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Chuck Todd Attacks Trump Supporters Who Believe Bible

On NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, host Chuck Todd used a Letter to the Editor published 11 months ago in the Lexington Herald Leader to attack supporters of President Trump who believe the Bible.

“Show me a person who believes in Noah’s ark and I will show you a Trump voter,” Todd read from the letter, written by David Bowles of Lexington, Kentucky, and published on January 15, 2019 to set up his questioning of New York Times editor Dean Baquet and Washington Post editor Martin Baron.

Todd claimed the letter was “a fascinating attempt at trying to explain why some people support President Trump.”


You can read the transcript of the relevant portion of Sunday’s Meet the Press program here:


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I want to read you guys a letter to the editor that we found in the Lexington Herald Leader. It was a fascinating attempt at trying to explain why some people support President Trump. Here’s what he says. “Why do good people support Trump? It’s because people have been trained, from childhood, to believe in fairytales. This set their minds up to accept things that make them feel good. The more fairytales and lies he tells, the better they feel. Show me a person who believes in Noah’s Ark, and I will show you a Trump voter.” Look, this gets at something, Dean, that my executive producer likes to say, is “Hey, voters want to be lied to, sometimes. They don’t, they don’t always love being told hard truths.”

Notably, Todd did not read the complete version of Mr. Bowles’ January 15, 2019 Letter to the Editor, nor did the screen shot of the text version of the quotes read by Todd contain a specific disclaimer that it had been selectively edited. You can read the full text of that letter here: (Note that the portions of the letter which were read on air by Todd are highlighted in bold.)

A FAIRYTALE WORLD

The question of the decade is: Why do people support President Donald Trump?

We all know why white supremacists do, that is obvious. But why do good people support Trump? It’s because people have been trained from childhood to believe in fairy tales.

From childhood, they were told stories that were fascinating but simply not true. This set their minds up to accept things that make them feel good. Later in life some people mature, study facts and cause and effect, and start thinking more logically, even if the results are undesirable.


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Lindsay Clancy’s family was ‘very concerned’ about her mental health in the months before she killed her kids
White House tears into Ossoff with brutal takedown after jab at key Trump aide: ‘Lightweight loser’
WNBA Forced to Issue Another Humiliating Response After Mom, Daughter Made to Cover Pro-Girl Shirts Opposing Trans Players in Women’s Sports
ICE Nabs Twice-Deported, Previously Convicted Drug Trafficker with 126 Kilos of Meth in Georgia
Iran fails to strike deal with US as deadline passes and Trump calls for ‘white flag of surrender’
Democrat Party’s civil war heads to Florida, Alaska and Wyoming and more top headlines
[4] Massachusetts Mayor Charged in Alleged $1.5 Million Pandemic-Era Loan Fraud And Money Laundering Scheme
Hunter’s Perfect Shot Provides Not Just Community Service But Massive Load of Barbecue
Trump endorses replacement GOP nominee Jennifer Balkcom after Chuck Edwards ends re-election bid
A Democrat’s apology hasn’t calmed the transgender rights fight raging in Massachusetts Senate primary
Socialist insurgency storms Trump’s backyard, with pro-Israel Democrats in crosshairs
Troy Jackson, now pushing affordability message, voted to raise taxes in Maine
Appeals court rules Trump admin unlawfully appointed Nevada’s top federal prosecutor
DOJ opens probe into prestigious college over alleged discrimination favoring minority students

So you have this population that loves Trump because he makes them feel good. The more fairy tales and lies he tells the better they feel. Trump is a master liar who knows what makes people feel good and that is what he goes with. Sure, it would be nice if climate change did not exist.

Show me a person who believes in Noah’s ark and I will show you a Trump voter. There are multiple solid scientific reasons the ark did not happen. Some people learn this and some don’t, and those who don’t will accept Trump. But can the world survive on fairy tales?

