Worried that Democrats have not yet made a successful case for the impeachment of President Trump, during NBC’s special coverage of the hearings on Thursday, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd urged Democrats to expand the testimony and call more witnesses. He insisted that “there’s more bread crumb trails to follow” and that Democrats still need a “closer.”

Talking to his fellow anchors during a hearing break in the 11:00 a.m. ET hour, Todd cautioned: “It’s clear all of this testimony has built this very damning case. At the same time, there’s more bread crumb trails to follow and there’s more investigating to do.” He then mused: “...do you bring Volker back? Do you bring Sondland back?”

After Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie noted that Democrats were constrained by the 2020 “political calendar,” Todd fretted:

I know, and I’ll just say this. I think Democrats got to be careful here. If they short-circuit this....They’ve got to win a political argument. They can win the technical, but they got to win a political argument. And while plenty of people may be skeptical that more witnesses, even if they’re named John Bolton, isn’t going to penetrate anything. Okay, but do you need to get caught trying? Do they need to keep going down this road?

He continued to warn liberal lawmakers: “Democrats have to think long and hard about – about an appearance that they’re sort of short-circuiting this. That they’re cutting off leads when they should continue to go, only because they want to avoid the presidential race.”

Nightly News anchor Lester Holt chimed in: “Yeah, Chuck, you’re a sports fan here. Are either of these witnesses the closer? I mean, who is the closer that gets Democrats?” Todd again suggested former National Security Advisor John Bolton could fill that role.

Minutes later, he concluded: “But I’ll tell you this, if today is the last day of televised hearings, I don’t think they have their closer yet.”

Clearly the Democrats’ media cheering section is getting nervous that the impeachment agenda is faltering.

Here is a transcript of Todd’s November 21 commentary: