President Donald Trump on Monday called for NBC’s Meet The Press host Chuck Todd to be fired for broadcasting a deceptively edited video clip of Attorney General William Barr discussing the Department of Justice’s decision to drop the Michael Flynn case.
During a recent sit-down interview with CBS News, Barr was asked how history would judge the Flynn decision.
“Well, history is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who’s writing the history,” Barr quipped.
Todd, upon airing the clip, said he was “struck by the cynicism of the answer.”
“It’s a correct answer, but he’s the attorney general,” he went on. “He didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law. He was almost admitting that, yeah, this was a political job.”
However, Meet the Press never aired the remainder of Barr’s answer, where he explained the rationale behind dropping criminal charges against Flynn, who was charged with making false statements to the FBI regarding his contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak ahead of President Trump taking office.
“I think a fair history would say it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law,” explained the chief law enforcement officer. “It upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice.”
Today on Meet The Press, @chucktodd wildly took context out of an answer AG Bill Barr gave about his decision to drop the case into Gen. Michael Flynn.
I cut Todd's segment along with Barr's full answer together. Look at how blatantly dishonest this is. pic.twitter.com/tODOEwL48V
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 10, 2020
Hours later, NBC program’s official Twitter account offered a tepid apology: “You’re correct. Earlier today, we inadvertently and inaccurately cut short a video clip of an interview with AG Barr before offering commentary and analysis. The remaining clip included important remarks from the attorney general that we missed, and we regret the error.”
On Monday, President Trump weighed in on the controversy, tweeting: “He should be FIRED by Concast. If done by a Republican, would be ‘prosecuted’.” NBC Universal is owned by the cable company Comcast, which the president has given a diminutive nickname.
The president’s tweet tagged Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
He should be FIRED by Concast. If done by a Republican, would be “prosecuted”. @AjitPaiFCC https://t.co/Lqi3oWEaiP
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2020
Todd has yet to personally comment on the deceptive video clip.
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