Chuck Todd's Softball: Are Republicans 'Sabotaging' the Impeachment?

November 10th, 2019 2:52 PM

Call NBC's Sunday morning show Meet the Press doesn't really meet what you see any more. Chuck Todd interviewing Democrats sounds more like an episode of Meet the Helper. Todd's interview with liberal Rep. Jim Himes was all about helping Himes discuss how the Democrats need to break through and impeach the president.  For example, he discussed how Democrats are dropping the phrase "quid pro quo," and asked "Do you feel as if that word doesn't penetrate the seriousness that happened?"

When Todd asked Himes about the Republicans, he helpfully suggested the Republicans might be "sabotaging the process" by having a different narrative that makes the process "hard to follow for the public." Todd isn't about to make anything difficult for the Democrats.

CHUCK TODD: Are you at all concerned that your colleagues on the other side of the aisle may turn the process and make it such a hard process to follow for the public, perhaps some might call it a sabotaging of the process, where it makes it more difficult for you to air this public testimony?

JIM HIMES: Well, of course, that's been the strategy all along, of course, is to attack the process and when you look at their witness list, you can sort of tell what they are doing. They're really doing two or three things.

Number one, they are calling a number of witnesses we already deposed and these are witnesses who aren't going to say the president's actions are okay but say they had very serious concerns about it but say well, gosh, I didn't know that this was going on. I wasn't sure if this was illegal. That's not a very strong defense. 

Himes recognized and honored Todd for pressing Sen. Rand Paul like a good Democrat, helping the Democrat "process" succeed, even suggesting Biden's actions in Ukraine are irrelevant!  

HIMES: The other thing, of course, Joe Biden's son is on that witness list. They're gonna try to do exactly what you were pushing back on Senator Paul for doing. They would like to bring Joe Biden's son in front of the American people to discuss his role on the board of Burisma and as you pointed out with Senator Paul, we can have a long conversation whether the sons and daughters of high-ranking officials should do that sort of thing. That has nothing to do -- absolutely nothing to do -- with the actions of the United States president in extorting Ukraine in a way that damage our national security. 

Earlier, Todd grew visibly disturbed when Sen. Paul suggested the American people think it's unfair to treat Trump pressuring Ukraine with one standard and Vice President Biden pressuring Ukraine by a different standard. That was a distraction! Sabotage! 

TODD: I'm gonna set aside Vice President Biden....I understand trying to go back. I go back to 'do two wrongs make a right?' I wanna set that aside, because I don't understand why that's always used as a deflection.  Does that mean you think it's okay for the president to act this way? It doesn't matter what we think of Joe Biden. If it's wrong for this to be done --

PAUL: It kind of does.

If "two wrongs don't make a right," then why is Chuck deflecting away from the last vice president? Isn't he currently running for president? Why not question the man who might be the next president?