NBC’s Chuck Todd called out on his show by GOP senator for pushing 'completely false narrative' on voter laws

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NBC’s Chuck Todd tried to get Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to criticize his own party over voting rights on Sunday during an appearance on "Meet the Press," but the Republican instead told the liberal host there is a "completely false narrative about so-called voter suppression."

Todd told the Republican senator that he wanted to ask about the voting rights issue, but first played footage of Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., suggesting the GOP refused to stand for voting rights.

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NBC’s Chuck Todd tried to get Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to criticize his own party over voting rights on Sunday during an appearance on "Meet the Press." (NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)

"I want to separate HR-1 from the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Do you believe there is enough… there are ten Republicans to do an updated version of the Voting Rights Act, something that used to be fairly easy to get done in a bipartisan way? I know the issues with HR-1, and I'm trying to separate the two. Where are you on this," Todd said.

Media Research Center news analyst Nicholas Fondacaro blasted Todd’s question as ridiculous and said Warnock’s claim was false.

"Toomey didn’t take the bait. He instead put attention on what Todd didn’t want to address in HR-1; issues like increasing the insidious practice of ballot harvesting," Fondacaro wrote.

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Indeed, Toomey didn’t agree with Todd’s framing. 

"The Democrats have been driving this message on HR-1. And I think we ought to be asking our Democratic colleagues why are they so insistent that we not have any mechanism to verify that a person seeking to vote is, in fact, the person that they say they are," Toomey told Todd.

"Why are they so insistent that people ought to be able to go ballot harvesting, maybe go through a nursing home and get a couple hundred ballots that just happen to be whatever they are," Toomey continued.

"There is a completely false narrative about so-called voter suppression."

Toomey said in Georgia there is "no voter suppression" despite what Democrats claim.

"Sunday voting is still allowed. There's an expansion of in-person voting, there’s no requirement that you have a reason for a mail-in ballot," Toomey said. "This has been a false narrative entirely, Chuck, and I’m afraid it’s all about getting rid of the filibuster. We're not going to be cowed by being called racist over a policy that has nothing to do with race."

Fondacaro felt that "Todd refused to address the facts and tried to make the issue the optics of GOP efforts" when he responded to Toomey’s point.

"I understand your point of view there," Todd said. "I'm just curious though, do you think it's a good look for the party that, after the presidential loss, after the former candidate basically creates a false narrative and lies about why it happened, that these laws are getting changed under a false pretense? That's not a good look for the Republican Party, is it not?"

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Toomey noted that he was critical of Trump following the election

"We should be honest about this, we made very dramatic, sweeping changes to accommodate the circumstances of a global pandemic, that had huge implications, and some of those sweeping changes include provisions that are really, actually tough to verify the accuracy of the vote and we have an awful lot of Americans who are worried about the integrity of the system," Toomey said. "So, some commonsense measures like requiring an ID to get an absentee ballot or to vote, that just makes a lot of sense."

Todd then thanked him for joining the program and the conversation swiftly ended.