Free Republic

Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama now admits that his decision to play a vacation round of golf immediately after addressing the murder of US journalist James Foley by Islamic State, was a mistake. "I should have anticipated the optics," Obama said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. The president said that he had been forced to hold back tears when he spoke privately to the family of Foley, who was beheaded, but added that there was always the prospect of a "jarring" contrast between world events, and his own efforts to carve out a...

President Obama said he plans to address the nation on the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Wednesday, vowing to "hunt down" the terrorists. Obama said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that the U.S. will track down ISIS "wherever they are." “What I'm going to be asking the American people to understand is, number one, this is a serious threat,” Obama said about the Wednesday speech. “Number two, we have the capacity to deal with it.” “This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war,” Obama says, emphasizing he won’t advocate...

But Obama said "the more important question is whether he is getting the policies right and whether he is protecting the American people and, on that score, he said “I think I’ve done a very good job during the course of these last, close to six years.”

News broke this week that Luke Russert, son of the late Tim Russert, will be a regular part of the “revamped” Meet The Press starting today. He’s 29, has worked for NBC News since graduating college, and…that’s about it. His last name is the only qualification he possesses for joining the “team” of the longest running show on television. If this, and the other personnel decisions that have been announced, is NBC’s plan to save the once-great show, Meet The Press is screwed. The new host, Chuck Todd, is a fine choice. But that’s just one piece of the puzzle....

Psst! Psst! Listen carefully to the questions whispered into your earpieces all you Sunday news show hosts out there. Forget about who is the new host of Meet The Press. The key player is really "EP" or the executive producer according to senior editor Jason Zengerle at The New Republic. Did you hear that Chuck Todd? You are doomed to being nothing more than a conduit repeating the questions fed into your earpiece. Here is Zengerle downgrading the goateed one as he reveals that The secret to Sunday morning show success is the executive producer:

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Chuck Todd, the new host of NBC's Meet The Press, suggested that Americans who do not pay income tax fund public education more than the rich by buying lottery tickets and going to casinos. While interviewing Ben Carson on CSPAN's After Words, which aired on Sunday, Todd said that Americans who don't pay federal income tax go to casinos or buy lottery tickets and are "spending more money funding our schools, whether it's Detroit or other places." Todd said that though "they are not writing a check to the federal government," poorer Americans "are contributing arguably more money to education...

Here is video of Tea Party Organizer Tim Phillips, from Americans for Prosperity, talking with MSNBC's Chuck Todd today and explaining that the Tea Parties reflect that millions of "Americans are fed up" -- fed up with the wasteful deficit spending of the Federal government that will lead to higher taxes for everyone. . . . . . (Watch Video)

People can finally stop speculating about Meet the Press. NBC News President Deborah Turness announced that David Gregory, who has been hosting for almost six years, will leave the network and Chuck Todd will replace him as moderator beginning on Sept. 7. Andrea Mitchell will serve as moderator of Meet the Press this weekend

NBC will name Chuck Todd the new host of "Meet the Press" as soon as Thursday afternoon, according to people with direct knowledge of the network's plans. The sources confirmed widespread speculation that David Gregory, who moderated the show for the past six years, will be replaced by Todd, and is expected to leave NBC. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the record. One said that the transition will be swift -- so swift that Gregory will not even host "Meet the Press" this weekend.

No big surprise here but Politico is now reporting that Chuck Todd will probably be replacing David Gregory as host of Meet The Press. It was almost inevitable that NBC News would be ousting Gregory due to the terrible ratings of that Sunday news show while he was hosting. The only question was who was going to replace Gregory and it now seems to be confirmed that the widely acknowledged leading candidate is going to be Todd. The big question now is if Chuck Todd can put aside his liberal reflexes and provide the Meet The Press audience with some...

The New York Post’s Page Six reports today that David Gregory could be replaced as moderator of Meet the Press shortly after the November election. Rumors have been swirling for months about Gregory’s future at Meet the Press, as the ratings have sunk by 45 percent since he took over from the late Tim Russert in 2008. Gregory has turned Russert’s decade-long run at number one into a perennial third-place finish among Sunday morning talk shows. The Post reported that while NBC News President Deborah Turness is publicly supportive of Gregory, she is seriously concerned about the ratings problems. The...

