The question in this week’s Liberal Mainstream Scream is this: Can NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd handle the truth?
An answer came in his interview with Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw after Todd hit him for five questions on the removal of Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney as the No. 3 House leader after she refused to stop criticizing former President Donald Trump on his election fraud claims.
An exacerbated Crenshaw, after watching the liberal media turn the ouster into the next disaster for the GOP, blurted out, “You guys in the press love doing this” and “I get it, right? The press is largely liberal. They’re largely pro-Democrat.”
Todd wouldn’t hear it and tried to take back the conversation. “No, no, no, no, don’t start that … There’s nothing lazier. There’s nothing lazier than that,” he said.
<mediadc-iframe data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1621284508656,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07b3-de22-a173-2ffbab450000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1621284508656,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07b3-de22-a173-2ffbab450000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"iFrameEmbedCode":"","_id":"00000179-7c16-db86-adff-7dfe34130000","_type":"00000161-b425-d761-a563-f7e77e270000"}”>iFrame ObjectTodd tried repeatedly to get Crenshaw to denounce his Republican colleagues and Trump in a series of questions, starting with asking him to agree that “Liz Cheney was kicked out of leadership simply because she wouldn’t carry the water of former President Trump’s election lies.” He followed up with “Why should anybody believe a word you say if the Republican party itself doesn’t have credibility?” and “Do any of your critiques come across as credible if you can’t accept the fundamental fact that our democracy held a free and fair election?”
He then pressed Crenshaw to backtrack from ever asking courts to review some election processes, leading to this exchange on the Sunday program:
CHUCK TODD: This is an issue that many people have, is that you’re sitting here trying to, trying to say, ‘No, no, no, no, I just had a specific question,’ yet what you did gets weaponized by the former president. Did you see the rantings of him yesterday? And to the point where a Republican official in Maricopa County called the former president ‘unhinged.’ You know, I understand you guys want to put this behind you, but he is the leader of your party, and he doesn’t stop talking about this nonsense.
REP. DAN CRENSHAW: Chuck, the only — look, he’s one of many leaders in the party. He’s a former president. We’re five months into President Biden’s presidency, and there is a time to move on. And look, you guys in the press love doing this, and I, and I get it, right? The press is largely liberal. They’re largely pro-Democrat.
TODD: No, no, no, no, don’t start that. That is the laz — look, there’s nothing lazier. There’s nothing lazier than that.
CRENSHAW: It is. I mean, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of reasons to keep this alive.
TODD: I understand — what you’re trying to appease —
CRENSHAW: And there’s a lot of people in my party that take the bait. I’m not going to take the bait here —
TODD: I’m not trying to bait you. I’m trying to — I’m trying to figure out —
CRENSHAW: What is the outcome you’re looking for?
TODD: Why do you, why do you, why do we sit here and have a political party that is basically rallying around this bizarre lie and mythology that the former president is doing, and you guys just want to say, ‘Hey, pay no attention to this,’ that, that somehow we in the press are bringing that up. It’s the former president.
CRENSHAW: Well, I already, I already debunked the notion, I already debunked the notion that there’s, that there’s no space in the party for that. Remember, Liz won that first election —
CHUCK TODD: She’s not there now.
CRENSHAW: She won that first leadership vote, OK? And I told you why. I helped you understand why. And what I’m trying to help you understand is these are not the phone calls I get about this, about who is the leader of the party, what’s happening with Trump? My Republican supporters do not ask me about Trump, they don’t ask me about what he said, they’re not riled up about it. You know what they’re asking about? What are we doing about over a quarter million illegal crossings on our border in the last two months? That’s what they’re asking about. How is that sustainable? What about my inflation? What about my savings that are now less valuable because of rising inflation because we’re spending money that we don’t have.
Media Research Center Vice President Brent Baker explains our weekly pick: “There’s nothing lazier than a liberal journalist, in the midst of pursuing a liberal narrative, denying the undeniable reality that the press and journalists are largely liberal. If Todd doesn’t want his guest to call out his biased agenda, then he shouldn’t keep asking a variation of the same question over and over because the guest won’t accede to his left-wing talking points.”
Rating: FOUR out of FIVE screams.
