President Donald Trump called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to go after NBC and its “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd, on Monday and Sunday in series of unhinged tweets in response to Todd’s criticism of Attorney General Bill Barr.
Trump was incensed by Todd, whom the President calls “Sleepy Eyes,” saying Barr “didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law” when the Trump official discussed the Justice Department’s decision to drop Michael Flynn’s case on Fox News. Right-wingers on Twitter attacked Todd for not including Barr’s comment that “fair history would say it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law” in the clip NBC had played of the attorney general.
“@FCC THIS IS A DISGRACE, EVEN WORSE THAN
@NBC USUALLY IS, WHICH IS REALLY BAD,” Trump tweeted on Monday morning. “SLEEPY EYES MUST BE FIRED!”
He had posted a similar demand the night before in which he tagged both the FCC and FCC chair Ajit Pai.
“Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd should be FIRED by “Concast” (NBC) for this fraud. He knew exactly what he was doing. Public Airwaves = Fake News! @AjitPaiFCC @FCC”
During a panel on “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, Todd had played a clip of Barr telling CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge last week that “history’s written by the winners, so it largely depends on who’s writing the history” when she asked how history would view the DOJ’s decision on Flynn.
Immediately after Barr made the comment, the program cut to Todd telling the panel he was “struck” by “the cynicism” of the attorney general’s response.
“He didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law,” the NBC host said. “He was almost admitting that yeah, this is a political job.”
The clip did not include Barr’s next remark: “But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law.”
“Meet the Press” apologized to Kerri Kupec, Barr’s spokesperson, via Twitter after she complained about Todd.
“Earlier today, we inadvertently and inaccurately cut short a video clip of an interview with AG Barr before offering commentary and analysis,” the program’s Twitter account said. “The remaining clip included important remarks from the attorney general that we missed, and we regret the error.”
The FCC and NBC’s communication offices did not respond to request for comment at the time of writing.
