Chuck Todd on Meet the Press

Either NBC’s Chuck Todd isn’t very bright, or he thinks his audience isn’t very bright. On his Sunday broadcast, the journalist interview Vice President Mike Pence on his recent comments condemning people on the left for using “irresponsible rhetoric” when discussing the coronavirus issue.

The host then played a series of clips from conservative pundits lambasting progressives for politicizing the spread of the coronavirus. One of these commentators was Rush Limbaugh, who excoriated Democrats for having “weaponized” the virus. Donald Trump Jr. argued that the president’s opponents were attempting to “take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning.”

Todd then attempted to put the vice president on the spot, intimating that Democrats are not engaging in this behavior. “None of this seems to match the facts. What facts are there that Democrats are doing this? … Seems like people are asking questions, and they’re concerned about the virus. This, this implies some sort of political motivation, which is kind of gross,” he claimed.

Pence began explained that there have been several prominent progressives engaging in harmful rhetoric when discussing the problem. “Name some names, sir. Because it just feels like gaslighting. Please name some names. We’re all big people here. Name some names,” Todd responded.

The vice president then referred to a column written by Gail Collins for The New York Times which was titled “Let’s Call It Trumpvirus.” Then, Todd insulted the intelligence of his viewers by asking, “So you think the entire Democratic Party is doing this?

It’s a silly trick that many in the media use to manipulate their audience. At no point did anyone on the right say that all Democrats are using the coronavirus for political purposes, and Todd knows it. He was simply erecting a straw man to push Pence into making an unnecessary concession.

But, of course, Todd was trying to distract from the fact that he was being brazenly deceptive; there have been several on the left who have politicized the coronavirus. Let’s start with a couple of Democratic candidates vying for the presidential nomination.

RedState’s Elizabeth Vaughn wrote a piece pointing out that both former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Vice President Joe Biden lied about President Trump’s response to the outbreak of the virus. During the Democratic debate in South Carolina, Bloomberg said, “There’s nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing. And he’s defunded – he’s defunded Centers for Disease Control, CDC, so we don’t have the organization we need. This is a very serious thing.”

Biden echoed Bloomberg’s sentiments, bringing up former President Barack Obama’s response to a similar type of problem. “We increased the budget of the CDC. We increased the NIH budget…He’s wiped all that out…He cut the funding for the entire effort,” he said.

Surprisingly, it was The Associated Press that fact-checked the two candidates. “They’re both wrong to say the agencies have seen their money cut,” they wrote. “Bloomberg is repeating the false allegation in a new ad that states the U.S. is unprepared for the virus because of ‘reckless cutes’ to the CDC.”

But wait! There’s more.

During a rally in South Carolina, the president lashed out at the left for politicizing the coronavirus, calling their efforts to smear the administration was the new “hoax” they were pushing after the Russiagate and impeachment effort failed. The corporate media responded by doing what they do best: They lied about Trump’s remarks, claiming that he was saying the coronavirus outbreak was a hoax. In fact, here is a video showing exactly what the president said.

Dems and some MSM this morning are pretending @realDonaldTrump said the coronavirus is a hoax. What he ACTUALLY said is that Democrats' politicizing of the coronavirus is their new hoax.

Everyone repeating the lie that he called the coronavirus a hoax is proving his point: pic.twitter.com/1Hn1AHb5sq

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) February 29, 2020

Last, but most certainly not least, CNN managed to find a way to use the coronavirus for race-baiting purposes. While the nation was concerned about the disease and the deaths it was causing, the alleged news outlet was worried about the racial makeup of the team that the White House put together to deal with the sickness. Instead of reporting on the critical aspects of the story, they whined about the fact that the team is made up of white men.

They posted a tweet stating that the “Coronavirus task force another example of Trump administration’s lack of diversity.”

Coronavirus task force another example of Trump administration's lack of diversity | Analysis https://t.co/bs7L1rUZzc pic.twitter.com/MzzoslqZpT

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 30, 2020

These are only a few examples of the left using the coronavirus for political purposes. A simple glance at social media shows a myriad of leftist pundits weaponizing the disaster – and it’s highly unlikely that Chuck Todd is unaware of it. But, we all know how it goes. Leftists are gonna leftist, right?

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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