Nolte: Chuck Todd Wants Us to Believe Deceptive Barr Clip Was an Honest Mistake

Chuck Todd
MSNBC/Screenshot
John Nolte

Chuck Todd offered a ludicrous explanation for taking Attorney General Bill Barr completely out of context on Sunday’s Meet the Press.

Here’s what happened…

Todd and Meet the Press took a comment Barr made out of context, and did so in order to make it sound as though, when he was asked to justify his decision to stop the disgusting persecution of Michael Flynn, he arrogantly answered in the vein of, History is written by the winners, bitches, so I don’t need to justify shit, cuz I’m a winner, you’re all losers, and as soon as I’m done with this stupid interview, I’m going to drink expensive wine out of the skulls of your children.

Here’s the actual transcript from Sunday:

Todd: You brought up Bill Barr. Peggy Noonan, I want you to listen to this Bill Barr answer to a question about what will history say about this. Wait until you hear this answer. Take a listen.

[Clip from CBS begins]

Herridge: When history looks back on this decision, how do you think it will be written?

Barr: Well, history is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who’s writing the history.

[Clip from CBS ends]

Todd: I was struck, Peggy, by the cynicism of the answer. It’s a correct answer, but he’s the attorney general. He didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law. He was almost admitting that, yeah, this is a political job.

There was just one problem…

Yes, Barr did say “history is written by the winners,” but he did so within the context of How history writes this is out of my hands, so I can’t answer that question. He then went on to say — and Meet the Press chose not to air this part: “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.”

And now Todd is trying to explain his way out of this, with an explanation so ludicrous it beggars belief:

Todd: Now, we did not edit that out. That was not our edit. 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. And had I seen that part of the interview, I would not have framed the conversation the way I did. And I am obviously very sorry for that mistake.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I am well aware of the fact that Todd’s biases, his McCarthyism, his affection for conspiracy theories, and his unstable hatred for Trump have turned the once prestigious Meet the Press into just one more hour of loud, obnoxious, deceptive, left-wing cable fodder that is only able to make news when it trolls Trump, but still, wow…

And this explanation is nothing less than bullshit.

As the Daily Caller’s Greg Price points out, if you watch the original Meet the Press clip, you can see that the clip cuts Barr off, that he was obviously not done talking. So for Todd to claim he didn’t know there was more to what Barr said, is bullshit. His own clip — Todd’s very own clip cuts Barr off.

Watch for yourself…

So how can Todd claim it was the fault of CBS News that neither he nor anyone else knew Barr expanded on that statement when the clip Todd used cuts Barr off?

Finally, the very idea that neither Todd nor any of the many producers and writers at Meet the Press did not check the CBS transcript, or did not watch Barr’s full interview… Come on. the full transcript was available four days prior to Sunday. Checking for the full context is 101 stuff. Forget about Meet the Press, this is 101 stuff if you’re running your own personal blog. This is 101 stuff here at Breitbart News, and has been since our launch. That never would have made it past the editors here at Breitbart. It would have died as soon as I pitched it here, because one of our editors would have sought the full transcript before giving me the green light.

I cannot tell you how many times over the last 15 years (have I been doing this 15 years already?) where what looked like a story died after I found the full context. I don’t even tweet without checking on this stuff. But unlike the trolls in the fake news media, my credibility means something to me.

I’m sorry, but Todd’s explanation does not pass the smell test.

I just don’t buy that the Barr segment went through the NBC News vetting system and no one — no one! — bothered to check the transcript.

I also don’t buy that no one on the Meet the Press team watched Barr’s CBS interview. A team of news junkies didn’t bother to watch something like that? Come on.

Finally, where’s the accountability?

I’m not calling for anyone to be fired. That’s not my point. But this ranks as the one of the most audacious, shameless, shameful, and dishonest pieces of fake news in this Era of Fake News, and no one lost their job?

How do the responsible parties keep their jobs after making the kind of mistake that makes Todd look dishonest, incompetent, or a little of both — a mistake that wipes out whatever might be left of Chuck Todd’s moral authority?

I’ll tell you how no one loses their job — when it’s not a mistake. 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

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