First Clinton, then Fiorina: Yesterday morning, on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd interviewed Candidates Clinton and Fiorina.
If what we saw is the best he can do, then heaven help our poor sub-standard grossly incompetent nation.
How bad was Todd’s performance? Below, you see his first question for Candidate Clinton, just as delivered, word for word.
This is actually what he said. As best we could tell, this was supposed to be English:
TODD (9/27/15): Let me start with a piece of sound, it’s Meet the Press. This is what you said on Meet the Press seven years ago about transparency.To watch the whole interview, click here.
CLINTON (videotape): I want to have a much more transparent government and I think we now have the tools to make that happen. I want to have as much information about the way our government operates on the Internet. So the people who pay for it, the taxpayers of America, can see that.
TODD: A year later, Clintonemail.com. This server—started private server.
Had every government agency had did what you did at the State Department, there would be a lot of information that wasn’t in the public. Do you see that now as a problem as far as the public is concerned?
“Had every government agency had did what you did at the State Department, there would be a lot of information that wasn’t in the public?”
We swear to God, that’s what he said. We’ve edited the official transcript to make it more accurate. We think we’ve presented the sentence structure to reflect what was actually said.
Everybody gets tongue-tied now and again, but this was Todd’s first question of the entire program! Clinton went ahead and gave the same first answer she would have given had her host managed to ask a coherent question about this topic, which begs for clarification.
All in all, Todd did a very poor job formulating questions about this murky topic, which begs for clarification one way or the other. By the way, how well did Todd prepare himself? We were struck by this highlighted question:
TODD: I guess what I’m trying to figure out is, if you said in March that the e-mail system began in March of ’09 yet but we have the same e-mail address popping up in January, explain that discrepancy.Has Todd been watching too much Morning Joe? He seemed to think that Clinton created the private server from scratch when she got the job at State.
CLINTON: There was a transition period. I wasn’t that focused on my e-mail account, to be clear here.
TODD: Let me stop you there. You say you weren’t focused on it. Except this seemed to be— To put an e-mail server at your house is not a—it’s a complicated thing.
CLINTON: Yes, but it was already there. It had been there for years. It is the system that my husband’s personal office used when he got out of the White House. And so it was sitting there in the basement. It was not any trouble at all. I know there are a lot of people who are questioning that, but the fact is that it was there. I added my account to it.
This doesn’t affect the charges which have been made, correctly or otherwise, about Clinton’s email practices. But does Todd have any idea what he’s talking about?
Todd managed to ask one coherent question about the email matter, concerning Clinton's possible interest in foiling FOIA requests. When Clinton gave a fuzzy answer, he didn’t follow up.
Later in the interview, Todd revived the traditional Meet the Press practice of playing tape of past statements by his guest to make her look like a flip-flopper.
Last week, he didn’t play any videotape of Candidate Trump’s years of grotesque birtherism. Yesterday, he helped us see that Clinton, like a string of major Dem pols from President Obama on down, holds a different position on same-sex marriage today than she did in 2004.
Last week, Todd ran and hid from Candidate Trump. He revived The Ghost of Russert Past when faced with Candidate Clinton. And when he interviewed Fiorina, his performance was that much worse.
Todd started with a series of bungled questions about the anti-Planned Parenthood tapes. At the last GOP debate, Fiorina made a gross misrepresentation of the now-famous tapes.
Since then, she has aggressively, weirdly doubled down on her glaring misstatements.
Like others before him, Todd asked Fiorina if she was willing to cop to the truth. Once again, her answer was puzzling, peculiar:
TODD: Let me start right in with the Planned Parenthood situation. At the debate, the most recent debate, you described the following scene, claiming it was on a tape, “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” Since then, when asked about the claim, your campaign has attacked Planned Parenthood. But there is no tape. There is no evidence that the scene you described exists. Are you willing now to concede that you exaggerated that scene?Fiorina proceeded to launch an attack on Planned Parenthood, introducing new misstatements while changing the subject from past misstatements about the videotape.
FIORINA: No, not at all. That scene absolutely does exist, and that voice saying what I said they were saying, "we're going to keep it alive to harvest its brain," exists as well. Here’s the thing. Yesterday—
TODD: So you saw that moment on the tape?
FIORINA: —I was at a football game—
TODD: You saw that moment on the tape?
FIORINA: Yes, and I would challenge Planned Parenthood. Here’s the deal...
To watch the full interview, click this.
Todd tried, several more times, to make her address the question of the videotape. At the point we highlight below, she turned him into a puddle:
TODD: But you are ducking the specific of this question. And I guess I’m trying—Fiorina thundered further against the Post. Defeated, Todd gave up.
FIORINA: I’m not. I am not—am not ducking—
TODD: A Washington Post editorial is calling it a full-fledged falsehood, Ms. Fiorina. They're saying that it doesn’t excuse your mistruths. They say they understand you have a deeply held belief on abortion but that you're exaggerating this specific claim.
FIORINA: No. Well, first of all, the Washington Post also claims that I’m lying about being a secretary, so let’s get real. I mean I don't even know how to deal with that. I was a secretary part-time to put myself through college and full-time after I graduated. The Washington Post gave me three Pinocchios for claiming that I was a secretary. So honestly, I don’t think the Washington Post has a lot of credibility here...
