Former NBC Host Blasts Trump, Says America Faces ‘Civil War’

Chuck Todd warned America is sliding toward a “cold civil war.” On “The Chuck Toddcast” Tuesday, he pointed to redistricting fights in Texas and California as evidence. He blamed President Donald Trump and the GOP for creating “this unprecedented challenge to our constitutional republic.”

“I hate using that rhetoric. I hate using those words, but what else are you going to describe it? We are literally having a redistricting war between the states right now, and we have governors who have decided they don’t care about the minority rights in their own states,” Todd said.

He called out Texas Governor Greg Abbott directly. “Greg Abbott doesn’t care. If you don’t agree with Greg Abbott, he is going to force his will upon you in the state of Texas. And if you don’t agree with Gavin Newsom and how they’re going — he’s going to force his will upon you,” Todd added.

The former NBC host said this is “not what the founders intended.” He faulted both parties but named Trump as the main catalyst for what he calls a “cold civil war.”

“This is not a policy fight. This isn’t the usual partisan back and forth. It is a direct stress test of whether our constitutional system actually works when a president and his party decide they don’t have to care about the limits that are written down on paper,” he argued. “Trump has spent years — parts of his first term and much so far of these first 200-plus days bending and breaking the guard rails of the republic.”

Todd also criticized Democrats for adopting a “fight fire with fire” approach. “The Democratic response is pretty troubling because, right now as a party, okay, as an official party apparatus, they’ve decided to frame this moment as a war, right? Okay, you got to fight fire with fire. This is an unprecedented moment, so they’re framing this as a war,” he said. “And when you tell yourself you’re in a war, you start rationalizing things you’d normally not do that you would say is immoral or wrong or unprincipled. But hey, it’s war and all is fair in war, right?”

He noted Democrats once pushed for independent commissions and competitive maps. Now, with Republicans “openly wanting to break the rules like they’re doing in Texas,” Democrats are looking to do the same. “And if you criticize that decision, as I’ve been doing, I’ve been told I’m naive, that I don’t understand the stakes, that you are not taking this threat seriously,” Todd said. “Au contraire, my friend, I do God – understand the stakes, and we are not replacing one unprincipled, unconstitutional set of leaders with another set of unprincipled, unconstitutional set of leaders.”

Todd ended with a call for Republicans in Congress to check Trump’s power. “They’ve not lifted one finger of oversight. Not one… You couldn’t even say there’ve been a weak check on Trump. It has been no check on him at all,” he said. “Guess what? The Constitution can’t enforce itself without people willing to wield those checks. All we have are words on yellowing parchment paper.”

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