Chuck Todd Interviews Robert Gibbs On "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Health Care Reform, Stimulus (VIDEO)

NBC's Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd, filling for Chris Matthews as host of "Hardball" tonight, conducted a lengthy interview with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Todd questioned Gibbs on whether the White House really thought that Congress could handle all the items on President Obama's agenda, including energy legislation, health care reform, and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT). Gibbs, coming off a pretty significant victory in getting climate change legislation through the House, sounded quite confident, even saying they could handle "financial regulatory reform" and place Sotomayor on the Court in good time:

There's no doubt that it will be hard. The easiest thing for this town to do is the same old thing. I think we've proven, in a short period of time, we're not afraid to tackle a lot of big issues, and I think we've seen progress in Congress dealing with a lot on their plate.

Todd brought up the stimulus package, calling it a "political football" for Republicans. He asked Gibbs point-blank when we should start to judge whether it's working or not. Gibbs replied," I think we should begin to judge it now." Todd then pressed Gibbs, asking to judge it on what, and if we should include recent job losses. Gibbs backed off a bit, and told Todd that we should take the "long view." Gibbs called the stimulus a two-year plan, "so it's not all gonna be fixed in 90 or a 100 days."

At the end of the interview, Todd played a clip of Gibbs saying firmly that the Obama administration would end DADT, and then a clip from a month ago Gibbs appearing to soften its position by saying they want Congress to do it. Gibbs gave lackluster responses, especially when later asked why Obama doesn't stop the discharges of critical gay service members, like Arabic translators. However Gibbs did emphasize that when Obama faces re-election in 2012, DADT will have been repealed.

Watch the interview below.

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Comments

[KLordsha]

Just watched the rerun... it was going ok until Chuck Todd said that the President went golfing 4 weekends in a row (politico estimate) so that he could smoke... What the Eff...

[JSDKoeln]

what does this have to do with anything relevant? So, he is entitled to weekends off and to do whatever the eff he wants. It's is weekends, after all. I am sure you don't put in 60 hour weeks... and am sure he is putting in more than that. Good for him.

Lots of people smoke. Who cares. It's his life.

[OhComeOnNow]

Todd barely disguises his disdain for this administration; and it came through quite clearly in that hour. ESPECIALLY with the stoooopid golf comment.

[WoodyCPM]

I don't care if the President takes every weekend off AND smokes two packs a day on the job. His personal habits are his business. It is utterly irrelevant. I want him to work toward fulfilling the promises he made that led many of us to vote for him. It isn't just DADT or DOMA. He's also keeping all of the Bush administration policies on wire tapping, secrecy, rendition. None of this is what we voted for.

[Mikeeee]

chuckie really needs to take some kind of journalism course.

[Mikeeee]

Any kind of journalism course. Even correspondence. Wait, scratch that.

[SugarBare504]

Oh, now I get it. In 2011 he'll throw us a bone; not literally, so we'll vote for him again.

[Montgriz]

money...th­at's all...

[bayarea000]

liar liar pants on fire!!!! obama and gibbs.

[texaslib82]

Obama misled the gays...jus­t like bill clinton...

[lared]

The Gay`s are the one`s misleading. They can`t reproduce. They have rights as citizens,same as everyone else.

[DofG]

This was just the media doing what it does best-stoking conflict. By every viewable measure, Obama intends to stand by his word. Unfortunately, he is dealing with a body politic where self interest comes first, without any sense of history, or the context of the moment. But of course, the media-the beast-the antitruth, the obscurity of context, the gods of misdirection will milk this conflict untill "republicants" transform themselves into Buddhist monks.

[Eric8869]

WRONG - you have no sense of history. Clinton betrayed the gays over and over again. This time we will not take it. Hence the pressure.

[dwright]

then why do gays continue to think Hillary was/is the answer?

[southwindow]

um why is chuck todd's name in the headline? It isn't the job of the reporter to become the story.
The headline should be, White House equivocates over its unwillingn­ess/inabil­ity to fulfill campaign promise of repealing DADT

[Montgriz]

Until our media begins to reform itself, it will remain mostly irrelevant­....talkin­g heads are the news....an­d that is why it is being rejected..­.

[MrRoboto]

Here's why nothing will happen on DADT (at least in the Senate) until 2011 at least: Harry Reid doesn't want Democratic voters to know that there are several Democrats who support DADT and don't want to repeal it. If it comes to a vote, those emperors will no longer have any clothes, and well...the­ir Democratic voters might not be inclined to send them back to the Senate in 2011. But if they stall until the elections are over with, they can maybe get re-elected on a platform of "We were so busy with everything else, we just didn't have time. We promise we'll get to it next term." That's all it really is anyway, a numbers game, designed to maintain the current 59 (or 60, if Al Franken ever gets seated) or increase it. Then they'll have the next six years to stall even more, or maybe even bring it up for a vote, in which it'll be voted down. Then Obama can say, "Well, it wasn't me, it was them. Re-elect me in 2012 and I'll make it one of my top priorities. I swear!"

[factotem]

Completely feasible idea. well--explained,
I find it odious, but... politics is politics

[WoodyCPM]

In the meantime, gay and lesbian lives go one being mangled and thwarted in the current stupidity that is the American political and social scene. This is such a backwards country.

[ekoorb]

After the stall, their fundraising appeals will argue about the "urgency" to hold the Democratic majority so that DADT can be repealed. Go figure.

[Montgriz]

Harry Reid is not that clever...t­rust me....

[swingerofbirches]

Bush didn't wait for congress, why does Obama? Act!

Maybe it was all lip service.

[lattedrinker]

That's just it.

Bush did things WITHOUT congress. Unlike Bush, President Obama is NOT acting like King of America.

[Montgriz]

He has rubberstamped many Bush policies, and last week used a "signing statement" because he had no courage to veto a bill......­same old stuff.....

[4KixAfter6]

Chuck Todd, a total tool.

[LeeCalif]

Amen to that !

[Montgriz]

photogenic­...that counts on tv....I guess.

[repugnicansfearme]

Chuck Todd-- Super Journalist. Tough as they come, in a hopscotch match.

[Ping]

Chuck it took you one minute and twenty six seconds to ask a simple question and it was a stewpud question at that. By the time Gibbs started speaking I had lost interest and turned it off.

[jemiltd]

Poor Chuckie. Still trying to do "gotcha" news instead of plain old-fashioned (apparently) journalism. How is that working for you so far?

[lornejl]

Flim interviewing Flam.

[SiberianRat]

Aw...I like Flam. Flim is unwatchable though.

[Transcendentobserver]

Given the initial questions relating to the essential agenda and historicity vis a vis the DATA conflict which destroyed both the working political majority which accompanied Bill Clinton into his first term, emasculated his health care program (the best and most comprehensive yet written), shifted the balance of legislative power to the Gingrich wing of the COP, the answer to Todd's query should have been axiomatic. The only component of the comprehensive Clinton platform which survived the continuing focus of his pledge to end DADT was his economic model, the success of which was legendary. It took 12 years however to get the nation's collective mindset back to the halcyon 1902-1994 polity. What Todd is pressing is not the principle of equality--otherwise he would be interrogating the opponents rather than its proponents; he is agitating for a polarizing issue the MSN can easily exploit, and the Administration is thereby forced to defend the principle rather than the timing. In this particular interrogation, Gibbs was forced to defend both, and Todd easily pounced on the opportunity.

Times, it is true, have changed, but time, dear gays and lesbians, is on your side. You have waited eons to get where we are. Give the administration some, lest you repeat the sordid history and latent prejudice on this signal issue and the skill of the NeoCons in control of the GOP to exploit it.

[standish]

Would someone please translate this into English for me?

[AAKAlan]

Makes no sense at all.

Clinton didn't "promise to end DADT".
He -created- DADT.

[Transcendentobserver]

Suggest you check the facts AAKAlan. One of Pres. Clinton's core planks during the 1992 campaign was the total elimination of two centuries of statutory and case law in the armed services which had made homosexuality a crime and mandated discharge of persons engaging in homosexual. He drafted legislation prohibiting punishment for such crime. In 1993 the Senate Armed Services Committee under pressure from all of the services and under the chairmanship of its powerful southern Democratic Chairman Sam Nunn rejected Clinton's bill. To get any legislation passed, and certainly his successful economic program, Clinton was forced to sign a compromise bill (DADT) drafted by Gen. Colin Powell, and enacted by majority vote of the "moderate" Democrats in the Senate (to their everlasting disgrace) forced a compromise which is now law (10 USC 654). It has been judicially upheld, and Pres. Obama is confronting his formidable agenda so restricted on this issue. Clinton's advocacy of gay rights are one of the prime factors leading to the GOP gains particularly in the South and West.

President Clinton publicly decried the polemics which necessitated the action, and pledged to change the policy. In fact, it was subsequently modified to prevent any harassment. He predicted its demise within five years, and had Gore not been unelected by majority vote by the law's defenders on the Supreme Court., this stain on the American character would have likely been eradicated.