Talk about grading on a curve. During an appearance on NBC’s Sunday Today, political director and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd boasted that the Democratic-led impeachment hearings of President Trump were “very successful” and could “maybe” get him convicted in a court of law. But, he would admit that polling showed that Democrats were not successful in moving the needle of public support for impeachment.

After introducing Todd, host Willie Geist touted that “a long list of witnesses told a very similar story about what happened in Ukraine and the involvement of the Trump administration in that deal,” but lamented how there were “some witnesses we haven’t heard from: John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, [and] Mick Mulvaney…”

Todd explained that Democrats squeezed all the hearings into a “reasonable period of time” because “timeliness here matters too,” because holidays and the Democratic primaries and caucuses were coming up. He then boasted about how the hearings “were very successful both in revealing that there’s a lot more we don't know. They’ve proven quite a bit. And maybe in a court of law, they could win that case.”

Oh, really? Todd would go on to admit that Democrats “still have a political bar that they haven’t met yet, and a political argument that they might be able to win if people like Bolton testify.” According to him, the Democratic Party was now facing a “dilemma” because the polls have not shown widespread support for impeachment. In fact, support had slumped as the hearings went on:

So, I think, it’s a dilemma that they’re facing here. They haven’t met the political bar yet. Right? We haven’t seen it in the polls. They may have met a legal bar. So, what do you do? Right now, I think, they decided to move forward with the process. It is an interesting political decision.

In addition to playing up the successfulness of Democratic impeachment efforts, Geist and Todd chided Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for daring to look into the possible corruption between the Bidens and Ukraine. Geist huffed for a bit before finally getting around to asking Todd a question about it:

There was kind of a snapshot moment this week, I think, of this entire era but specifically about this impeachment inquiry which is that longtime friends Joe Biden and Lindsey Graham at odds this week; as Lindsey Graham, after the end of the public testimony announced he's helping to launch his own investigation into what happened in Ukraine with Biden. He asked the State Department for documents about Biden and Burisma. Joe Biden said on the campaign trail he is, quote, “embarrassed” for his old friend, Lindsey Graham. What's going on here?

“Look, there’ve plenty of people in Washington have been trying to figure out what Lindsey Graham’s up to. Is this politics? Is this South Carolina conservatives,” Todd speculated, as if it was some kind of great mystery. “Whatever it is, bottom line is, I think that is a split now between Lindsey Graham and Joe Biden. Probably a rift that'll never get healed no matter where this heads going forward.”

One could sense the disdain in Geist’s voice as he wrapped up by suggesting: “Lindsey Graham clearly has chosen the President over his old friend, Joe Biden.” Tell us how you really feel.

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read: