‘Meet the Press’ host Chuck Todd complained Sunday that ‘vulgarities’ in Donald Trump’s language are making it difficult for parents to raise their children.
The president lashed out at Todd on Saturday night during a public rally near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recalling a time in 1999 when he appeared on the NBC News program – which he called ‘a show now headed by sleepy-eyes Chuck Todd. He’s a ‘sleeping son of a b**ch, I’ll tell you.’
Before anchoring his show on Sunday, Todd spoke with NBC4, his network’s affiliate in Washington, DC, saying that no one in his family would ever use profanity when talking about Trump.
Trump took aim at NBC’s Chuck Todd, calling him a ‘sleepy-eyes son of a b**ch’, as he stood before a teeming throng in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on Saturday night
The president was recalling a ‘Meet the Press’ interview in 1999 and complained that Todd was now the show’s host – but the newsman pushed back as dad, not as a journalist
‘I bring my kids up to respect the office of the presidency and the president,” Todd declared. “I don’t allow them to say anything negative, ever, about the president.’
‘I sort of have the military rule in my house: You don’t speak ill of a sitting president.’
He said Trump’s use of colorful, child-inappropriate language on national television ‘creates a challenge to all parents, when he uses vulgarities like that.’
But Todd acknowledged that the the president has remade the presidency in his own image, and he’s not likely to change.
‘I think yesterday’s rally is a reminder, he’s feeling great. This is the presidency he always wanted,’ he said.
Todd recalled that Trump pledged ‘to do things differently, disrupt Washington, make the establishment crazy, make the media angry’ – which is ‘why he went after his favorite targets in the media.’
But he invited the president to appear on his show – as unlikely as that may be – ‘any Sunday he wants.’
Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw also complained about Trump’s blue streak on Saturday night.
Todd said no one in his family would ever use profanity when talking about Trump – and his kids must respect both the office and the man
Todd had turned the moment into a promo for his show, encouraging viewers to set their DVRs ‘before your eyes get too sleepy’
Todd recalled that Trump pledged ‘to do things differently, disrupt Washington, make the establishment crazy, make the media angry’ – which is ‘why he went after his favorite targets in the media’
Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw also complained about Trump’s mini-blue streak
‘Pres Trump at a Penn rally calls my colleague and friend Chuck Todd a “sleeping SON OF A B***H”. Really classy,’ Brokaw tweeted.
‘Explain that to your children,’ he added.
As the rally wore on, Todd turned Trump’s rhetorical body slam into a tweeted promo for his show, combined with a reminder about Daylight Savings Time.
‘Don’t miss @MeetThePress tomorrow! I know folks may be tired in the morning due to springing forward, so set those clocks and DVRs now before your eyes get too sleepy,’ he tweeted.
Trump, it appears, was already embroiled in a Twitter spat with Todd before he flew to Pennsylvania.
Earlier on Saturday Trump had claimed that the ‘fake’ news had changed their response to his newly announced meeting with North Korea
Todd, who responded four hours before the rally, said Trump’s critique had ‘no basis in fact’
‘In the first hours after hearing that North Korea’s leader wanted to meet with me to talk denuclearization and that missile launches will end, the press was startled and amazed,’ the president had tweeted earlier in the day.
‘They couldn’t believe it. But by the following morning the news became FAKE. They said so what, who cares!’
Todd tweeted back at him that his criticism had ‘no basis in fact.’
‘Even using the loose set of parameters he sometimes uses to call something a “fact” or “fake” doesn’t apply on this,’ he wrote.
‘Now if he replaced “press” with “some West Wing staff,” there’d be some truth in this.’