As my RedState colleague Bob Hoge previously reported, “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd announced Sunday at the end of his program that he would soon be stepping down from his perch after running the show for nine years, also letting viewers know that NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker would be taking his place in September.

Watching the video of the announcement, it struck me that while the person sitting in front of the camera looked like Chuck Todd, he certainly did not sound like Chuck Todd. Before we get into my thoughts, let’s revisit the clip:

Laugh line from Chuck Todd's announcement he's leaving MTP: "I'll be honest, though, I leave feeling concerned about this moment in history but reassured by the standards we've set here. We didn't tolerate propaganda, and this network and programming never will." pic.twitter.com/73JjuIU5Of

— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) June 4, 2023

And the transcript:

“I leave feeling concerned about this moment in history but reassured by the standards we’ve set here. We didn’t tolerate propagandists, and this network and program never will. But it doesn’t mean sticking your head in the sand either. If you ignore reality, you’ll miss the big story. Being a real political journalist isn’t about building a brand. It’s about reporting what’s happening and explaining why it’s happening and letting the public absorb the facts. If you do this job seeking popularity, you are doing this job incorrectly.

I take the attacks from partisans as compliments, and I take the compliments from partisans with a grain of salt. The goal of this and every Meet the Press episode is to do all of the following in one informative hour: make you mad, make you think, shake your head in disapproval and nod your head in approval. If you do all of that in one hour of this show, we’ve done our jobs. So, again, this isn’t goodbye. But know this: No matter who sits in this chair, if it’s Sunday it’s Meet the Press.”

I mean it came across really, really good, like anyone seriously committed to actual journalism would sound. If it had come from another journalist, like maybe Bill Melugin from Fox News or Catherine Herridge from CBS News, it would have been entirely believable.

But it came from Chuck Todd, who in my opinion is in the top tier of Democrat apologists in the mainstream media.

“We didn’t tolerate propagandists, and this network and program never will.” Really? Considering Chuck Todd was one of the biggest propagandists on the network – regardless of who his guests were on any given day, that’s pretty remarkable thing to claim.

I remember just a few weeks ago when Todd was debating, not questioning, but debating (like people who have chosen a political side do) 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on the issue of gender ideology. Todd actually declared without evidence during the segment that “There is a lot of scientific research that says gender is a spectrum.”

“It’s about reporting what’s happening and explaining why it’s happening and letting the public absorb the facts.” Except Chuck Todd almost always played fast and loose with the facts, trying to tell his viewers what to think in the process rather than letting them draw their own conclusions, like when he blamed Joe Biden’s low approval ratings on former President Donald Trump nearly a year into Biden’s presidency, and also suggested that the fact COVID was still around was not Biden’s fault, either:

“And some of it is out of their control. Mark Murray and I were having a discussion. His two big promises were to get Covid behind us and to get rid of Donald Trump. Covid’s not behind us and Donald Trump’s still lurking. It’s not his fault, but is that why we’re in this no-man’s land here for him?”

“The goal of this and every Meet the Press episode is to do all of the following in one informative hour: make you mad, make you think, shake your head in disapproval and nod your head in approval.”

Todd certainly knew how to make people mad and shake their heads in disapproval, with Democrat talking points commentary like the remarks he made after Biden delivered his highly political January 6th anniversary speech, with Todd falsely declaring that in no way was Biden being a shameless partisan:

“He had to do it for history’s sake. But he had to do it, I think, for those that are on the side of the democracy….I think this was probably easily the most important speech he’s given as president, and I think it’s his best. And I’ll tell you this. If you think that speech was partisan, then you believe the former president’s lies. It’s only a partisan speech if you think there’s somehow a truthful dispute here. If you’re pro-democracy and pro-America, it is hard to look at that speech and say, ‘Oh, it’s politically skewed.’”

Then there was the time Todd actually claimed in so many words that being pro-vaccine mandate was being pro-life.

“A vaccine is about protecting a larger community. A vaccine is about preventing spread. You could argue a vaccine mandate is a pro-life position,” Todd said to pro-life Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who promptly schooled him.

I could go on and on, but I think the point has been made. If Chuck Todd was the kind of journalist he pretended to be in his comments from Sunday, he would have been respected by a broader audience outside of Beltway elites.

But the Chuck Todd we saw at the end of “Meet the Press” Sunday was not the Chuck Todd we normally see, which is why in the scheme of things, very few people beyond Joe Biden will miss him being at the helm of the long-running program.

Flashback: Chuck Todd Bitterly Admits Democrat Capitol Riot ‘Investigation’ Ploy Not Going as Planned