“Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd is leading national trends on Twitter after he asked Democratic presidential hopeful Joseph R. Biden if President Trump has “blood on his hands” due to his “slow response” to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sunday morning exchange between the two brought out the Twitter critics in a hurry.
“Tim Russert would never have asked a question like this,” tweeted Hill media critic Joe Concha, referring to the longtime host of NBC’s public affairs program.
“Even Joe Biden didn’t take the bait to assists in this viral moment attempt,” Mr. Concha said, citing the former vice president’s reluctance to enter the conversation.
“NBC’s Chuck Todd is completely unhinged this morning,” said Steve Guest, rapid response director for the Republican National Committee.
“When Chuck Todd’s attack on President Trump are too much even for Biden, then you’ve got a problem,” Mr. Guest observed.
“Chuck Todd needs help. He is not well,” tweeted talk radio host Dan Bongino.”
The hashtag #ChuckTodd stayed in the top-10 national trends through Sunday afternoon, generating some 40,000 responses.
“Almost all of Todd’s questions were open-ended invitations for Biden to speculate about how he’d have handled the coronavirus pandemic better than the President. After several subtler attempts at teeing Biden up to take a swing at the President, Todd cut to the chase,” wrote Bill D’Agostino, a Newsbusters.org analyst, reviewing the moments step by step.
“Do you think there is blood on the President’s hands, considering the slow response? Or is that too harsh of a criticism?” asked Mr. Todd.
“For what it’s worth, even Biden appeared uncomfortable about Todd’s prompt, responding: ’I think that’s a little too harsh’ ” Mr. D’Agostino noted in his analysis.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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