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Tag: Meet the Press

  • Mike Johnson Baselessly Claims Trump’s Medical Records Are “Irrelevant” and Denies National Abortion Ban

    Mike Johnson Baselessly Claims Trump’s Medical Records Are “Irrelevant” and Denies National Abortion Ban

    Welker asked again, would Johnson hold a vote on a national abortion ban?

    “We’re nowhere in a universe where that would be possible right now,” Johnson said. “I have to build a cultural consensus,” he continued, “there’s a lot of work to do.”

    Johnson has, infamously, been doing this work for years.

    As Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin has chronicled, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, Johnson called it “a great, joyous occasion.” His goal for his home state of Louisiana, as he’s explained, is to “get the number of abortions to ZERO!!” As a lawyer, he worked to shut down abortion clinics, as a legislator, he cosponsored the “Life at Conception” bill, which would force pregnancy from the point of fertilization and included no exceptions for IVF, and, as a religious leader, he blamed school shootings, in part, on pregnant people having access to abortion care.

    On Sunday, Johnson encouraged anti-abortion organizations to keep working toward a cultural consensus on the issue before adding, “We need to take care of these ladies that are in difficult situations with their pregnancies. That’s what the states are doing, very effectively. Crisis pregnancy centers and others around the country, care pregnancy centers—there’s a lot of great work being done.”

    Crisis pregnancy centers are facilities that act as legitimate reproductive health care clinics for pregnant people but, in practice, aim to dissuade people from accessing certain types of care, like abortion and contraceptive options. After Dobbs, “Tennessee boosted state support for crisis pregnancy centers from $3 million to $20 million; Florida raised it from $4.5 million to $25 million, and Texas went from giving the groups $5 million every two years to giving a whopping $100 million for 2022 and 2023,” according to Jessica Valenti’s new book Abortion.

    Watkins concluded the interview by asking if Johnson, who is the second in line for the presidency, would accept and certify the results of the 2024 election—a task that Trump’s own running mate, JD Vance, has continuously refused to commit to.

    “Of course, I’m going to follow the Constitution, I’m going to follow the law, that’s my job, my duty. I took an oath to do that, and I will fulfill my oath,” Johnson said.

    “Regardless of who wins?” Welker clarified.

    “Of course, yes,” Johnson replied. “If,” he continued, “it’s free and fair.”

    Katie Herchenroeder

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  • JD Vance Downplays Laura Loomer’s Racist Comments, Doubles Down On Immigrant Conspiracy

    JD Vance Downplays Laura Loomer’s Racist Comments, Doubles Down On Immigrant Conspiracy

    Senator JD Vance continued to peddle unfounded claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, on Sunday and said he didn’t “like” far-right activist Laura Loomer’s racist social media post about Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

    When NBC’s Meet the Press Kristen Welker asked Vance about Loomer’s comments, he alleged that he’d only read them this morning, because “I knew that you’d ask me about it.”

    “Look, Kristen,” Vance began, “I make a mean chicken curry, I don’t think that it’s insulting for anybody to talk about their dietary preferences or what they want to do in the White House.”

    “Do I agree with what Laura Loomer said about Kamala Harris? No, I don’t. I also don’t think that this is actually an issue of national import. Is Laura Loomer running for president? No,” he continued. “Kamala Harris is running for president, and whether you’re eating curry at your dinner table or fried chicken, things have gotten more expensive thanks to her policies.”

    In addition to her comments about Harris, Loomer has been in the news this month for her increasing influence on Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency. Loomer was among those Trump took on his private plane en route to Philadelphia for ABC’s presidential debate last week. When asked about this, Trump responded that “a lot” of people fly with him because “it’s a very big plane.” Trump said Loomer is a “free spirit” and “supporter.”

    Trump was also alongside Loomer at official September 11 memorials in New York and Pennsylvania this week. Loomer has promoted the conspiracy that 9/11 was an “inside job” and recently said in a CNN interview that, “I’ve never denied the fact that Islamic terrorists carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In fact, the media calls me anti Muslim precisely for the reason that I spend so much time focusing on talking about the threats of Islamic terrorism in America.”

