Communications

After the White House announced Obama requested a joint session of Congress to give his jobs speech the same day and time as the GOP presidential debate, WaPo’s Chris Cillizza and NBC’s Chuck Todd were on MSNBC and called it for what it is: 1) not a coincidence and 2) purely political.

Cillizza: “Coincidences at the presidential political level do not exist.” 

Todd: “It politicizes though a joint speech to a Joint Session of Congress.”

Transcript:

CHUCK TODD:  “Well, which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? Chris Cillizza joins me now. Chris, we know what's making headlines today. I sort of -- I should have seen this coming. I was hinting that this was going to be State of the Union-like old school, that they would unveil their plan and start selling it around the country. I didn't know they literally really wanted to do a State of the Union.”

CHRIS CILLIZZA:  "Fascinating. You know, my favorite part of that, Chuck, is Jay Carney, the White House spokesman saying, ‘Oh, it was purely coincidental.’ There -- coincidences at the presidential political level do not exist. I know they wanted to do it after Labor Day. They knew what was happening. They knew that NBC was hosting a debate. This is not by accident. They want to force the contrast with Republicans. They want to force a choice of people of what they want to watch, fact."

TODD: "It’s tough. It politicizes though a joint speech to a Joint Session of Congress."

CILLIZZA:  "And it makes you focus on strategy, Chuck, rather than what's actually in the speech."

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