Chuck Todd, the NBC News personality now independent, has confessed that the mainstream media hesitated to discuss Joe Biden’s cognitive deterioration during the election for fear of assisting Donald Trump’s campaign.

The Longtime Meet the Press moderator made the admission on ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ Wednesday, months after leaving NBC to set out on his own.

This revelation came about when Todd was responding to a query from a British presenter who recently ended associations with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to establish an autonomous enterprise.

Piers Morgan, known for departing ITV’s Good Morning Britain in 2021 following his comments on Meghan Markle, bluntly inquired about the media’s reluctance in addressing Biden’s mental acuity.

‘Everyone was seeing [it] with their own eyes.’

Speaking from experience on the subject – freely, for the first time – Todd first stated how the American public is not stupid.

He said they were able to conclude themselves Biden had been in the throes of mental decline – citing ‘subtle’ hints like the president ‘using the back staircase [and] not using the front’ and skipping interviews.

This all occurred as the ‘collective media’ showed a ‘reluctance to draw [that same] conclusion’, Todd said, ultimately conceding: ‘That was held back. [It was] held back a lot [by the mainstream media].’ 

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He admitted networks made a mistake, one he chalked up to ‘this fear that some members of the media had.’ 

That fear, he said, was simply being ‘perceived as helping Trump if they somehow diminished Biden’ – something he billed as being ‘the fundamental mistake that many members of the traditional press’ made.

That fear, meanwhile, has since become reality – one that came to fruition thanks to yet another instance of mishandling by the media, according to Todd.

The sector’s push Trump off social media following the riots seen on January 6, 2021, was its second mistake, Todd said – citing protections granted by the First Amendment he said saw Americans lose trust with legacy networks.

‘It looks more obvious today,’ Todd said, saying those freedoms should have applied to the then outgoing president as well. 

‘Because what did [Trump] do [after]? He built his own information ecosystem,’ he said

‘And now traditional media is doing what? Showing up on YouTube,’ he asked, suggesting some semblance of irony.

‘Traditional media doesn’t have the influence it did anymore because it [went] along with this de-platforming exercise,’ Todd went on, days after welcoming fellow former legacy media journalist Tara Palmeri to his popular podcast.

‘I’m going to defend the First Amendment when Donald Trump’s trying to kick members out of the press,’ he continued. ‘But you’ve got to defend his First Amendment rights too’. 

As for Biden, Todd compared the media’s coverage surrounding him to that surrounding Ronald Reagan toward the end of his second term, when his age started to become apparent.

‘It was also held back a lot back in the late 80s when it was clear Ronald Reagan wasn’t necessarily running everything in the White House,’ Todd said. ‘Call it decorum or whatever. 

‘I didn’t get it then,’ he continued later on, at this point referring to the coverage surrounding Biden. 

‘I was not one of those who said I wouldn’t put a January 6er or a decertifier on the shows – I thought, “Why would you do that?”

 ‘I’ve interviewed the president of Iran – I got no problem interviewing a member of Congress who chose not to certify the election

‘I never understood that logic when you think about the first amendment of our Constitution.’

In January, Todd made waves by announcing an end to his more then 10-year tenure NBC News – calling it ‘a ripe moment to do so.’ 

He was sure to retain the rights of his podcast, the Chuck Toddcast – saying the show would be ‘coming with [him]’. 

‘There’s never a perfect time to leave a place that’s been a professional home for so long, but I’m pretty excited about a few new projects,’ he wrote in a memo sent to fellow staffers at the time. 

‘So, I’m grateful for the chance to get a jump start on my next chapter during this important moment.

‘The media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust of viewers/listeners/readers and I’m convinced the best place to start is from the bottom up,’ he continued.

‘The only way to fix this information eco system is to stop whining about the various ways the social media companies are manipulating things and instead roll up our collective sleeves and start with local.

‘Stay tuned for an announcement about its new home soon,’ he wrote, joining other on-air personalities like Jim Acosta – who left CNN that same month – Palmeri, Chris and Cillizza in going independent.

Todd said he’d ‘continue to share [his] reporting and unique perspective of covering politics with data and history’, so the American public may better understand ‘where we are and where we’re going’.

Insiders told Variety at the time that Todd’s contract was set to end sometime after the election and that he’s since been in talks with other stations.

 ‘We’re grateful for Chuck’s many contributions to our political coverage during his nearly two-decade career at NBC News and for his deep commitment to Meet the Press and its enduring legacy,’ a statement from NBC added at the time.

‘We wish him all the best in his next endeavors.’

Two years before departing NBC News, Todd stepped down from his post behind the Meet The Press desk, after replacing Kristen Welker in 2014. He joined NBC News in 2007 as a political director, before being named the network’s chief White House corresponded in 2008.

 He has yet to sign with another network.