NBC's Todd Perplexed at the Idea of 'One Standard' When it Comes to Surveilling Americans

Ryan Foley | September 30, 2019
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As Sunday's edition of Meet the Press came to a close, panelist Hugh Hewitt responded to a question by host Chuck Todd regarding whether or not the Ukraine scandal would hurt Joe Biden. According to Hewitt, "I believe in one standard. If there was enough evidence to use a FISA warrant against Carter Page for...being an agent or an accomplice of a foreign government, Hunter Biden should have been under the same surveillance from 2014 for the same reason that he is deeply cooperating with people whose interests are not aligned with the United States abroad." A visibly perplexed Todd replied: "I have no idea how that is even remotely relatable." Mark Leibovich of The New York Times Magazine proceeded to make the case that "a lot of people are exhausted with everything around Donald Trump...I think this story has put a whole, new big pile of exhaustion onto this big, big sort of smoldering whatever it is we have." Todd concluded that "you can be pro-Trump's agenda and have Trump fatigue." Next, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin recycled a tired media talking point about a scandal-free Obama administration: "what he (Biden) had going for him was he was part of the Obama administration, scandal-free, basically, no drama every day and he could return to that normalcy in a certain sense. Now he's been made part of this drama." Goodwin also suggested that people will feel "sympathy" for Biden and contended that the allegations of wrongdoing on his behalf will cause him to think "I'm fighting for my honor and my reputation, I'm not just fighting because I'm electable." Acting as a Democratic strategist, Goodwin begged Biden to give more speeches, do less campaigning, and fight for his life

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