Whatever shred of actual relevancy Chuck Todd hoped to achieve as the new moderator of “Meet the Press” just collapsed during his MSNBC interview regarding the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder. Chuck Todd eulogizes Eric Holder as “a non-political person”:
“He did a lot of the tough stuff that you would say, ‘Hey, the attorney general has to do tough stuff, this is not a forgiving job, you have to do tough stuff. But, what’s interesting about him, he is a very non-political person. And I think people used to mistakenly think that this guy was this long-time political operative who happened to be an attorney general. That’s not him at all.”
Thankfully, the folks over at NRO reminded us all that Eric Holder himself prefers to be considered a partisan hack. “In an August interview with the Hill, Holder revealed he was proud to be labeled an activist attorney general, adding that those who say the DOJ has an ‘activist civil-rights division and this is an activist attorney general — I’d say I agree with you 1000 percent and [I am] proud of it’.”
Eric Holder is the man who has completely destroyed the Office of the Attorney General. As for others Attorney Generals before him, even though they were hired by a particular President, they still put the country first. Attorney Generals have to contend with many different issues and cases, and they are expected to generally pick the most egregious ones to go after. With Holder, on the other hand, instead of picking out the most egregious, he purposefully picked out the most politically motivated ones to make hay with. Holder proudly relishes in his partisanship, yet Chuck Todd feels compelled to try to present this other Holder narrative instead — that Holder is “non-political”.
Amusingly, Chuck Todd’s asinine remarks drew swift ridicule online especially over on Twitter, where Twitchy quickly compiled a list of incredulous and snarky responses. As one person pointed out, “not even Eric Holder thinks this is true”.
The only logical conclusion is that Chuck Todd really is the hand-picked lapdog of the White House. Why else would he debut his tenure at “Meet the Press” by lobbing softball questions during an interview with President Obama? It is imperative to also pay attention to his other roles: besides being the moderator at Meet the Press, he simultaneously serves as the Political Director at NBC News; additionally, prior to becoming the moderator, Todd worked as the Chief White House correspondent. It appears Chuck Todd gleefully took a page takes his cues from Holder’s (non)partisan playbook strategy.
After three weeks at the helm, Chuck Todd’s rating have declined. According to Politico, “NBC’s “Meet the Press” finished in third place for the second consecutive week on Sunday, suggesting that the boon from Chuck Todd’s inaugural episode and exclusive interview with President Barack Obama was an aberration, rather than a harbinger.” What’s worse, if you compare it with the average number of viewers of “Meet the Press” during the 2013-2014 season, Chuck Todd’s ratings are below: “Meet the Press” in last year averaged 2.724M, whereas last week, “Meet the Press” had just 2.416M.
It will be fascinating to see how this farcical flap plays out with his viewership this week and beyond. For all the pundits who praised the choice of Chuck Todd for moderator and anointed savior of the floundering “Meet the Press”, no one can mistake his bias now. And thankfully, no one has to take him seriously anymore either.