If It's Sunday, Chuck Todd Is Still So Bad At This

It's your Sunday show rundown!

Time for our weekly reminder that Chuck Todd is one of the worst in mainstream news. Some journalists, striving for some nebulous impartiality, will bend over backwards to create a "both sides" argument. Chuck Todd somehow outshines them all.

He began "Meet The Press" this week drawing his usua l false equivalencies:

Good Sunday Morning — After a high profile shooting, politicians follow a ritual: Democrats say "enough is enough… https://t.co/cihYpycR94

— Meet the Press (@Meet the Press) 1616936715.0 

One side proposes specific and substantial legislation to curb gun violence (as it's been done in other countries like Australia ), while the other side does everything to prevent anything from changing. These are not equal sides of an argument, Chuck Todd!

The reason The Onion piece keeps running the same piece every time there's a mass shooting is NOT because Democrats aren't trying to prevent future mass shootings, it's because Republican intransigence and inaction allow it to keep happening. After every mass shooting tragedy, Republicans offer "thoughts and prayers" while offering a scapegoat they never plan to do anything about (mental health) and screaming to "stop politicizing" this. The calls of it's "too soon" are laughably absurd when there is barely a recovery period from one mass gun tragedy to the next, something Todd even showed in his graphic. But if Todd (and others like him) would treat things objectively rather than trying to "both sides" everything, we could maybe reach a point where it would become untenable for Republicans to go through this cycle.

But as long as he and others both sides this, nothing gets done. Rinse, repeat, forever.

Moving on to other things!

GOP Senator Lindsey Graham was on "Fox News Sunday" to tell Chris Wallace you can have his AR-15 when you pry it from his ... gang-battling hands?

“the gang” what gang? https: //t.co/p2yCa5Supj

— ⚓️🚢Imani Gandy 🚢⚓️ (@⚓️🚢Imani Gandy 🚢⚓️) 1616943555.0 

Well, this is illuminating! Every Republican always thinks if they wield a gun, like Thor's hammer, they shall possess the powers of an action hero. In Graham's given analogy, a sitting senator's first instinct isn't helping his constituents or making sure they the have necessities to survive a natural disaster (like food, water, power), but to make sure he protects his stuff from "gangs." These dog whistles are foghorns at this point.

Graham was also asked about Georgia Republicans' attempts to curtail voting rights, and even he admitted it's pretty weird to ban folks from giving people water while they stand in line to vote.

"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me" -- even Lindsey Graham can't defend Georgia Republicans making it a… https: //t.co/FmrPLOtnzy

— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1616939580.0 

Pennsylvania GOP Senator Pat Toomey was more prepared with the talking points on "Meet The Press":

TOOMEY: The Democrats have been driving this message on H.R.1, and I think we ought to be asking our Democratic colleagues why are they so insistent that we not have any mechanism to verify that a person seeking to vote is, in fact, the person that they say they are? Why are they so insistent that people ought to be able to go ballot harvesting, maybe go through a nursing home and get a couple of hundred ballots that just happen to be whatever they are? [...] You look at the Georgia law, there's no voter suppression. [...] All you need is some, some verification of ID, and so does every Department of Transportation in America in order to drive. So does every airline if you're going to get on a plane.

This is bullshit wrapped in "voter fraud" and sprinkled with "cancel culture." But to answer some of Toomey's many rhetorical questions, since Chuck Todd failed to do so, here we are:

• There are methods to verify people currently. It's why cases of actual voter fraud are negligible, according to the Brookings Institute , the Heritage Foundation and Reuters. 

• Maybe Toomey should talk to RonnaRomneyMcDaniel about why they keep projecting about ballot harvesting .

• Making voting lines longer and reducing polling times is voter suppression, especially if you criminalize snacks and water.

• Requiring ID is a poll tax by a new name. The Real ID Act of 2005 established security standards for state-issued driver's licenses and identification cards, and it prohibits federal agencies from accepting licenses and identification cards from states that do not meet these standards for official purposes. Under that act, state agencies that issue licenses and identification cards, like the Department of Motor Vehicles, require more paperwork regarding proof of residency and Social Security numbers, which is harder for older citizens who may have lost documents, or for poor people who may move more often.

Of course Toomey knows these facts and is just hoping we won't notice Republicans' attempts to undo the elections like the one that elected Georgia's newest senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

Speaking of, watch Senator Warnock on CNN on Sunday:

.@DanaBashCNN: Should Biden prioritize federal voting rights over infrastructure? @SenatorWarnock: "We can walk an… https://t.co/CfP42NKtkx

— State of the Union (@State of the Union) 1616939329.0 

Never been prouder that Georgia is my new home and that I voted for this man as my senator. Keep fighting for voting rights, Democrats!

Have a week.

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