When last we left you with Chuck Todd, the NBC News anchor was letting the cat out of the bag on the “Today Sunday” program regarding the real reason behind the mainstream media’s obsession with the new COVID variant “Omicron“: Whether or not it would hurt Joe Biden and other Democrats politically in the 2022 midterms.

“Because if we do find out that certainly vaccinated individuals are in a much better shape with this new variant than unvaccinated individuals, does the President use this as an opportunity to basically use the bully pulpit, push back at all this vaccine misinformation that’s out there and grab a hold of this?” Todd frantically wondered. “Because, Willie, the social spending bill, all of his other political problems, none of them can be solved until COVID is behind us. And I think this is a reminder that he needs to be more front and center on the COVID response than he has been so far.”

Later during a Meet the Press segment, Todd tried to dunk on Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves regarding the lawsuit currently before the Supreme Court on a pro-life bill passed in 2018 by the state legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Phil Bryant effectively banning abortions after 15 weeks that did not go into effect due to legal challenges.

Todd and Reeves were arguing about the law in the context of vaccine mandates, and at one point Todd tried to take the position that being pro-vaccine mandate was being pro-life. It didn’t take long for Reeves to smoothly push back on him by pointing to an argument President Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci made in a prior segment on Todd’s program. Here’s a transcript of their contentious back and forth and the video is below that:

CHUCK TODD: “Freedom and individual liberty. Why should the state of Mississippi tell a woman what they should do with their body? Why shouldn’t they have that individual freedom on their body, particularly in the first 20 weeks?”

GOV. TATE REEVES: “Well, this is a prime example. And the far left loves to scream, ‘My body, my choice.’ And what I would submit to you, Chuck, is they absolutely ignore the fact that in getting an abortion there is an actual killing of an innocent, unborn child that is in that womb. Here’s what we know about babies that are 15 weeks. We know that they have a heartbeat. We know that those babies at 15 weeks actually can open and close their hands. We know that they have developing lungs. And we know that those babies at 15 weeks can feel pain. And so when you talk — the difference between vaccine mandates and abortions is vaccines allow you to protect yourself. Abortions actually go in and kill other American babies. And let’s just put this in perspective, Chuck –”

CHUCK TODD: “Governor, hang on a minute. A vaccine is about protecting a larger community. A vaccine is about preventing spread. You could argue a vaccine mandate is a pro-life position.”

GOV. TATE REEVES: “You could certainly argue that, Chuck. But even if you listen to Dr. Fauci’s interview with you earlier today, he made it very clear that the vaccine may not keep you from getting the virus. It may not keep you from spreading the virus. But it can keep you from ending up in the hospital. That’s what’s been proven during this Delta surge that we’ve seen in America, is that the virus is continuing to being spread even amongst those who are vaccinated.

Conversely, when you’re talking about the pro-life position of protecting unborn babies, let’s put it also in perspective. The fact is that during this very horrible and challenging time since I was sworn into office in January of 2020, Chuck, we’ve had 800,000 American lives lost because of Covid. And my heart aches for every single one of those individuals that have died because of Covid. And over 10,000 Mississippians. My heart breaks for every single one of them. But since Roe was enacted, 62 million American babies have been aborted, and therefore have been killed. And that’s why I think it’s very important that people like myself and others across this country stand up for those unborn children, because they don’t have the ability to stand up for themselves.”

Watch:

Chuck Todd didn't exactly push back as Tate Reeves recited right-wing talking points to defend Mississippi's abortion ban pic.twitter.com/s7Nc05ooKZ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 28, 2021

It’s hard to know what was the best thing about that segment. That Reeves’ argument was so flawlessly presented or that it had the effect of shutting Todd down, because any day you can shut a Democrat apologist like Todd down on his own show is a very good day indeed, especially on such important issues as vaccine mandates and protecting unborn life.

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