC News.
