Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd got into a heated exchange with Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price about President Donald Trump’s tweets.
Partial transcript as follows:
TODD: Many people in the Senate condemned the personal attack on Mika Brzezinski and attacks on her looks. You had Lindsey Graham saying it was beneath the office, Ben Sasse, this isn’t normal, Susan Collins begging, this has to stop, Lisa Murkowski begging, this has to stop. Does his behavior bother you?
PRICE: What I’m concentrated on is the job he’s given me. And that is to make sure we fulfill the mission of the Department of Health and Human Services, and that is the health of the American people. There is a whole array of activities we’re undertaking. One of them is this piece of legislation in the senate right now, but my job is consumed with making sure we fulfill the mission of the department.
TODD I’m asking as a father, if your son tweeted to a woman like that, what would you say to him?
PRICE: Chuck, this is really remarkable. We have incredible challenges across this nation, incredible challenges around the world. The challenge I’ve been given is to address the health care issues, and your program, a program with the incredible history of “Meet the Press” has and that’s what you want to talk about? The American people want to talk about —
TODD: Mr. Secretary, with all due respect, you’re blaming me for what the president of the United States has spent his entire week focused on?
PRICE: No. listen to me, with all due respect, the American people are concerned about a health care system that is not providing choices, where premiums are going up, where the insurance companies are vacating markets across this land. That’s what they want us to concentrate on and fix, and that’s what I and the president are working on.
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