    On Sunday, Welker pressed Vance on Loomer’s comments and how they relate to his Indian-American wife and potential second lady, Usha Vance.

    “Senator, were you and your wife offended, and do you disavow those comments that even some Trump allies say are blatantly racist?” Welker asked. “Kristen, I just told you, I don’t like those comments,” Vance replied. “I also don’t look at the internet for every single thing to get offended by.”

    Loomer saw Vance on Meet The Press—and lauded the VP hopeful’s responses.

    “Vance,” Loomer wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “has done a fantastic job as an Ohio Senator, and he has given a voice to the forgotten men and women who want to talk about real issues.”

    “Donald Trump and JD Vance are giving those people a voice to tell the TRUTH about how they are being replaced by Kamala Harris’s invaders,” she posted, adding, “PS: I hope I can try the Senator’s chicken curry one of these days.”

    Minutes before in the interview, Vance again doubled down on the unfounded claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are harming and eating household pets and geese.

    “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance posted on X earlier this week.

    “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”

    So far, the xenophobic rumors have been spouted by Vance, Elon Musk, Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of Turning Point USA, and Trump himself—to name a few.

    On the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Trump said without any proof, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating—they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

    Katie Herchenroeder

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  • NBC news analyst rips own network over hiring former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel

    NBC news analyst rips own network over hiring former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel

    Former “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd blasted the network for hiring former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid political analyst. During her first appearance on “Meet The Press,” McDaniel called the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol “unacceptable” after years of deflecting on the issue.

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  • Chuck Todd Blasts NBC News On-Air Over Ronna McDaniel Hire

    Chuck Todd Blasts NBC News On-Air Over Ronna McDaniel Hire

    Chuck Todd left moderating duties at “Meet The Press” behind several months ago, but he isn’t through with the show yet.

    During a surprising appearance on Sunday’s broadcast of the program on NBC, Todd took issue with a decision to hire former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as an NBC News contributor, then put her on “Meet The Press” for an interview with current moderator Kristen Welker, who had booked McDaniel prior to the hiring becoming known.

    “You got put into an impossible situation, booking this interview, and then all of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under you, and you find out she’s being paid to show up?” Todd said Sunday. “It’s unfortunate for this program, but I am glad you did the best that you could.”

    McDaniel’s hire as a contributor was unveiled Friday, and has sparked concerns about her ability to speak truthfully on air to NBC News’ audience. In the past, McDaniel has called into question the validity of the 2020 presidential election and suggested journalists were promoting propaganda.

    “Our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” Todd said to Welker, in separate remarks. Welker disclosed on air that a possible booking of McDaniel had been in the works for weeks and that she was not involved in the decision to hire her.

    Todd’s remarks appear to be a rebuke aimed at Carrie Budoff Brown, the NBC News executive who oversees political coverage and “Meet The Press,” or Rebecca Blumenstein, the NBC News president to whom she reports. Blumestein joined NBC News from The New York Times last year, and has, since her arrival, masw hires aimed at bolstering NBC News’ investigative efforts and political coverage. During her early tenure, NBC News hired David Rohde from The New Yorker, installed Welker at “Meet The Press” and orchestrated a change in command at “Dateline.”

    During the interview, Welker pushed McDaniel on her views on the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election as well as former President Trump’s promise to pardon anyone punished for involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

    Most controversial decisions by TV news outlets are discussed behind the camera, not in front of it. But NBC News has been called out by its journalists in the past. In 2019, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow delivered a stinging monologue in primetime during her cable program that examined concerns about NBC News’ treatment of Ronan Farrow, who had begun investigating disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein while at NBC News, then took his work to The New Yorker after NBC declined to put his work on air.

    NBC News’ decision to hire McDaniel has clearly rankled some staffers, with MSNBC President Rashida Jones issuing a memo Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal, that vowed McDaniel would not appear on the left-leaning cable outlet.

