Trump voters were 'gullible' in 2016 election, NBC’s Chuck Todd says

NBC News and MSNBC host Chuck Todd said President Trump won the White House in 2016 thanks to "gullible" voters.

NBC News and MSNBC host Chuck Todd earlier this week blamed “gullible” voters for President Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Todd, along with NBC colleagues Andrea Mitchell and Hallie Jackson, speaking on the Recode Decode podcast, attributed Trump's win to his campaign’s “gaslighting,” or psychological manipulation, of voters and to the “unfair” media.

“I knew the gaslighting was out there. I knew it was every day,” Todd said. “But I think there was part of me in my head assumed people were discerning it out, knew the BS from the non-BS. So, I think what my sort of shock to the system was just sort of how gullible a big chunk of the country was to this and gullible because maybe they want to be gullible.”

"I think what my sort of shock to the system was just sort of how gullible a big chunk of the country was to this and gullible because maybe they want to be gullible."

— Chuck Todd, NBC News

Mitchell acknowledged that Clinton made “mistakes that were self-inflicted,” but continued to lay blame on the “unfairness of the media,” James Comey and the Russians, the Washington Times reported.

“I think [Hillary Clinton] had her opportunities and, for whatever happened externally from Comey and the Russians and a lot of other things, and the unfairness of the media, the conventional media putting so much attention on Trump and squeezing out the legitimately serious stuff she did,” Mitchell said.

Todd recently fantasized on his MSNBC show about how America would look if Hillary Clinton had defeated Trump in 2016.

“Lots of people would probably be happy today," Todd said in an “MTP Daily” segment. “Donald Trump would be happy. He could have built his Moscow tower with his bestie Vladimir Putin and no one would have cared.”

The president, meanwhile, hasn't held back from criticizing Todd, whom he referred to as "Sleepy Eyes" in a Sept. 4 tweet.

"Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake NBC News said it’s time for the Press to stop complaining and to start fighting back," the president wrote then. "Actually Chuck, they’ve been doing that from the day I announced for President. They’ve gone all out, and I WON, and now they’re going CRAZY!"

Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.