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Chuck Todd says if Biden breaks 100M vaccines promise he’ll be failure, gets called 'Kayleigh McEnany of MSNBC'

'Let's put it this way. If Biden wants to succeed, he has to fulfill that first vaccination promise,' Todd said on his show. 'If Biden doesn't get it right, he will have failed on the job he was elected to do'

On Tuesday, January 19, ‘Meet the Press’ host Chuck Todd was trending on Twitter and the comments were not flattering. On his MSNBC show on Tuesday, Todd said that President-elect Joe Biden will have "failed" if he is unable to deliver 100 million vaccine doses during his first 100 days in office.

On his show, Todd said, “Let's be realistic. Biden's first crucial task is to vaccinate America, to fulfill that promise to get 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days.”

"The ultimate success or failure of his presidency may hinge simply on that one promise," Todd continued. "And it might be his only way to immediately begin cauterizing American's social, economic, and political wounds."

"Let's put it this way. If Biden wants to succeed, he has to fulfill that first vaccination promise," Todd added. "If Biden doesn't get it right, he will have failed on the job he was elected to do. All of these words he utters tomorrow at his inaugural address will ring hollow if, on the 101st day of his administration, we haven't hit 100 million vaccinations.”

This small monologue began attracting criticism from many, with people pointing out that Biden was not even officially in office yet. One Twitter user even said, “If only there were a way to vote Chuck Todd off television.” The Twitter account for the Palmer Report, a liberal political portal, pointed out, “Chuck Todd is already talking about the prospect of Biden's presidency being a failure. You'd think the past four years would have given Chuck Todd some perspective on what actual failure is, but no. His ‘both sides-ism’ is so harmful to the public discourse. Get him off the air.”

Many then also started calling for Todd to be fired from his show. One Twitter user even called him “the Kayleigh McEnany of MSNBC”. McEnany was Trump’s final White House Press Secretary, in a long line of several short-tenured appointments. Others called Todd a “failed reporter”.

Of course, this is not the first time such a demand has arisen. The hashtag #FireChuckTodd began trending on Twitter on October 15, 2020, after NBC News announced on October 14 that it would be hosting Donald Trump's town hall event at the same time slot as Joe Biden's own town hall event that is being hosted by ABC. His critics inundated Twitter with calls to fire Todd for organizing the Trump town hall.

Todd has been criticized for his journalism on several occasions, especially in the Trump era. Earlier this year, ‘Meet the Press’ booked Senator Ron Johnson, who according to a New York Times editorial has “has eagerly echoed the most conspiracy-minded and anti-science impulses of Mr. Trump and waded headfirst into battles even the president’s usually reliable phalanx of congressional defenders have been unwilling to fight”.

In its aftermath, Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor, said that "Everything Chuck Todd ever said about his alarm at what the Republicans are doing is hollow and meaningless. After all this, to welcome Ron Johnson back is such a pathetic surrender." In 2019, a Columbia Journalism Review opinion piece said, “For Chuck Todd, all the political world’s a stage, and he’s the star.”