CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford nuked former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd from orbit on Monday night over his take on the attempted attack on President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.

During a recent conversation with Chris Cillizza, Todd declared “I’m not I’m not going to any more events where Trump’s at’em. I don’t feel safe. Wherever Donald Trump is-”

“Chaos follows him,” offered Cillizza.

“Chaos follows him. And you are less safe, right? If you decide to go into his orbit, you have become less safe. If you-, he’s just-, he does not care about your safety, he’s not gonna protect you if you go into his orbit because he’s always gonna protect himself first. He’s more likely to throw you under the bus. He’s most likely to have you be the target of Iranian assassins, if you’re John Bolton or Mike Pompeo, and he’s gonna pull any sort of federal support, right?” continued Todd. “You know, I think about when somebody, using Donald Trump’s words and actions, targeted me and a bunch of other members of the press, you know who I didn’t hear from? Donald Trump. Right. So the guy doesn’t care when people commit violence in his name. He only cares when the violence is committed against him and he does not see that he is a contributor to the atmospherics of the world we’re living in, right now.”

Crawford did not take well to the argument.

“This is not only wrong but stupid,” she replied in a quote-tweet of the clip shared by Cillizza. “I was literally talking about this with one of my daughters this morning. She pointed out how anyone can walk into a wedding or concert or mall and start shooting. We actually were in a safe space at WHCD. We were in a completely secure ballroom protected by layers of secret service.”

“Most people don’t get that protection from mentally disturbed assailants,” she added.

Saturday’s attack represented the third high-profile attempt on Trump’s life since July 2024. In his manifesto, the alleged shooter at the correspondents’ dinner wrote:

While I’m discussing this, I’ll also go over my expected rules of engagement (probably in a terrible format, but I’m not military so too bad.)

Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest

Secret Service: they are targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible (aka, I hope they’re wearing body armor because center mass with shotguns messes up people who *aren’t*

Hotel Security: not targets if at all possible (aka unless they shoot at me)

Capitol Police: same as Hotel Security

National Guard: same as Hotel Security

Hotel Employees: not targets at all

Guests: not targets at all

In order to minimize casualties I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls)

I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.

— —

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!