NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd joined Boston Public Radio Monday, where he weighed in on Sen. Mitch McConnell’s decision to reconvene the Senate next week.
McConnell announced the news on Monday, saying his chamber "will honor our constitutional duty to the American people and conduct critical business in person,” despite health concerns related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Todd admitted that Senators could feasibly reconvene while keeping socially distant, but called the decision “awfully risky” because of perception issues it could create for the GOP. Many Democrats have already questioned McConnell's motives for reconvening, and criticized the scheduled appointment of former McConnell protégé Justin Walker to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"In a weird way,” he said, "by doing this desperate move, to bring people back to confirm judges, Mitch McConnelL — the smartest political operative in the Republican side of the aisle — is telling you his side is gonna get clobbered [in the November elections] ... and if he wants to confirm conservative judges, he has to do it in the middle of a pandemic.”