Chuck Todd apologizes for airing edited William Barr clip

NBC “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd apologized on Tuesday for airing a clip Sunday of Attorney General William Barr’s interview with CBS senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge, which Todd acknowledged was misleading because of an edit that took Barr’s remarks out of context.

Todd and “Meet the Press” had come under heavy criticism for airing the clip, which made it appear that Barr had decided to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn for political reasons. 

After the clip from the May 7 CBS interview aired, Todd said that Barr “didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law. He was almost admitting that, yeah, this is a political job.”

On Tuesday, Todd said that while NBC was not responsible for the editing of the clip, “Meet the Press” should have checked for a full transcript. 

He called it a “mistake I wish we hadn’t made and that I hadn’t made.”

He said Barr’s full answer would have put in context the portion of the interview that “Meet the Press” did air.

“Had I seen that part, I would not have framed the conversation the way I did,” he said. “And I am obviously very sorry for that mistake, and we strive to do better going forward.”

Todd was not on-air on Monday, so Tuesday represented the first chance he had to address the issue. He did so before going to a break on his daily show. 

“Before we go to break, I wanted to talk for a moment about something that occurred on Sunday’s edition of ‘Meet the Press,’” Todd said. 

“During the program, we had a soundbite from a CBS News interview with the attorney general, Bill Barr. In the bite we aired, he was asked how he thinks the history of his decision to end the prosecution of the former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, will be written. Mr. Barr answered, quote: ‘History is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who is writing the history.’”

Barr went on to say that “I think a fair history would say it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law,” Todd said.

“We did not edit that out. That was not our edit,” he said. “We didn’t include it because we only saw the shorter of two clips that CBS did air. We should have looked at both and checked for a full transcript, a mistake I wish we hadn’t made and that I hadn’t made. The second part of the attorney general’s answer would have put it in the proper context.”

President Trump had ripped Todd over the clip, calling for him to be fired. 

Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd should be FIRED by “Concast” (NBC) for this fraud. He knew exactly what he was doing. Public Airwaves = Fake News! @AjitPaiFCC @FCC https://t.co/fLTDhjMXo4

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2020

And on the right, there was continued criticism of Todd after the apology. 

Either Chuck Todd is lying or he’s real lazy and bad at his job. https://t.co/1B3hYmlIlW

— John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) May 12, 2020

Chuck Todd apologizes (sort of) to AG Barr for smearing him last Sunday.

But, folks, the tone…

Reminds me of a kid being told to apologize to his sibling (who totally started it), but mom’s watching w/ a belt for one word of sass because she’s had it.pic.twitter.com/wa2cRDz53z

— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) May 12, 2020

PolitiFact called Todd’s description of Barr’s remarks “wrong.”

“Barr did say he believed he was sticking up for the rule of law — and he said it immediately after the clip Todd presented was cut off,” wrote the fact-checking organization.

–This report was updated on May 13 at 9:39 a.m.