Chuck Todd said he is “very sorry” that NBC’s Meet the Press aired an edited clip from an interview that CBS News had with Attorney General William Barr.
Todd, who hosts the show, drew criticism after he played a short clip from the CBS interview that left out crucial context. Barr asked in the interview about how history would remember the Justice Department’s decision to drop criminal charges against President Trump’s first national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
“Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history,” Barr responded. The clip aired by NBC cut off the rest of Barr’s answer, which added, “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.”
Chuck addressed the controversy on Tuesday and said that although the clip was not edited by NBC, he was “very sorry” for the mistake and for not checking the full transcript before running with the segment.
“Now, we did not edit that out. That was not our edit,” Todd said. “We didn’t include it because we only saw the shorter of two clips that CBS did air. We should have looked at both and checked for a full transcript, a mistake that I wish we hadn’t made, and one that I wish I hadn’t made. The second part of the attorney general’s answer would have put it in the proper context.”
“I obviously am very sorry for that mistake. We strive to do better going forward,” he added.
Following the clip’s Sunday airing, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec tweeted that she was “very disappointed by the deceptive editing/commentary” by Todd. The president called for Todd to be fired in a 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!” Trump tweeted late Sunday night.
