meet the media Host Chuck Todd sparred with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson when lawmakers accused him and other media outlets of bias.
As the two discussed classified documents recently discovered at President Joe Biden’s home and former office, Todd began a confrontation, asking Johnson why he didn’t recommend Congress wait until the Justice Department concluded its investigation of the documents before conducting congressional oversight. That prompted Johnson to continue his rambling invective, accusing the FBI of “political misconduct” in its investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Todd then asked Johnson if he could mention a single crime committed by the president’s son.
“Senator, do you think Hunter Biden committed a crime because I haven’t seen anyone explain it. It’s not a crime to use your last name to make money,” the NBC host asked.
Johnson responded that Todd should have read the “Marco Polo Report,” a report on the contents of the laptop compiled by a former aide to Trump adviser Peter Navarro.Johnson claimed the report “detailed[s] Various potential crimes. ”
“Oh wait, let me stop you. Potential. It’s potential. Potential is insinuation,” Todd replied.
Johnson then referred to Hunter Biden’s alleged $30,000 payments to individuals that the senator claimed were used to “solicit and procure sex in a potential European sex trafficking operation.” It was that word again—”possibly.”
Todd then pointed to the apparent hypocrisy of Johnson’s targeting of Biden’s son while ignoring the wrongdoing of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who took a loan from the Qatari government while working in the White House.
“Your Senate Democrats want to investigate Jared Kushner’s loans from the Qatari government while he was working in government, negotiating many things in the Middle East,” Todd said. “Don’t you care about that? Don’t you worry? I say that because, in my opinion, if you care about what Hunter Biden did, you should be just as angry about what Jared Kushner did.”
“I worry about getting the truth. I don’t take it personally,” Johnson said with a smile.
“You’ve targeted Hunter Biden many times on this show, Senator,” Todd replied. “You’re targeting a person.”
Then the interview starts to get personal.Johnson accuses Todd of inviting him to meet the media “Arguing with me.” He then went on a Trumpian rant against the biased media.
“I just wanted to lay out the facts that Senator Grassley and I did find out,” Johnson said. “They’re suppressed. They’re censored. They meddled in the 2020 election. Conservatives get it. Unfortunately, liberals and the media don’t. Part of the reason is our politics are pissed off, we don’t have justice media. We don’t have one. Unfortunately. I’m all for a free press. It needs to be more just.”
“Look, you can go back to your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want. I know it’s part of your identity,” Todd said, essentially telling Johnson to go peddle his crap in the right-wing media so that it might Find a more receptive audience.