David Bowles

Todd conveniently omitted this important part of Bowles’ letter that immediately preceded the excerpt he read: “We all know why white supremacists do [support Donald Trump], that is obvious.” (emphasis added)

That omission disproves Todd’s claim at the beginning of the segment that the letter was “a fascinating attempt at trying to explain why some people support President Trump.” Including that sentence would have made it clear that the letter was intended to disparage supporters of the president, not explain why they support him.

It also raises two obvious questions:

(1) Why did Todd and the producers of NBC’s Meet the Press omit this important sentence from what they shared with the audience?

(2) Why did they reach back 11 months to an obscure Letter to the Editor in the Lexington-Herald Leader to make a point on Sunday?

Story cited here.

But to make his point, it was wrong for the NBC host to pluck out of obscurity a letter disparaging people of faith and belittling those who believe in the biblical account of the flood, which includes not only Christians but Muslims and Jewish people, too.

Social media also blasted Todd’s attack on Bible-believing Trump supporters.

Trump campaign deputy communications director Zach Parkinson weighed in with this tweet on Sunday:


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White House tears into Ossoff with brutal takedown after jab at key Trump aide: ‘Lightweight loser’
WNBA Forced to Issue Another Humiliating Response After Mom, Daughter Made to Cover Pro-Girl Shirts Opposing Trans Players in Women’s Sports
ICE Nabs Twice-Deported, Previously Convicted Drug Trafficker with 126 Kilos of Meth in Georgia
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Democrat Party’s civil war heads to Florida, Alaska and Wyoming and more top headlines
[4] Massachusetts Mayor Charged in Alleged $1.5 Million Pandemic-Era Loan Fraud And Money Laundering Scheme
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Trump endorses replacement GOP nominee Jennifer Balkcom after Chuck Edwards ends re-election bid
A Democrat’s apology hasn’t calmed the transgender rights fight raging in Massachusetts Senate primary
Socialist insurgency storms Trump’s backyard, with pro-Israel Democrats in crosshairs
Troy Jackson, now pushing affordability message, voted to raise taxes in Maine
Appeals court rules Trump admin unlawfully appointed Nevada’s top federal prosecutor
DOJ opens probe into prestigious college over alleged discrimination favoring minority students

Newsbusters added this tweet:

On Monday, the Washington Examiner tweeted that Todd’s use of the Letter to the Editor was “a cheap shot” and “an act of extreme cowardice.”


Antisemitism fight explodes in Florida as voters head to the polls: ‘Political pogrom’
Lindsay Clancy’s family was ‘very concerned’ about her mental health in the months before she killed her kids
White House tears into Ossoff with brutal takedown after jab at key Trump aide: ‘Lightweight loser’
WNBA Forced to Issue Another Humiliating Response After Mom, Daughter Made to Cover Pro-Girl Shirts Opposing Trans Players in Women’s Sports
ICE Nabs Twice-Deported, Previously Convicted Drug Trafficker with 126 Kilos of Meth in Georgia
Iran fails to strike deal with US as deadline passes and Trump calls for ‘white flag of surrender’
Democrat Party’s civil war heads to Florida, Alaska and Wyoming and more top headlines
[4] Massachusetts Mayor Charged in Alleged $1.5 Million Pandemic-Era Loan Fraud And Money Laundering Scheme
Hunter’s Perfect Shot Provides Not Just Community Service But Massive Load of Barbecue
Trump endorses replacement GOP nominee Jennifer Balkcom after Chuck Edwards ends re-election bid
A Democrat’s apology hasn’t calmed the transgender rights fight raging in Massachusetts Senate primary
Socialist insurgency storms Trump’s backyard, with pro-Israel Democrats in crosshairs
Troy Jackson, now pushing affordability message, voted to raise taxes in Maine
Appeals court rules Trump admin unlawfully appointed Nevada’s top federal prosecutor
DOJ opens probe into prestigious college over alleged discrimination favoring minority students

As of Monday afternoon, neither Todd nor Meet the Press had publicly responded to any of these criticisms.

Story cited here.

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