Chuck Todd: White House running a ‘war on the truth’

NBC News host Chuck Todd went after the Trump administration Wednesday for running a “war on the truth.” Todd’s was defending rival news network CNN from White House criticism.

“I’m obsessed with the White House’s war on the press and on media. Let’s be clear about this, that war is nothing less than a war on the truth,” Todd said on his show “MTP Daily.”

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Todd said the difference between the White House and the press is that if the media makes a mistake, they will “run a correction and in some cases people lose their jobs.” 

The NBC anchor suggested that the White House takes advantage of the press needing to correct and apologize for an incorrect story, while the White House can feed false information publicly.

“And of course that’s the point, isn’t it? Of course the White House attacks, delegitimizes the media to create running room for its own events. It is as old as the media itself. The White House is not above using anonymous sources to criticize the use of anonymous sources in order to promote what it admits is a lie to call others liars,” he said.

Todd defended CNN after Sarah Huckabee Sanders attacked the news outlet on Tuesday for circulating a video, although she admitted she was unsure “whether [the video is] accurate or not.”

“There’s a video circulating now, whether it’s accurate or not, I don’t know. But I would encourage everybody in this room and frankly everybody across the country to take a look at it. I think if it is accurate, I think it’s a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism,” Sanders said during a White House press briefing. 

“Excuse me? You got that? I don’t know whether it’s accurate or not but go take a look at it because it disgraces you? Seriously? And that’s been this White House’s [modus operandi], pedal a false story to claim the media is telling false stories. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was just a bit more honest apparently about that White House dishonesty,” Todd said in response.

Todd pointed to the three recent resignations at CNN as a result of a retracted Russia story that was based off a single source, adding that the news outlet “took responsibility for its mistakes.”

“So, no, Mr. President, no, White House press shop, the media is not the enemy of the White House,” Todd concluded, saying the media strive to find the truth.