“If it’s Sunday, it’s ‘Meet the Press.” The venerable sign-off of the longest-running television show ever, which began airing in 1947. The NBC News show has had a variety of hosts over the years, the one most recognizable and beloved to modern viewers being the late Tim Russert. The program’s current host, Chuck Todd, sometimes hops over to the cable side, MSNBC, to provide commentary. But, it’s worth wondering if he’ll be so eager to do that after what one of their hosts said about his latest episode this week.

Just like every Sunday, Todd began the show with a monologue that sets up the top stories of the moment. It’s like an overview, if you will.

Matt Negrin, who apparently hosts MSNBC’s “Hardball” program now, had a major problem with Todd’s opening. Take a listen to it yourself. (He’s kindly provided it for us in full, below.)

“Chuck Todd opens Meet the Press by endorsing Republicans’ anti-vax misinformation campaign to blame Biden for not returning everything to normal.”

Chuck Todd opens Meet the Press by endorsing Republicans’ anti-vax misinformation campaign to blame Biden for not returning everything to normal https://t.co/dsyWQQ4ABS

— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) October 17, 2021

If you prefer to read it, here’s a transcription:

And a good Sunday morning. The economy`s inability to fully recover from the shock of COVID-19 is both an economic story and a political one.

So what is holding the economy back?

In the spring, we thought we were turning the corner on COVID, but when we turned that corner, the Delta variant was waiting on the other side to hit us hard in the face. Delta and vaccine refusals sent cases to their second highest peak of this pandemic this summer, before they finally began to trend downward. Let`s hope there`s not another variant out there.

A post-COVID supply chain back-up has spread across the globe, causing cargo ship traffic jams, slowing delivery of goods and, yes, driving up costs. In fact, those higher costs have helped feed a rise in prices all over the map, leading to the sharpest rise in inflation in 13 years.

On top of that millions of Americans have decided they don`t want to return to their old high-stress, low-wage jobs. So, that`s keeping job creation stubbornly low for the last two months and takes some important workers out of the supply chain.

All those economic problems add up to a big political problem for the president. Is all of this his fault? Of course not, but it is now his
responsibility. And he and fellow Democrats are in real danger of suffering some serious political consequences.

Mr. Biden ran on a promise of a basic return to normal, or at least a path to normalcy. But with the midterm elections just over a year away, unless voters see evidence of this new normal, they may decide to return power back to the Republicans.

Now, you may have heard or read something different, but I didn’t catch any “anti-vax misinformation” that’s been bandied about by the GOP anywhere in that.

But if we look a little closer, later in the Twitters screed, Negrin goes completely off the rails and shows his cards:

“Republicans have spent nine months screaming about microchips and fertility side effects and magnetized arms and voter fraud and hidden ballot boxes and dead people voting. @chucktodd’s response is ‘these people are raising new concerns about how Joe Biden is bad for the economy'”

Republicans have spent nine months screaming about microchips and fertility side effects and magnetized arms and voter fraud and hidden ballot boxes and dead people voting. @chucktodd’s response is “these people are raising new concerns about how Joe Biden is bad for the economy”

— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) October 17, 2021

Catch that? How dare Chuck Todd say, “All those economic problems add up to a big political problem for the president. Is all of this his fault? Of course not, but it is now his responsibility”?

He also says the unmentionable, that the “supply chain back-up” at America’s ports isn’t all hunky dory. Both Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg and White House Press Sec. Jen Psaki have assured us that that is a good thing, and the resulting inflation is only because we’re buying so much, the poor docker workers can’t keep up!

It’s also, most likely, verboten to say this:

“Mr. Biden ran on a promise of a basic return to normal, or at least a path to normalcy. But with the midterm elections just over a year away, unless voters see evidence of this new normal, they may decide to return power back to the Republicans.”

See, here’s the problem Negrin and his progressive pals have with Chuck Todd and anyone else who doesn’t toe the party line talking points. Todd, as an actual journalist, is willing to consider the possibility that some of what’s happening under Biden’s watch might be Biden’s fault. And that it might have consequences for his party.

These are the same people who harass my senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in public women’s restrooms and use kayaks to disturb the peace at Democrat WV Sen. Joe Manchin’s D.C.-area houseboat. There’s an old saying that goes something like, “When you don’t like the truth, you kill the messenger.” And that’s exactly what we’re seeing play out here — rest assured, it will get worse for the Democrats as we approach the midterms.