Former NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd lashed out Monday at what he called “right-wing” assertions that legacy media reporters covered up former President Joe Biden’s decline.
Axios reporter Alex Thompson, during his Saturday White House Correspondents’ Dinner acceptance speech for an award for his reporting on Biden’s mental decline, criticized journalists — including himself — “for miss[ing] a lot of this story,” but blamed the former president’s team for the “cover-up.” Todd echoed that sentiment but went further in absolving journalists during a Substack conversation with NewsNation contributor Chris Cillizza. (RELATED: White House Officially Claims Biden Has Made 148 Mistakes During 2024 Public Remarks)
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“This is not a media failure. This was a failure of the Democratic party,” Todd said. “And sort of the virtue signaling that some people have done to try to say the media missed this story — they didn’t miss this story … I just refuse to accept this stupid premise. Because it’s a right-wing manufactured right-wing premise in order to stain the media.”
While conceding that “there are CNN and MSNBC pundits that absolutely carried water for Joe Biden,” Todd claimed this did not extend to journalists, whom he argued were separate from commentators and former political strategists.
The former NBC News analyst seemed to point to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius’ 2023 piece arguing that Biden shouldn’t pursue a second term to bolster his claim. Todd also asserted that he elevated former Democratic Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips’ campaign against Biden.
Cillizza chimed in to say that The Wall Street Journal reported copiously on Biden’s decline. The WSJ was one of the only major corporate media outlets to cover how diminished Biden was behind closed doors before his disastrous June debate against President Donald Trump.
Todd placed the blame squarely on elected Democrats and former first lady Jill Biden.
“Ultimately, the people at fault are: Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Jill Biden, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, every elected member of Congress. The Democratic Party let that disaster happen. That is not a media failure. That is a Democratic Party failure,” he said. “And only right-wing manufactured outrage who claims the media and the Democratic Party work as one have fused it into this. And I’m just sick of the handful of journalists who are trying to enhance their own reputations by playing into this false notion.”
“There were water-carriers, but they’re not real journalists,” he continued. “I refuse to accept the premise that what [MSNBC’s] Jen Psaki was saying — no offense to her but she’s not a journalist, she’s a former spokesperson for Joe Biden.”
Moreover, Todd credited the media for playing footage of Biden’s decline.
“Did the media not show him being old, not show him shuffling, not show him using the baby staircase? No, you know why that’s all out there? Because the media fucking showed it,” he said. “Sorry, pardon my language.”
Todd previously asserted on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” April 7 that legacy media members deliberately softened coverage of Biden’s decline to avoid an appearance of assisting Trump.
“The only thing I can chalk it up to is this, whatever you want to call it, this fear that some members of the media had sometimes — that they would be perceived as helping Trump if they somehow diminished Biden,” he said at the time. “Right? That it was some sort of zero-sum game. And I think this has been the fundamental mistake that many members of the traditional press have done.”
He also suggested on “Matt Lewis Can’t Lose” that he believed not even Biden’s White House intentionally concealed his decline.
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