Citizens, can we talk? Presumably, Todd is paid a seven-figure salary. Does he have a telephone in his office? Access to the Net?
If so, he could have called Fiorina’s campaign and asked them to specify where the footage in question can be seen. After that, he could have played the videotape and watched the farking footage himself!
Lazily, incompetently, Todd didn’t bother with that. Instead, he fell back on what the Washington Post had said about the videotape. This let Fiorina denounce the Post as a gang of liars—liars who are presumably filled with liberal bias and hatred for the world’s children!
By now, the analysts were crying and softly consoling themselves. We turned to them and delivered a verdict:
“Had every Sunday host had did what he did at Meet the Press, there would be a lot of information that wasn’t in the public!”
No really! That’s what we actually said!
Sigh ...
ReplyDeleteFiorina is not Clinton. Different rules apply. Tell the analysts before it's too late.
@Soapy
DeleteMore differences between Carly and HRC:
Carly doesn't wear pant suits.
Carly didn't rely on her hubby for her career
Carly doesn't require the Lernaean Hydra aka Brock/Carville/Begala for her political salvation.
Brent still hasn't figured out what a waste of money you are yet?
DeleteShifting the focus from the fact that Planned Parenthood kills young healthy human beings and attempts to bring the highest prices for their organs, to whether the young healthy human being was on a table or still living within his or her mother's body (a completely irrelevant distinction with regard to the ethics of killing young healthy human beings in almost every case in which Planned Parenthood commits abortions), fails to influence anyone with a brain and conscience.
ReplyDeletefetus = not a "young healthy human being"
DeleteOperation Rescue troll fails to influence anyone with a brain an conscience.
"Fetus" and "Operation Rescue" do not render young healthy human beings something other than young healthy human beings.
DeleteIf they're young healthy human beings, what are their NAEP scores?
DeleteIf their mothers permitted them to continue with their lives instead of taking out a hit on them, many would contribute to impressive score gains.
DeleteFalsehoods are not all equal. Carly Fiorina's falsehood is smaller than Hillary Clinton's.
ReplyDeleteCarly accurately said that PP was harvesting and selling fetus parts (BTW I approve of that practice.) Carly falsely said that t such a fetus was shown on the video. In fact, the fetus she referred to had nothing to do with PP. Carly violated no laws or regulations. And, her accusation about what PP does was accurate.
Hillary's falsehoods involve actions she took that may be felonious and apparently violated regulations. Her actions may have helped our enemies and harmed American security, although there's no way to ever measure the impact. It's not inconceivable that Hillary's actions may even have contributed some amount to deaths or to victories by our enemies.
PP is not harvesting and selling fetus parts. It is honoring the wishes of abortion clients who wish to donate fetal tissue for research (and being reimbursed for related expenses).
DeleteClinton has made no false statements outside constraints of memory and broken no laws. Please stop this broken record repetition of statements that have been addressed here many times. Your hysterical claim that she may have caused deaths is offensive and outrageous. Go find a conservative blog.
9:03 -- Dictionary.com defines "sell" as "to transfer (goods) to or render (services) for another in exchange for money." The definition makes no reference to whether the amount paid merely covers expenses or whether it includes a profit. Organizations pay money to PP for fetal organs; by definition, these organs are being sold.
DeleteClinton has made a bunch of inconsistent statements about the e-mails. They're inconsistent, so they can't all be true.
"PP is not harvesting and selling fetus parts. It is honoring the wishes of abortion clients who wish to donate fetal tissue for research (and being reimbursed for related expenses). "
DeleteIf a human being is killed by his or her parent, we generally do not permit that homicidal parent to consent to donation of that human being's organs, so the "abortion client's wishes" are not a legitimate justification for selling parts of human beings.
Abortion isn't homicide. We're human. We allow women to choose to end pregnancies.
DeleteWe don't allow you to decide they can't because you want to call it homicide.
More pointless drivel from our resident "reasonable but misguided" troll. Perhaps if Caesar can spend more time with David in Cal, our resident wingnut troll may "come around" and see the light.
Delete"Abortion isn't homicide. We're human. We allow women to choose to end pregnancies. "
DeleteThe above is an example of "logic" according to the progressive left.
Well, that.
DeleteOr, y'know, the law of the land.
Had did Chuck Todd went to college? Did had Chuck gone to elementary school, where learning were did? Had Chuck office phone done gone, eliminating Chuck ability to obtains Plan Parenthood video? Gone had Chuck did done internet connection, now Chuck did can't get on internet?
ReplyDeleteHad every journalist had did what Somerby has for smarts there would be a lot of salary that wouldn't be in the public complained about.
DeleteTDH is just describing what is the natural and inevitable progression of the affirmative action for Wingnuts that has been going on in this country for quite a while now. These people have created their own bubble world backed up and sustained and supported by an impressive infrastructure of media, schools and think tanks.
ReplyDeleteYou don't like the age of the earth, fine we'll build you your very own museum with our own invented geology, anthropology and biology. We aim to please.
Carly is stunned that anyone would even dare to question her. These are her facts and you're not allowed to question them. Everybody wins a trophy in wingnut land.
I remember back in the old days the right used to complain about relativism on the left. It is ironic that they have finally succeeded in creating a world where there is no longer any objective right or wrong.
I remember back in the current day when the left used to complain about relatives on the right.
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