What happened to Chuck Todd?

You might not be ready for what Chuck Todd said about Joe Biden. It seems a lot of people aren’t sure whether his words should be criticized, or his lack thereof until now — or both.

For years, Todd was the moderator for the weekly political talk show Meet the Press on NBC, stepping away in 2023 to take on other roles at the network, though he still appears often as a political commentator, especially during election season.

Todd originally took the role in 2014, six years after Tim Russert’s death. Russert was the moderator for 17 years, and was often praised for making Meet the Press a major success. His welcoming and unbiased approach and the commensurately strong ratings helped the show advance to an hour slot from its usual half-hour, with the interview format changing as Russert favored longer and more genuine discussions. Unlike most moderators of political talk shows today, Russert was noted for calling out politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Being fair and bipartisan is not what politics is about anymore, sadly, and Chuck Todd’s moderation on was criticized by some viewers for being too left-leaning, while others criticized him for not being left-leaning enough.

As Kristen Welker now has that difficult job, Todd has been enjoying offering political opinions when required, but now he’s holding back less, and some wonder if he’s gone too far.

Todd’s weekly chat with Chris Cillizza, which appears on Cilliza’s Substack, took on the topic this week of Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.

Chuck Todd pulled no punches, saying of Joe Biden, “I lost it with him, just personally, when I went through the transcript of the Hunter Biden trial.”

Todd begins to refer to Hunter as turning Hallie Biden — his brother Beau Biden’s widow — to drugs, saying, “Essentially, he turned her into a crack addict and this was all happening in 2017, 2018. Jill and Joe Biden were so concerned about their family that they decided to run for president.”

Add to this Todd’s article on NBC, published today, but he also opined to Cillizza that Biden’s decision to run was “selfish.”

He adds, “Their decision to run for president put the entire Democratic Party and the United States of America in the position that it’s in now.”

Todd doesn’t stop there. Comfortable outside of his NBC offices, he freely expresses that he knew Hunter Biden at one time, and that “Hunter failed at adulting.”

Refocusing his mellow-mannered rant on Joe, Todd adds, “Joe Biden needs therapy and I say this with respect. Joe Biden has not processed Beau’s death. He has this issue with Hunter. He second guesses everything he’s done with raising Hunter versus raising Beau.”

The discussion lasted for 35 minutes, and has earned the attention of many on social media who have questioned Todd’s approach, while also questioning why he would keep these opinions to himself during the election, which they believe shows he is protecting the Democratic Party.

Either way, we now all know how Chuck Todd feels. Just in case we didn’t, he concludes, “Joe Biden was emotionally incapable of being President of the United States and probably should’ve never run.”