Chuck Todd was heavily pushing the politicization of the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting.

It permeated "Meet the Press" today. The worst part was in this segment of the interview with Ben Carson:

CHUCK TODD: There was this shooting in Colorado Springs. And overnight, there's now been reports that the shooter was yelling about baby parts. 

Yelling? I thought "no more baby parts" only appeared somewhere in the shooter's rambling, unfocused interview with the police. Todd is making it seem like an Allahu-Akbar-type battle cry.

CHUCK TODD: Planned Parenthood put out this statement, "We've seen an alarming increase in hateful rhetoric and smear campaigns against abortion providers and patients over the last few months. That environment breeds acts of violence. Americans reject the hatred and vitriol that fueled this tragedy." That was, again, from a Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountain spokesperson. Do you believe that the rhetoric got too heated on Planned Parenthood? And are you concerned that it may have motivated a mentally disturbed individual?

Carson handled the question by going utterly generic —  rejecting "any hateful rhetoric directed at anyone from any source" and recommending that we "stop trying to destroy each other" and "work constructively."

Earlier, Todd asked a similar question of Donald Trump, albeit without the inappropriate reference to "yelling."

CHUCK TODD: Now, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood is concerned that the heated rhetoric around the Planned Parenthood debate could've had an adverse effect, basically, on this mentally disturbed individual. Do you think the rhetoric got out of hand on Planned Parenthood?

Trump stuck to his idea that the man (Robert Lewis Dear) is mentally ill. And that's when Todd brought up that "he was talking about baby parts and things like that... during his interview." Todd seemed to be trying to get Trump to back off on the political headway that anti-abortion forces have made with the undercover Planned Parenthood videos. Trump did not give him that (though he took a sideswipe at Republicans):

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I will tell you there is a tremendous group of people that think it's terrible, all of the videos that they've seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you're selling parts to a car. I mean, there are a lot of people that are very unhappy about that. Now, I know some of the tapes were perhaps not pertinent. I know that a couple of people that were running for office or are running for office on the Republican side were commenting on tapes that weren't appropriate. But there were many tapes that are appropriate in terms of commenting on. And there are people that are extremely upset about it. It looks like you're talking about parts to some machine or something. And they're not happy about it.

Todd tried to pull Trump into a useful position:

CHUCK TODD: Does that mean you're not surprised that someone might take an extreme reaction to it?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, this was an extremist. And this was a man who obviously they said prior to this was mentally disturbed. So, he's a mentally disturbed person. There's no question about that.

CHUCK TODD: But it does sound like you understand why people might react this way.

Come on, disown the videos!

DONALD TRUMP: Well, there's tremendous dislike. I can say that. Because I go to rallies. And I have by far, and you will admit that I think, the biggest crowds, nobody even close. And that includes Bernie Sanders, by the way, whose crowds are going down, down, down like a rock ever since he gave Hillary a free pass on the email?. But I see a lot of anxiety and I see a lot of dislike for Planned Parenthood. There's no question about that.

He won't disown the videos and he throws a shot a Bernie Sanders.

After those 2 interviews at the top of the show, heading to the break, Todd promised: "Coming up, more on whether it was hateful rhetoric that led to that attack in Colorado. As I told you, Planned Parenthood indicates yes." It's as though he could barely constrain himself from coming straight out and saying hateful rhetoric led to that attack in Colorado. In fact, the next 3 segments were about other subjects. Todd teased the topic again before the "End Game segment," asking "Can our political leaders handle a debate that combines guns and abortion?" In that panel discussion, he began with what to my ear sounded like open pro-Democratic Party bias:

CHUCK TODD: Look, we're now getting [reports] from law enforcement officials, it may have been politically motivated. We heard what Planned Parenthood said. Democrats have been on one side of quickly coming out in support of Planned Parenthood. Republicans have been very hesitant about what they have said.

