Chuck Todd’s ‘Meet The Press’ All Black Gunmen Segment Angers Folks — Twitter-Blocking Brings Buzz [Video]

Chuck Todd certainly set the Twitter world abuzz with the above segment on Sunday’s Meet the Press. Though Todd spoke of being colorblind for the “Guns in America: Examining Gun Violence in the U.S.” segment, all the men featured in the above video clip were black. The feedback was apparently so great that Chuck took to the NBC website to defend airing the Meet the Press segment with black male shooters, explaining his reasoning for not delaying the piece.

“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback about the gun video we showed on Meet the Press today. Some were upset it only featured African-American men talking about their regrets of pulling a trigger. All of the men in the piece volunteered to be a part of the video and the larger project it is a part of.”

The #AMEShooting happened bc a white man wanted to kill black people. On #MTP, Chuck Todd just “what about black crimed” the country.

— Afroanna Puffington (@BabylonSista) June 22, 2015

David Brooks, a columnist with the New York Times, was the first to respond after seeing the segment. Brooks was obviously visibly moved — but didn’t mention the race issue. David called the men in the segment potentially weak ones who thought they might — in the face of a possible lack of education — view guns as their source of power. Todd recounted one of the men recalling the security he felt holding the gun he used in the shooting that jailed him. It was called a psychological totem. Using the gun in the hands of someone who feels it’s giving them power is a misuse of the weapon, said another Meet the Press guest. It took the African American guest — Eugene Robinson — to raise the issue that Dylann Roof wasn’t black, and that the two escaped New York murderers aren’t black either, as reported by the Inquisitr.

…”Following the airing of the video, studio panelist Eugene Robinson — who is black — noted the racial make-up… http://t.co/YHFvAiFWGM

— Sandy Jones (@sandy2814) June 22, 2015

There wasn’t a terrible diverse group of men shown in the video.

Have just heard about what went down on @meetthepress, which Chuck Todd says was greenlighted after a staff meeting. Many POC in that room?

— Mark Dowling (@mark_dowling) June 22, 2015

In the aftermath of the controversial Meet the Press segment, Chuck has gotten an earful of backlash on Twitter, with Twitter users claiming the Todd account is blocking them from following him.

Off the grid one day and I see Chuck Todd has apparently gone off the deep end. Going to track down the best piece on it. #WhatTheMess

— Moe (@moe67) June 22, 2015

Chuck Todd is blocking people faster than John Boehner can drink a Martini.

— Rick (@rick00979) June 22, 2015

[Image via Getty]