    “There’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings over the past six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.,” Todd said. He suggested McDaniel’s contributor deal was made in exchange “for access.”

    Brian Steinberg

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  • If Nikki Haley Is Going Down, She Is Taking Trump And The RNC With Her

    If Nikki Haley Is Going Down, She Is Taking Trump And The RNC With Her


    Nikki Haley made it clear in a Sunday morning interview that if she loses, she will take Trump and the RNC with her.

    Meet The Press’s Kristen Welker asked Haley if she thought that the RNC has been an honest broker in the Republican primary.

    Haley answered:

    I mean, clearly not. If you’re going to go and basically tell the American people that you’re going to go and decide who the nominee is after only two states have voted? 48 states are still out there. This is a democracy. The American people want to have their say in who is going to be their nominee. We need to give them that. You can’t do that based on just two states and not only that, it’s 1215 delegates to reach the nomination. Donald Trump has 32, I have 17. So let’s let this play out and let’s do what we need to. We saw South Carolinians and we had 1500 people in Greenville county and Americans want to be able to make this decision themselves. I don’t think this is the place of the RNC to do it, and Trump overstepped when he pushed them on do it and I think that’s why he’s had to back down and that was the right thing to do to back down.”

    Welker asked, “Do you have actual knowledge and awareness that he pushed the RNC to do that and then pulled back?”

    Haley said, “We know exactly the people that pushed it are his people, and I know that during the debates, he was pushing Ronna McDaniel to stop the debates. He was calling her every other day and he’s been pushing them to pay for his lawsuits and all of these other things, but at the end of the day, this is not about the RNC and this is not about the American people and the political party deciding who they want to be the nominee.”

    Video:

    Haley was right. The RNC is broke because they have been paying Trump’s legal bills, and Trump did try to get the RNC to pass a resolution declaring that he is the nominee. Given the composition of the Republican primary electorate, Trump, if he is alive, is going to be the Republican nominee.

    Haley is making it clear that she is not going to get out of the race just because Trump says so, and that she is going to take her pound of flesh out of Trump and his corrupt operation.
    Nikki Haley may lose, but she is the first Republican presidential candidate going one-on-one with Trump in eight years to call out some of what the rest of the country is seeing. Haley is no hero, but her outspokenness is another sign of the sizable discontent within the Republican Party over being stuck again with Trump and his cronies at the top of the ticket.

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    Jason Easley

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  • Trump Torches Megyn Kelly As 'Biggest Loser' After She Claims He's Not As 'Mentally Sharp' As He Was

    Trump Torches Megyn Kelly As 'Biggest Loser' After She Claims He's Not As 'Mentally Sharp' As He Was

    Opinion

    Source: Megyn Kelly Show YouTube

    The former President Donald Trump is firing back at the former Fox News host Megyn Kelly after she claimed that he has lost “multiple steps,” and that he is not as “mentally sharp” as he was back in 2016.

    Kelly Attacks Trump

    “There’s no question Trump has lost a step or multiple steps,” Kelly told Glenn Beck on Friday. “He is confusing Joe Biden for [Barack] Obama … I know he’s now saying he intentionally did that — go back and look at the clips, it wasn’t intentional. The reference about how somebody is going to get us into World War II, confusing countries, confusing cities where he is, and it’s happening more and more.”

    “This is what happens when you’re 77-years-old. Trump seems inhuman, but he’s not inhuman. He’s a human. He’s a man,” Kelly continued. “DeSantis’ line about ‘Father Time spares no one,’ was a good one. So, look, if it’s between Trump and Biden, I don’t think there’s any question who’s more fit and more capable. But are we really going to pretend that Donald Trump is just as vibrant and mentally sharp as he was in ’16?”

    Related: Megyn Kelly Rips Gen Z ‘Morons’ Who Praised Bin Laden – ‘We Have So Lost The Youth In This Country’

    Trump Fires Back

    Trump fired back at Kelly on social media, saying, “What the hell happened to her? She has lost whatever she once had, which wasn’t very much.”

