More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.
On Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer actually grilled White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on President Obama's tax hike proposal: "During the President's last press conference of 2014, he was asked how he might be able to work with the new incoming Republican-controlled Congress and he said, quote, 'The tax area is one area where we can get things done.' And now he's proposing a middle class tax cut paid for with a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans that just about everyone says cannot pass this congress. So why is he going this route?"
As McDonough attempted to defend the futile and controversial move, Lauer interrupted: "But Denis, it can't pass. And nobody says it can pass. People say it's dead on arrival. Isn't it a political maneuver, some kind of a trap to simply get Republicans in a bad spot as the 2016 election approaches?"