Kurtz Hits Trump for Attack on Chuck Todd: ‘Undignified,’ ‘Vulgar,’ Doesn’t Help Him Expand the Base

EXCERPT:

VARNEY: "Top of the hour, I was talking about Mr. Trump unleashed. Well here he is taking a shot at NBC’s Chuck Todd. Roll tape."
[clip starts]
TRUMP: "It is 1999. I am on 'Meet the Press', a show now headed by sleepy-eyes Chuck Todd. He is a sleeping son of a [bleep] I'll tell you. (Cheering) ... I should have run back then, right? Huh? (Cheering) I should have run back then! I would have done this earlier."
[clip ends]
VARNEY: "Well, what does Howard Kurtz, who is the author of that book, 'Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press and the War over the Truth'. What does Howard Kurtz say? You've got a strange expression on your pace face, Howard, I’m not quite sure how do you feel about this. What do you feel about the president saying that very nasty stuff about Chuck Todd?"
KURTZ: "Well, first, I say good morning, Stuart. And now I say that that was a mistake. It's undignified, to be punching down by name an a Sunday show host with that kind of vulgarity you had to bleep, I actually played it on my air, I didn’t bleep it. I think -- you know, the president of the United States has every right to hit back against Chuck Todd or anyone else if he thinks that he has said something or reported something that is unfair or untrue. But just to kind of call names, you know, Tom Brokaw got on the Twitter and said very classy, explain that to your children. And the irony here, as I reported in Media Madness, President Trump actually has a relationship with Chuck Todd. He's had him over to the White House for off the record sessions which usually begin with the president yelling at Chuck, Chuck yelling back and then they settle down to have a civil conversation. But just to be cursing him I think is not a good look for the president."