On her Thursday show, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell lamented the news that Elizabeth Warren has decided to drop out of the presidential election leaving two septuagenarian white males as the only remaining credible choices in the Democratic Primary.
After Ali Vitali continued mourning the loss of the last serious female candidate, Mitchell looked back on the other failed female Democratic candidates and uncorked a long-winded lament to Washington Post correspondent Anne Gearan:
How long is it going to take before a woman -- and Tulsi Gabbard is still in the race, but has not been a factor, not been on the debate stage -- for a woman of the significance of an Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris or Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, any of the women who have been in the race before, with those Senate credentials, legal credentials, this is a professor, a Harvard Law professor, the person who started up a major agency on the financial crisis and mortgage equity and all that, compare to the men who still remain in this race?
If time in Congress alone is the measuring stick in which to judge a candidate's qualifications, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are the best of Mitchell's examples. Mitchell also did not include any past or potential future Republican candidates who have been allegedly victimized by having their credentials unfairly dismissed in favor of less qualified males.
Of course, the Democrats made history by nominating a woman last time. Gearan responded by saying that after Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss, "the big question this year was, would another woman be able to repeat that or was the Democratic Party going to be leery of nominating another woman," which is not the question Democratic voters seem to be asking.
She continued, "There's been a lot of discussion today that the glass ceiling is intact and I think that will be one of the major interpretations of Elizabeth Warren's candidacy" and added "It also should be said, though, that she changed the conversation."
PS: Later in the show, Mitchell again talking about Warren, made one of the most unintentionally humorous remarks in the conversation surrounding Warren dropping out when she recalled, "I remember just we were staking out Hillary Clinton's house when Warren went over for the big pow-wow, was she going to join the race. It was Warren saying she wasn't joining the race that propelled Bernie Sanders in back in 2015."
.@mitchellreports recalls @ewarren having a "big powwow" with @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/03Yg2GEITl
— Kyle Drennen (@kjdrennen) March 5, 2020
Here is a transcript for the March 5 show:
MSNBC
Andrea Mitchell Reports
12:04 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: Well let's talk about that. I want to bring in Shaq and Mike Memoli, but Anne Gearan, we've covered politics alongside each other for a long time: the White House, the State Department with the first women who were secretaries of state, you were in the Pentagon before that, talk about an all-male bastion. How long is it going to take before a woman and Tulsi Gabbard is still in the race, but has not been a factor, not been on the debate stage, for a woman of the significance of an Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris or Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, any of the women who have been in the race before, with those Senate credentials, legal credentials, this is a professor, a Harvard Law professor, the person who started up a major agency on the financial crisis and mortgage equity and all that, compare to the men who still remain in this race.
ANNE GEARAN: Well, I think we covered the Hillary Clinton campaign together too and the path-breaking nomination of a female major party candidate and, you know, I think the big question this year was, would another woman be able to repeat that or was the Democratic Party going to be leery of nominating another woman. Obviously Elizabeth Warren was the main person we were all watching from the beginning. She was at one time considered to be a potential challenger to Hillary Clinton and that did not materialize. She was the threat to beat among other women candidates from the beginning, and she lasted the longest. There's been a lot of discussion today that the glass ceiling is intact and I think that will be one of the major interpretations of Elizabeth Warren's candidacy. It also should be said, though, that she changed the conversation. A lot of the -- what other candidates have talked about was because Elizabeth Warren already had a plan for it on many policy prescriptions and I think she is no doubt -- when she says to her staff, you know, we're not going to let disappointment stop us, she's also saying, we injected a lot of important policy into this campaign that will outlast us.
…
12:53
MITCHELL: I remember just we were staking out Hillary Clinton's house when Warren went over for the big pow-wow, was she going to join the race. It was Warren saying she wasn't joining the race that propelled Bernie Sanders in back in 2015.