    “Some things never change!” he continued, according to The New York Post.

    While Trump has confused Biden and Obama man times as of late, he has claimed that this is actually intentional on his part.

    “Whenever I sarcastically insert the name Obama for Biden as an indication that others may actually be having a very big influence in running our Country, Ron DeSanctimonious and his failing campaign apparatus, together with the Democrat’s Radical Left ‘Disinformation Machine,’ go wild saying that ‘Trump doesn’t know the name of our President, (CROOKED!) Joe Biden. He must be cognitively impaired,” Trump said on social media last month.

    Related: Megyn Kelly And Candace Owens Go At It In Epic Battle Over College Students Protesting Israel

    Trump And Kelly’s History

    There has long been no love lost between Trump and Kelly. After Trump sat down with Kelly for an interview earlier this year, he blasted her as “nasty” during a speech in Iowa in September.

    “I sat down for an hour, and then I did a Megyn Kelly one,” Trump said at the time, according to The Hill. He was seemingly referring to his previous interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

    “I, she was, you know, boy, she became nastier all of a sudden,” Trump continued of Kelly. “She was pretty nasty, didn’t you think, anyone that watched it.”

    Trump and Kelly infamously clashed after she moderated a Republican presidential debate back in 2015. At the time,  Trump said of Kelly that “you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

    As for Kelly, she’s claimed that she no longer has an issue with Trump.

    “You know, all that nonsense between us is under the bridge, and he could not have been more magnanimous,” she recently said.

    What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments section.

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    James Conrad

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  • Trump Proposes ‘Press the Meat’ Show – Bill Tope, Humor Times

    Trump Proposes ‘Press the Meat’ Show – Bill Tope, Humor Times

    “Press the Meat” is set to debut in two weeks, and reportedly will feature the ex-president’s wide-ranging sex exploits.

    Former President Donald J. Trump has gone public with a proposal for a programming alternative to NBC’s storied political affairs program, Meet the Press, which has been a Sunday morning mainstay for more than 75 years. Trump will call his new show “Press the Meat,” and it will feature news reports, testimonials and current events concerning the ex-president’s wide-ranging sex life.

    Press the MeatSaid PTM executive produce Tucker Carlson, the show will debut on Dec. 5 which, he said, “is Long Dong Silver’s birthday.” The famed porn star is the person after whom “the Donald has modeled his whole career.” According to Carlson. Trump became associated with Silver during the ex-president’s sexual affair with Stormy Daniels, which never happened.

    Press the Meat will appear on Trump’s platform Truth Social and will be divided into three segments: 1) A Synopsis of all things sexual and manly that Trump has been up to over the previous week; Celebrity Spotlight: a summary of all the “hot, voluptuous, beautiful people that the president has nailed;” and 3) a Studied Comparison of Trump’s sexual organs with the clearly lesser genitalia of his political opponents. (Nikki Haley will be contrasted with Melania).

    Unlike Meet the Press, which is available to viewers at no cost, Press the Meat will require viewers to donate a $100 “love offering” to the coffers of the Trump PAC, which goes to pay for Trump’s attorney fees and political efforts in the 2024 election cycle. Trump tells viewers not to feel bad about the subscription fee because,“The joke is really on the lawyers,” remarked Trump, “because in the end they won’t get paid anyway.”

    Press the Meat will run ads for Trump Enterprises, encompassing such products as Trump Steaks, Trump Steak Knives, Shzitka (Trump Vodka), as well as mentorships at the revamped Trump College for White People (TCWP), an institute of higher learning which opened its doors this month.

    Sign up for Press the Meat today, urges Carlson, because the first hundred thousand subscribers will receive life-size cutouts of the “true size of Trump’s hands.” Non-subscribers will receive two cutouts.

