During NBC’s live special Inauguration Day coverage on Friday morning, ahead of Donald Trump taking the oath of office, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd warned that the new president “needs to earn this honeymoon” and “ missed some opportunities these last six to eight weeks...to just erase the asterisk” of his election.

Todd defended the characterization: “Whatever you want to say about it – and I know some supporters will say, ‘Why do you say that?’ – but look, when you win an election this way, the split popular vote, you know it's a divided country....I wonder if he'll be thinking about that at noon today.”

Moments later, he observed: “...‘09 versus today. So in '09, we were in the process of an economic – we were on the brink of an economic disaster....Yet this town, this capital, there was a euphoric atmosphere. Here we are, the economy feels better. The country seems on the one hand economically more stable than it was eight years ago, and yet, there's an uneasiness.”

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Political analyst Nicolle Wallace called out Todd’s inside-the-beltway perspective: “The euphoria is in the places where they got their guy. So this town I wouldn't expect to be euphoric....But the euphoria is out in America...where this was a celebration and a victory against elites, against the establishment of both parties.”

Here are excerpts of the January 20 coverage: