Days after Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus called for NBC and CNN to cancel upcoming programs Hillary Clinton or face being blackballed during the Republican debates NBC News' Chuck Todd has come out and called the planned miniseries about Clinton's life a "nightmare," according to the Los Angeles Times.
"This miniseries is a total nightmare for NBC News," Todd said in an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "We know there's this giant firewall. We know we have nothing to do with it. We know we'd love to be as critical or whatever it's going to be when it comes out. But there's nothing we can do about it.
"We're going to only own the negative," Todd continued. "Whether it's negative because the Clinton people are upset that it's too tough on them or negative because the Republicans think it's this glorification of her."
NBC is planning on airing a miniseries about the Clinton family starring Diane Lane as Hillary. It is the depiction of the Clintons by movie stars that the president of Citizens United, David Bossie, has a major issue with, according to Politico.
"They get the benefit of people looking at movie stars, a star-studded cast, obviously it brings a very positive image of Hillary Clinton even before the movie starts," Bossie said in a letter to NBC. "Then you have the leftist viewpoints of Hollywood writers and directors that will be guaranteed to be in the films and you have the chemical make-up of bias."
Priebus also appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to defend his threat. Priebus reiterated that he believes that NBC is actively trying to promote Hillary Clinton for president by airing the miniseries, according to Politico.
"I'm not going to have [NBC] moderate the Republican debates in our primary, I mean there's a difference," Priebus said. "I have to choose moderators that are actually interested in the future of the Republican Party and our nominees. I mean, it's just, it's not going to be NBC if they continue to go forward with this miniseries."
In past election years debates schedules and moderators were set by the networks, in 2016 they are going to be set by the party for the first time, according to Politico.
"I cannot have companies in the business of making what I consider to be promotional movies about the life of Hillary Clinton...then I'm going to bring those people in to depose the candidates running for president on the Republican side of the aisle?" Priebus said. "It's ridiculous."