Monday on MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown," host Chuck Todd discussed the complete failure of President Barack Obama's reelection goals named the "year of action" saying, "Let's face it there hasn't been much." Todd dubbed the presidents lack of accomplishments a "six-month stalemate. "The president has largely failed to meet even those modest goals wether it was raising the minimum wage signing a trade agreements, or getting an immigration reform done," he said.

NBC’s Chuck Todd described the latest WSJ/NBC poll as a “disaster for the president” and argued that the American public is essentially saying Obama’s “presidency is over.” This poll is a disaster for the president,” Todd said. “You look at the presidency here: lowest job rating, tied for the lowest; lowest on foreign policy. His administration is seen as less competent than the Bush administration, post-Katrina.” “On the issue of do you believe he can still lead? A majority believe no. Essentially the public is saying your presidency is over,” Todd added. Wall Street Journal reports: As clouds gather abroad,...

Editors at MSNBC.com trimmed down Republican congressional nominee Dave Brat's June 11 phone interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd in order to paint him as dodging questions from the Daily Rundown host. But a review of the full interview [listen to the mp3 audio here] shows that Brat had already and seemingly quite gladly answered a few policy questions on such hot issues as the minimum wage, immigration reform, and his stance on Wall Street's influence on the business wing of the GOP. "Brat dodges Chuck Todd's questions," blared a teaser headline. "Brat: I just wanted to talk about the victory,"...

... what will the new narrative from the MSM be? Before the first GOP primaries this year, we heard from the MSM the long-held narrative: A.) "There is a huge war within the GOP. The GOP needs to do something with these "extremists" (Tea Party)!" Then when Boehner and some others won their primaries, the MSM narrative quickly shifted (as in goal-posts): B.) "The GOP has absorbed the Tea Party!" Now with Eric Cantor losing to David Brat (and that was a huge loss), the MSM won't go back on their narrative, even though they logically would have to admit...

Chuck Todd told Matt Lauer on Wednesday that the White House was “caught flat-footed” on the backlash against the prisoner swap for Sergeant Bergdahl. “I’ve had a few aides describe it to me as ‘we didn’t know that they were going to Swift Boat Bergdahl’,” Todd said, “And Matt, of course, that’s a reference to that political fight back in 2004 over John Kerry’s military service which became so controversial in that campaign. So there’s some fighting words there.”

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Todd: White House was 'caught off guard' MSNBC’S Chuck Todd observed Tuesday that the White House was “caught off guard” by the disastrous public roll out of their prisoner exchange for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. Todd and Andrea Mitchell agreed that the White House had likely thought there would be “some euphoria around this, the only POW that was remaining in Afghanistan, that there would be a rally around the flag. That didn’t happen.” “They were expecting criticisms of Gitmo, criticisms of the detainees that were chosen,” Todd said. “They did not expect this criticism of the attempt to...

Via Guy Benson, who must have leapt out of his skin when he first saw this clip on Morning Joe yesterday. Asked about allegations that the select committee on Benghazi is nothing more than a partisan witch hunt, Chuck Todd argued that it looks that way because all of the questions about Benghazi have been answered. However, listen to which questions Todd refers, and what he says afterward:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO I’m going to dissent, but only in part. Here’s the case against Todd from Guy, paragraph breaks my own: Yes, there have been a number of...

Dust-up on today's Morning Joe over Benghazi and the House Special Committee empanelled to investigate it. In the move-on-nothing-to-see corner were Chuck Todd and Donny Deutsch. Opposing them was Nicolle Wallace, who made an impassioned case that the Obama admin's cover-up of the politics behind the false talking points that the White House furnished to Susan Rice, blaming the attack on an internet video, merit anger and investigation. As MRC's Jeffrey Meyer has noted, Todd has been on a tear trying to downplay Benghazi and disparage the Special Committee. But in his determination to defend all things Obama, Todd today...

House Republicans will announce their intention to form a special select committee on Benghazi Friday, intensifying already highly-charged GOP scrutiny of the Obama administration’s handling of the September 2012 attacks that left four Americans dead. The committee will be led by GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.