MOLLY BALL [of The Atlantic]: Well, and that seems obvious to me, right. This is an event that plays right into two major issues for the Democrats. And I think what it illustrates is the extent to which this election is, again, going to be a culture war on domestic issues. You have the Democrats really leaning into these issues that they used to be afraid of, being very strongly pro-abortion rights, standing with Planned Parenthood. That was a talking point, you know, long before this happened. But also, really leaning into these Second Amendment issues that Democrats have been so afraid of forever because they're so alienating to a lot of rural voters. Now, you have the Democrats feeling like the demographics are on their side, the culture is on their side. I don't know if that's true. But that is the--

What seems "obvious" to her? That Democrats are jumping on this issue because they see a big advantage in what they think it is and are just betting it is, while the Republicans are biding their time because they — what? — don't see an advantage in stuffing it right into their template, not yet anyway? This "event" is — what? — a big, fat softball that "plays right into" the Democrats plan for the coming election? Is she salivating over murder? Todd cuts her off:

CHUCK TODD: Right. The politics that got raised on is totally what you said. Republicans went on the culture wars, Democrats lose. Now, Democrats are the ones that want a culture war.

Oh, Molly, you are right, so totally right... especially if what you say is paraphrased my way: Democrats are finally in a position to wage culture war. Andrea Mitchell pipes up, interjecting a little restraint but not without vigorously signalling her agreement with Molly and Chuck.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Exactly. And we don't know this homicidal man. We don't know his mental state and what really prompted him, although there are some indicators. But the Second Amendment issue, the gun issue, is where Democrats really are coming together.

Eugene Robinson is there too, and he says: "Well, we know he had a gun." Mitchell echoes him — "We know he had a gun" — and she takes a shot at Trump: "And you had Donald Trump saying after Paris, after Chattanooga, 'They should have been armed.' Well, that is a completely different response than you're getting from Democrats." There follows some back and forth about positions on gun control, not specifically tied to yesterday's shootings. Eventually, Hugh Hewitt, another panelist, brings up the shootings again, saying we should be calling it a "terrorist attack." Robinson agrees:

EUGENE ROBINSON: Absolutely. We should be... And we need to use that word, you know. It's a scary word for a lot of people. But that's what it is. It's violence to achieve political lengths.

He's speaking as if we know that  Robert Lewis Dear conceived of a political end and chose violence as a way to achieve it. Hewitt offered some glue:

HUGH HEWITT: And a lot of crazy people out there are impacted by rhetoric, and so when you--

Todd interrupted with some "like... like... I mean" efforts at making sense of what we don't really know:

CHUCK TODD: Well, that's what I'm thinking here. I'm, like, wondering. It's like, we call it this. But you're right. I mean, the mentally disturbed are the ones that are looking to create a rationalization for themselves.

That ended up being the last thing Todd could say on the subject. The 2 conservatives on the panel seized the opportunity to remind us of left-wing domestic terrorists, which came from people who really were fixated on political ends and not noticeably psychotic. And now I see why Hewitt laid that "domestic terrorism" groundwork:

JOE MCQUAID [the publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader]: Well, what was the impact in the 1970s when the rate of domestic terrorism in this country was far from what it is now, much, much higher with bombings? And these were people with political ends. They weren't terror---

HUGH HEWITT: Well, the rhetoric of the [SDS] did have an impact on Weathermen. And they did kill people. And that's why rhetoric matters. But at the same time, we can't sanitize an issue. I will talk about the Planned Parenthood practices. They were selling baby parts. I will be happy to engage people. But I think we do have to recognize there are disturbed people on both ends of the spectrum who can be impacted by this language.

That is, Hewitt (like Trump) doesn't accept the suggestion that abortion opponents should back down out of fear of triggering the psychotic among us. Andrea Mitchell broke in to enthuse about how it was "fascinating was to see the internal video, the live camera security" which let the police see where Dear and the hostages were, and Hewitt seized the opportunity to name the police officer who died — "Officer Swasey, who gave his life" — and to add: "A pro-life pastor."

Chuck Todd tried hard to leverage the murders for the benefit of Democratic Party politics, but in the end Hewitt dominated, and in the beginning, Trump and Carson deflected the pushback, each in his own way, Trump with the bluster and Carson with the disarming gentleness.