On Friday's Morning Joe on MSNBC, while discussing Republican reactions to President Donald Trump's handling of the Chalottesville white racist violence, NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell managed to take a jab at Texas Senator Ted Cruz as she declared: "Who would have thought that Ted Cruz would be more compassionate and loving and show more character this week than the President of the United States?"
At 7:26 a.m. ET, after host Joe Scarborough asked about the reactions of business leaders and Republicans, Mitchell declared that she was "discouraged" at the current political climate as she began:
I'm an optimist -- I have never been as discouraged as I have been this week about our country -- not the people of our country, but the leaders of our country. There is a central corruption of the spirit at the core of all of this, and people have overlooked a lot of the financial self-dealing and a lot of the other things along the way. But when you keep making excuses, you get to the center of it.
She then seemed surprised about being impressed with Cruz's reaction to Charlottesville as she continued:
And there is -- as Peggy Noonan was calling for love -- all I see is self-love, and that is not leadership. So I don't know where the -- I don't know where we go here. I do think you have Senators -- Tim Scott, others -- Ted Cruz -- who would have thought that Ted Cruz would be more compassionate and loving and show more character this week than the President of the United States?
She then concluded:
It's just totally confounding. I'm waiting to see what House leaders do, but someone has to go and -- thinking back, someone has to be the Hugh Scott and Barry Goldwater who go to the White House and say, "This cannot continue. You have got to get this into shape."And I don't know when that happens and who those people are, and whether he will listen.
