It seems Chuck Todd remembers how much fun it was, and how much praise he got for doing his job and stuff that time back in 2019 when he interviewed Trump-loving Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). Johnson is notorious for (a) spending a Fourth of July in Moscow, and (b) being a particularly bad interview. Here's an example of the latter from August when Dana Bash made a valiant effort at trying to get him to answer a question.
Today, Todd and Johnson had another go-round. It started with a question on why Johnson is now on "the side of questioning the results of this election." Johnson said he and the others are not acting to "thwart" our democratic process, they're trying to "protect it."
The fact of the matter is that we have an unsustainable state of affairs in this country where we have tens of millions of people that do not view this election result as legitimate. We've just come off of four years where the other side refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of President Trump. And here we are again. And what we're saying is we need transparency. And you do not -- when you're trying to investigate wrongdoing in elections, you don't have very much time. And so what we're suggesting is let's set up a commission, as they did -- I know it's a long time ago, 1877 -- but let's take a look at it, a bipartisan commission, to organize all the allegations -- certainly what I did in my hearing.
Johnson's hearing was "three-and-a-half-hour hearing" in which they "barely scratched the surface."
Let's put out -- take off the table the ones that have been explained but also acknowledge the problem areas that have not been explained so that we can restore confidence in our election system. This is an unsustainable state of affairs right now. And that's all we're saying is, as long as someone's going to be objecting to this and we're going to be taking a vote, let's propose a solution in terms of, you know, transparency, investigation with a commission.
OK, so, there are obvious differences, that anyone can see, between Trump/Clinton and Trump/Biden, but the Rs love to pretend that what's happening now is the same as what happened then. And they love to ignore the fact that, by his own words and deeds, Trump proved himself to be an illegitimate president, all on his own.
Todd next suggested that by making an allegation of widespread fraud without evidence, and demanding an investigation, Johnson is "the arsonists."
You've started this fire. And now you're saying, "Woah, look at this. Oh my God. All these people believe what we told them," because you didn't have the guts to tell the truth that this election was fair.
Johnson, though, reached back into the history books, saying that the fire started back when Trump took office when "people like Mark Zaid" tweeted "The coup has started. First of many steps. Rebellion and impeachment to follow ultimately." (Who is Mark Zaid? I had no idea - had to Google him. He's a DC attorney, it seems, and I can assure you, no one outside the beltway knows - or cares - about his tweets.)
Who else started the fire, according to Johnson?
This was started when the mainstream media stopped, dropped any pretense of being unbiased and actually chose sides during this election. This fire was started when you completely ignored, for example, our investigation of Hunter Biden. You know, no evidence of wrongdoing there. And now we find out after the election, no, there is a fair amount of evidence to the point that we have a real FBI investigation. So --
And here goes Chuck, wearing his new "I'm interviewing Ron Johnson" tie or something, getting all up in arms about criticism of the media. Chuck is standard font, Johnson is italicized.
Senator. All right, I've had enough -- It’s the bias of the media -- of hearing this. All right. No, listen. I've had enough of this, too. No, Senator. It is -- It’s the bias in the media that has created a situation -- You've spent, you have spent the last two years -- where Republicans and conservatives do not trust -- No -- the mainstream media. And that is what, that is what has destroyed the credibility of the media and our institutions and really -- Right, no, the destruction of the institutions -- shaken confidence in this election result. So I didn't start this.
Say what you want about media bias, but literally no Republicans and conservatives - at least, not the kind Johnson is talking about - watch the mainstream media. Just ask the president - he'll tell you. He's the one who told them to stop watching Fox and turn to OAN and Newsmax.
Back to the classroom. Todd suggested that Johnson has been "carrying a lot of this crazy conspiratorial water" - blaming Ukraine for election interference, voter fraud, and what not - and he wondered why Johnson was doing it.
You're not trying to overturn the election, you just said. Are you simply trying to curry favor with constituents of the president? Is that what this is all about, is this a cynical political ploy?
Johnson said he was trying to be "transparent," and he said (as an example of transparency, I guess) that the allegations of voter fraud "kind of fall into three categories." Todd interrupted to point out that an allegation doesn't mean it happened. And, he said, "you don't get to make these allegations that haven't been proven true."
Here's what I don't understand. You understand how our government was set up. The reason we have a judiciary is because partisans like yourself weren't going to be trusted by the public to decide who won or lost an election. Let me ask you this: Who carried the state of Wisconsin?
Johnson said that Biden won by 20,000 votes, but that "there are also issues in Wisconsin." He said he didn't criticize the Dems back when they were concerned about voting machines,
But now it's quackery? Now it's conspiracy theory? That's the problem, Chuck. There's a double standard here, and we are not being transparent, and we are dismissing the concerns of tens of millions of Americans. Again, I didn't, I didn’t light this fire.
Cue the Billy Joel song. The fire was lit years ago, Johnson said,
And we've destroyed the credibility, you have destroyed the credibility of the news media by your bias. And of course people like James Comey, Andrew McCabe, John Brennan destroyed the credibility of the FBI and our justice system as well. We have an enormous problem in this country. It's unsustainable. And the only way you solve it is with information, and transparency, and hearings, and investigations --
Here comes the sparring again.
So you believe -- It's not quackery -- You believe in -- It's not conspiracy theory ---You believe -- It's what's going to be required. Let me ask you this. Then why didn't you hold hearings about the 9/11 truthers? There's plenty of people who thought 9/11 was an inside job. So you're basically saying is -- I mean, Chuck -- if there's enough people who believe a conspiracy theory -- I could have held hearings on all kinds of things. I held hearings on -- If there's enough people who hold -- what I figured was the most relevant issues -- Are you going to do a -- how about the Moon landing -- And obviously this election -- Are you going to hold hearings on that?
And then he said that, while there are all kinds of things he's like to have hearings on, but that you have to pick your battles.
Right now, we have this election. We've got tens of millions of Americans that think this election was stolen. We need to get the bottom of it. Again, what's explained, we need to explain it, get that off the table. We also have to acknowledge there were some real problems here --
There was another splashy exchange.
You've got to ask yourself, when you tell people a million times that something was stolen or something was fraud and then they believe it, I think you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself why so many people believe this. Well, Chuck, you need to look at your mirror because you carried the Democrats’ water on - Senator Johnson, I've got to go. I appreciate you coming on -- the whole Russian collusion with the Trump campaign hoax -- I’ve let you, I’ve let you say plenty of -- That is what you did in the media. You carried that water for years. You destroyed the credibility of the press -- You can -- Senator Johnson -- not me.
So, what did we learn in today's interview? That, when it comes to interviewing Sen. Johnson, Chuck Todd brings his A-game, and when it comes to everyone else, he brings his "Both Sides Now' game. But I'm just a Sunday School teacher. What do I know?
See you around campus. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the new masks you all got for Christmas and Kwanzaa.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!