In 2018, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd proclaimed that he wasn't going to give climate change deniers airtime. This Sunday, a Republican who banned the use of the term "climate change" was welcomed as a guest on Todd's show.
Former Florida Governor and now Senator Rick Scott was welcomed with open arms, despite Scott's record as a climate change denier as this report from The Guardian discussed:
Scott was a strong supporter of Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. He was also reported to have banned the phrases “global warming” and “climate change” from state documents, websites and even office discussions, an allegation he has repeatedly denied.
In 2017, he approved Florida’s so-called “anti-science law”, which critics say was aimed at allowing legal challenges to the teaching of the realities of climate change and global warming in the state’s classrooms.
But to opponents such as Jackalone, it’s what Scott has not done that has caused lasting damage.
“He’s acknowledging that we’re having sea level rise and stronger hurricanes but he’s just not willing to say what the cause of it is,” he said. [...]
Last year, the Tampa Bay Times questioned whether Scott’s personal investments in the energy industry had helped shape the state’s lack of policies on climate change. The article claimed that chunks of the business-friendly governor’s $232m fortune were tied up with stock in petroleum and power-generating companies opposed to the restriction of greenhouse gases and other regulatory actions.
In an email to the Associated Press this month, his spokeswoman, Lauren Schenone, denied any conflict of interest.
Somehow, none of those pesky items were discussed during Todd's interview with Scott. Neither was the fact that he oversaw one of the largest Medicare fraud's in our history is also given a pass every time this man is allowed on the air, because God knows it's much more important to have access and keep these liars coming back on the air for interviews.
Instead, he was asked about a comment he made about the Virginia election and whether Republicans should be embracing Trump or not, as though that matters when they're all still obviously still scared to death of him, allowed Scott to lie about CRT being taught in schools unchallenged, whether Lisa Murkowski should have a primary challenger, what he thinks of the Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill, and what he thinks of Republicans who believe Trump's Big Lie about the election being stolen.
While Todd did push Scott on that issue, why he and his producers thought it was necessary to get the opinion of someone who gave Trump a "Champion of Freedom" award after that insurrection is beyond me.
We already know why Republicans run to Fox, OANN and Newsmax for softball interviews where they'll never be challenged. As long as they're never pressed on matters that make them truly uncomfortable, they'll keep coming back to venues like Meet the Press -- that is, as long as the hosts of those venues continue to break their promises about who they're going to allow on as guests.
