Chuck Todd

But with Swalwell, this is one of those things you're like, well, everybody kind of knew or thought they knew, but the stakes were never high enough where you thought it was important to report about it.

All right.

That's the best explanation I can give you as a reporter.

Oh, no.

Well, I'm going to pick up on something you said you were talking about.

And, you know, do you chase every rumor on every politician you hear about?

we were talking about what the divide is and you thought it was cultural and unfamily in that.

Because I promise you, I've heard a rumor about every single politician that's ever remotely thought about running for president, Swalwell running for president.

And you did something and I totally respect it, but at the same time, I feel like it's part of, I think that each party is viewed as a caricature by folks that are in the other party.

And I'm sure 90 percent of the rumors are unsubstantiated.

The problem is there's always enough things that are true that it makes you constantly in the back of your head as a political reporter.

And like I sit here and I'm like, and sometimes I look at both parties as caricatures and I try really hard not to, that we're all three-dimensional figures.

You know, you file the other accusations away and you start to like, you know, look for smoke.

And I kind of think that's part of the problem.

Meaning you asked, why do you feel like some won't cross the aisle to help on certain things that you're working on?

A lot of times there's no smoke, so you don't keep going.

And I think the problem is there's this

And sometimes, you know, look, I know if you're right now still defending Eric Swalwell, you'll say, how come this is all coming out right when he's, you know, the front runner?

and the two parties do this a lot, media can do it too in categorizing, creates this guilt by association.

Well, a lot of times people have, you know, compartmentalized their bad experiences with somebody until that person's back in the news or until that person's about to get even more power.