    Bill TopeBill Tope
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    Bill Tope

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  • Trump To Republicans: Abortion Bans With No Exceptions Are A Losing Strategy

    Trump To Republicans: Abortion Bans With No Exceptions Are A Losing Strategy

    Donald Trump danced around the topic of reproductive rights in a new interview, saying that hard-line Republican demands on the issue are a losing strategy and falsely accusing Democrats of being in favor of abortions “after birth.”

    The former president tried to distance himself from the GOP’s most vehement opponents of abortion during a wide-ranging interview on this week’s episode of “Meet the Press,” where he said the idea of a federal abortion ban with “no exceptions” is unrealistic and unpopular.

    “I think the Republicans speak very inarticulately about this subject,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in the segment, which aired Sunday. “I watch some of them without the exceptions, et cetera, et cetera.”

    “Other than certain parts of the country, you can’t — you’re not going to win on this issue,” he said. “But you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks.”

    Trump did not suggest a specific number, and repeatedly accused Democrats of supporting abortions well into the third trimester of pregnancy or even “after birth.”

    In reality, late-term abortions are exceedingly rare. According to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer than 1% of abortions happen after the 21-week mark.

    Although Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis falsely claimed in July that “some liberal states actually have post-birth abortions,” researcher Dr. Katherine White debunked his claim with Politifact, telling the site there is “no such thing as a post-birth abortion.”

    When Welker asked Trump whether the issue should be decided at the federal or the state level, Trump said: “It could be state, or it could be federal. I don’t frankly care.”

    Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Pray Vote Stand summit in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15, 2023.

    ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images

    Trump seemed to suggest he could help Republicans and Democrats broker an agreement, telling Welker: “We’re going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it.”

    “Both sides are going to come together and both sides — both sides, and this is a big statement — both sides will come together,” he said. “And for the first time in 52 years, you’ll have an issue that we can put behind us.”

    Trump also discussed his Republican presidential primary opponents and their approach to reproductive rights. He said DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban in Florida is “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” and claimed that he’d swayed former Vice President Mike Pence to soften his “no exceptions” stance on the issue.

    Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, ending federal protections for abortion, Republicans have been trying to contend with how they should handle the issue electorally in a post-Roe world.

    In April, Trump was chastised by the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that opposes abortion rights, for suggesting the issue should be decided at the state level, a position that the group called “morally indefensible.”

    Trump responded by taking credit for the Supreme Court’s decision in last year’s landmark Dobbs v. Jackson case.

    “Republicans have been trying to get this done for 50 years, but were unable to do so,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told the New York Post. “President Trump, who is considered the most pro-life President in history, got it done.”

    Watch Trump’s full interview on “Meet the Press” and read the transcript here.

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  • Trump Says He ‘Took A Lot Of Time’ On The Letter He Left Biden In The White House

    Trump Says He ‘Took A Lot Of Time’ On The Letter He Left Biden In The White House

    Former President Donald Trump weighed in on the “nice note” he left for President Joe Biden when he departed office in 2021.

    “You know, it’s interesting. He actually said it’s up to me to do and I actually think it’s up to him to do,” said Trump after “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker asked him to give “a little sense” of the letter.

    “I think it was very – it was a nice note. I took a lot of time in thinking about it. I’d love him to do a great job even if it was very bad politically.”

    The letter, part of a tradition of outgoing presidents leaving notes behind for their successor, is one that Biden described as “very generous” in 2021.

    He stopped short of providing details about the letter at the time, adding that it was private and he wouldn’t talk about it until he spoke to Trump.

    Trump, months after Biden’s inauguration, told Lisa Boothe that he wished Biden luck in a letter that came “from the heart.”

    Biden, who reportedly found the Trump letter to be “shockingly gracious,” put the letter in his pocket and “didn’t share it with his advisers” after he found it in the Oval Office, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa wrote in their book “Peril.”

    Jen Psaki, a former press secretary for the Biden White House, told Rob Lowe last year that the president took in the letter for himself after discovering it.

    “And he is such a classy guy, whether people agree with his politics or not, that he didn’t even convey it to us in that moment of what the letter said,” Psaki said.

    She continued: “It was long, it was very long. The script, from where I could see, was very lovely.”

    The letters left behind by presidents head to the National Archives and are made available to the public.

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  • ‘Time To Move On’: Gavin Newsom Quiets Speculation About 2024 Presidential Run

    ‘Time To Move On’: Gavin Newsom Quiets Speculation About 2024 Presidential Run

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom said it’s time for people to get past whether he’ll run for president in 2024. (You can check out his remarks in the clip below)

    The Democratic governor, in an interview with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd, pointed to Vice President Kamala Harris when asked why Americans shouldn’t consider him as a “likely candidate” if President Joe Biden later decides against running for a second term.

    “Well, I think the vice president is naturally the one lined up and the filing deadlines are quickly coming to pass and I think we need to move past this notion that he’s not going to run,” said Newsom in a clip shared to the “Today” show.

    The California governor has previously dismissed talk of challenging Biden or making a run at the White House despite speculation otherwise.

    Newsom’s remarks arrive after a newly-released CNN poll found 76% of Americans saying they’re “seriously concerned” that Biden’s age of 80 may negatively impact his ability to serve a full second term as president.

    Another poll recently shared in the Wall Street Journal saw 73% of registered voters describing Biden as “too old” to run for president.

    Biden joked about concerns over his age earlier this week, telling a Philadelphia crowd that “the only thing that comes with age is a little bit of wisdom.”

    Newsom told Todd that Biden is going to run in 2024, adding that he’s “looking forward to getting him reelected.”

    “I think there’s been so much wallowing in the last few months and hand wringing in this respect. But we’re gearing up for the campaign. We’re looking forward to it,” he said.

    Todd proceeded to press the California governor, asking him what he’d tell donors who are “wallowing” in the matter.

    “Time to move on. Let’s go,” said Newsom.

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  • GOP Governor Makes Surprise Prediction About Trump And Biden In 2024

    GOP Governor Makes Surprise Prediction About Trump And Biden In 2024

    New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) isn’t ruling out the possibility that both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won’t appear on the ballot in 2024. (You can check out his comments in the clip below)

    “It’s not going to be that way. Look, I think there’s a good shot that neither of them are actually on that ballot,” Sununu said on Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.”

    “I think Trump can very much lose if they winnow it down to one-on-one. I think there’s a lot of issues that are going to come to bear with President Biden over the next year and a lot of opportunity for the Democrats to find another, another candidate.”

    Sununu’s comments follow a recent poll that suggests 75% and 69% of U.S. adults wouldn’t like to see either Biden or Trump, respectively, run for president.

    “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd, earlier in the interview, asked the governor whether he supports the No Labels political organization putting up their own candidate on the ballot next year.

    “Well, look, according to the polls you just showed about 70% of America is supportive of that idea to not see Trump and Biden on that ticket,” Sununu said.

    “I heard someone put it once, ’70% of America, if it’s a Trump-Biden ticket, will be politically homeless.′ And I think that’s a very good way to put it. They won’t have any inspiration. They won’t feel very confident about going forward…”

    The governor, a Trump critic who turned down a possible GOP presidential campaign, later declared that No Labels has an opportunity in the election “like never before.”

    “It would have to be the right candidate. It would have to be somebody very energizing, positive, transparent, someone with a good record,” he said.

    Sununu, when asked whether another Biden term or another Trump term concerns him more, pointed to his concerns with having both on the ticket.

    “I think you’re bringing up the exact right point: This is not what America wants,” Sununu told Todd.

    “It doesn’t mean our primary system is broken. It means more of us have to be engaged in the system to make sure that our voice is heard as that 70% of Americans who always want to look forward. With Biden and Trump, all you’re doing is looking backwards and re-litigating a lot of drama. Nobody wants that.”

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  • Will Hurd Drops A Harsh Reality Check On GOP Candidates ‘Afraid To Talk’ Trump

    Will Hurd Drops A Harsh Reality Check On GOP Candidates ‘Afraid To Talk’ Trump

    Former GOP Rep. Will Hurd went after fellow Republican presidential candidates who are “afraid to talk” about Donald Trump, claiming that they’re “not ready to be president of the United States.”

    The long-shot presidential candidate called out his Republican rivals on “Meet the Press” after he drew boos and jeers at the Iowa GOP’s Lincoln Dinner, an event where he said Trump was running for president again “to stay out of prison.”

    Hurd told host Chuck Todd that he expected the crowd’s reaction and noted a number of people in attendance clapped at his Trump swipe.

    “Of course it was as expected, I knew there were going to be people that didn’t like it but what I didn’t expect was there were a lot of people that actually clapped and then there were more people that just sat there politely and probably understand and knew what I was saying was the truth,” Hurd said.

    Trump, who faces new charges in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his handling of classified documents, mocked Hurd on his Truth Social platform for getting “SERIOUSLY booed off the stage” this weekend.

    Fellow GOP candidate and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez also referred to the crowd’s reaction on Friday, saying Hurd “made it very easy” for him to follow his speech at the event.

    Hurd, on Sunday, revealed the “goal” of his speech before taking a dig at candidates “afraid to talk” Trump.

    “My goal was not to go in there and talk to the people that have been frustrated when they’re told that the person that they respect has been lying to them. I was there to talk to the people that believe in personal responsibility, that believe character matters, that believe service matters, that believe that the United States has a role in the world and it’s important to us back here at home,” Hurd said.

    “Those were the people that I was going to speak to, and also to prove to the rest of the field that we’re running for an election, and if you’re afraid to talk about Donald Trump or talk about his baggage, then you’re not ready to be president of the United States.”

    GOP candidates mostly avoided direct digs of the former president at the Iowa event.

    The 2024 field’s hands-off approach toward Trump criticism led New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu to question candidates for not being more aggressive last month.

    Hurd, who isn’t ruling out a third-party run for the White House, referred to the title of a Des Moines Register headline over the weekend as he wrote that leadership isn’t about “tiptoeing around Donald Trump.”

    “Anyone who idly sits back and doesn’t call him out is only enabling him,” he wrote of Trump.

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  • Chuck Todd Announces Departure From NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ After Nearly a Decade

    Chuck Todd Announces Departure From NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ After Nearly a Decade

    NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd made news of his own at the close of his show Sunday morning, announcing he would be stepping down at the end of the summer after nearly a decade hosting the show. Todd said Kristen Welker, the network’s chief White House correspondent, would replace him in September. 

    “I am really proud of what this team and I have built over the last decade,” Todd, 51, said during his broadcast Sunday morning. “I’ve loved so much of this job, helping to explain America to Washington and explain Washington to America.” 

    Todd said his decision to leave the show was shaped by a desire to spend more time with his family, having seen too many friends “let work consume them before it was too late.” “I’ve let work consume me for nearly 30 years,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time I didn’t wake up before 5 or 6 a.m.” 

    Todd added that he was aware that many leaders “overstay their welcome” and that he’d rather leave “a little bit too soon than stay a tad too long.” 

    In a staff memo, NBC News’ president of editorial, Rebecca Blumenstein, and NBC News’ senior vice president of politics, Carrie Budoff Brown, praised the show’s “historic role as the indispensable news program on Sunday mornings.” “Through his penetrating interviews with many of the most important newsmakers, the show has played an essential role in politics and policy, routinely made front-page news, and framed the thinking in Washington and beyond,” Blumenstein and Budoff Brown wrote. 

    Welker has covered the White House for the network since 2011, and was named co-chief correspondent in 2021. “@chucktodd has been a mentor and friend since my first day at @NBCNews,” Denker tweeted Sunday morning. “I’ve learned so much from sitting with him at the anchor desk and simply experiencing his passion for politics. I’m humbled and grateful to take the baton and continue to build on the legacy of @MeetThePress.” 

    Jack McCordick

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  • Chuck Todd Leaving NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’

    Chuck Todd Leaving NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’

    NEW YORK (AP) — Chuck Todd said Sunday he’ll be leaving “Meet the Press” after a tumultuous near-decade of moderating the NBC political panel show, to be replaced in the coming months by Kristen Welker.

    Todd, 51, told viewers that “I’ve watched too many friends and family let work consume them before it was too late” and that he’d promised his family he wouldn’t do that.

    Todd has often been an online punching bag for critics during a polarized time, and there were rumors that his time at the show would be short when its executive producer was reassigned at the end of last summer. It’s unclear when Todd’s last show will be, but he told viewers that this would be his final summer.

    “I leave feeling concerned about this moment in history but reassured by the standards we’ve set here,” Todd said. “We didn’t tolerate propagandists, and this network and program never will.”

    Welker, a former chief White House correspondent, has been at NBC News in Washington since 2011 and has been Todd’s chief fill-in for the past three years. She drew praise for moderating the final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2020.

    Her “sharp questioning of lawmakers is a masterclass in political interviews,” Rebecca Blumenstein, NBC News president of editorial, said in a memo announcing Welker’s elevation on Sunday.

    Now Welker, 46, will be thrust into what promises to be another contentious presidential election cycle.

    The Sunday morning political interview show has aired since 1947, led by inventor and first host Martha Rountree. Its peak came in the years that Tim Russert moderated, from 1991 until his death in 2008, with its footing less certain since then. Tom Brokaw briefly filled in after Russert’s death, and David Gregory replaced him until being forced out in favor of Todd.

    Todd said that he was proud of expanding the “Meet the Press” brand to a daily show, which initially aired on MSNBC but was shifted to streaming, along with podcasts and newsletters, even a film festival.

    “He transformed the brand into a vital modern-day franchise, expanding its footprint to an array of new mediums, and kept ‘Meet the Press’ at the forefront of political discourse,” Blumenstein said.

    It didn’t stop critics from jumping on to social media when they didn’t like an interview Todd conducted. He was roasted at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in 2022 by Trevor Noah, who pointed him out in the audience and said, “How are you doing? I’d ask a follow-up, but I know you don’t know what those are.”

    Todd alluded to his critics in announcing his exit on Sunday.

    “If you do this job seeking popularity, you are doing this job incorrectly,” he said. “I take the attacks from partisans as compliments. And I take the genuine compliments with a grain of salt when they come from partisans.”

    The goal of each show, he said, is to “make you mad, make you think, shake your head in disapproval at some point and nod your head in approval at others.”

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  • Chuck Todd Presses Ex-Manhattan DA On Why He Didn’t Charge Trump In Past

    Chuck Todd Presses Ex-Manhattan DA On Why He Didn’t Charge Trump In Past

    “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd questioned former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. over why his office didn’t prosecute Donald Trump before the ex-president’s indictment last week by Vance’s successor.

    “Why didn’t you charge the hush money case? Why didn’t you ever charge it in 2018, 2019, 2020?” Todd asked Vance, who was Manhattan DA from 2010 until the end of 2021.

    Vance said he had begun probing the hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, but said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York caused his office to “stand down.”

    “I was asked … to stand down on our investigation, which had commenced involving the Trump Organization,” Vance said.

    “As someone who respects that office a great deal and believing that they may have perhaps the best laws to investigate, I did so.”

    The hush-money payoff was made ahead of the 2016 election, and many Republicans claim the current Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, has political motivations to indict the former president on such a dated offense.

    Todd also pressed Vance about the uncertainties of prosecuting a hush-money payoff as a felony.

    Vance noted that his office had filed cases of false documentation before and elevated them to felonies “when federal statutes were involved.”

    “It’s never been done that I know of with regard to federal election law, which is quite a specific area of law,” Vance said. “But I think the question is not so much why didn’t I do it or we did it, but why this district attorney is doing it.”

    “And that really requires us to be patient and to wait. This process isn’t going to be accelerated by us talking about it.”

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