Former “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd expressed frustration during a Friday video of “The Chuck ToddCast” about interviewers platforming Hunter Biden — shortly after the president’s son criticized him in two separate interviews.
Hunter criticized Todd in both July 21 interviews he did, taking issue with Todd’s previous comments casting doubt on former President Joe Biden’s reputation of being a family man. Todd said in the Friday clip of “The Chuck Todd Cast” that he would not interview Hunter because he does not think the former first son has anything substantive to say. (RELATED: ‘Every Angle… Hurts Joe Biden’: Hunter’s Latest Stunt May Have Thrown His Dad Into A Messy Tangle, Strategists Say)
WATCH:
“I will never book Hunter Biden. I have no interest in what he has to say for a couple reasons. Number one, he’s not the candidate. He wasn’t on the ballot. Anything he says in defense of his father, I don’t know whether it’s true or not, but it doesn’t matter,” Todd said. “He’s a son defending his father. And my guess is he’s going to defend him to the hilt. So I take every one of his pieces of anger and criticism and I just sort of chalk it up to, yeah, he’s defending his dad and he loves his dad. I have a real problem with the folks that are booking him. If you’ve chosen to book Hunter Biden, you’ve chosen to book spectacle.”
“[T]he two interviews that have gone viral were both designed to get attention, not to surface new facts, not to give you a better understanding of what may have happened. It was just, ‘Let’s give him a platform to settle some scores that maybe he wants to settle.’ I don’t think this does Hunter Biden any good,” he continued. “I don’t think this does Joe Biden any good. Certainly doesn’t do the Democratic Party any good. That’s why it’s surprising to see the former DNC [Democratic National Committee] Chair [Jaime Harrison] start a podcast and decide that the best way to market it is Hunter Biden.”
Todd suggested Hunter used the interviews as a form of “therapy” and criticized him for doing so rather than seeking help privately. He also reiterated his past criticism of the former president and said the interviews bolstered his argument.
“And this is … ultimately why I was critical of Joe and [former first lady] Jill Biden for running in the first place,” he said. “Because their family wasn’t ready for this.”
On “The Chuck ToddCast” in June, Todd told “Original Sin” co-author Jake Tapper that he thought Biden’s “original sin” was running in 2020.
“I followed that Hunter Biden [gun] trial soup to nuts. I read every single transcript,” Todd said at the time. “I read all of the testimony. I cannot believe to this day, Jake, that Joe Biden did this to his kids. I just can’t believe that he did it. I can’t.”
Hunter cursed Todd out and disputed his claims during his interview on “Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan.”
“I saw him say, ‘You know, the thing about Joe Biden is that it’s all a lie. He was a horrible father because who would put their loved ones through — that they knew were suffering from addiction — through the grueling process? He is a — you know, it’s beyond selfish. No one —there’s no one — no one that could do that could be good.’ Like, what the fuck do you know about fucking anything?” he said.
Hunter also asserted that his father is “exactly who he says he is.”
He made similar comments responding to Todd on “At Our Table with Jaime Harrison.”
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