While Gov. Andrew Cuomo declining to endorse a Hillary Clinton White House bid in 2016 on Fred Dicker’s radio show yesterday raised some eyebrows, NBC’s Chuck Todd is defending the comment.

Asked directly by Dicker if he would back the former U.S. senator from New York, Cuomo was complimentary of Clinton, but called the next campaign a “long way away.”

“We just elected a president and they want to talk about the next election. No doubt that she is incredibly popular. She has great experience and there is going to be all sorts of speculation about her political future and she is the person that is going to make the decision.”

The statement came as speculation mounts that Cuomo jumpstart his own presidential campaign four years from now, though a Clinton candidacy would likely clear the field of potential challengers.

In The Daily Rundown this morning on MSNBC, Todd called Cuomo’s answer a “perfectly reasonable response.”

“What I was stunned at was so many people took that and said, ‘oh my gosh, Cuomo won’t endorse Hillary 2016. Guys, that was a pretty, that was your standard response of what you’re supposed to say at a moment like that when you’re a politician. Leave him alone.”

Share|