On Tuesday, it was all hands on deck for MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports following the Hillary Clinton rally featuring a Bernie Sanders endorsement with the eponymous host hailing how “we just witnessed a milestone for the Clinton campaign” and MSNBC political reporter Alex Seitz-Wald promoting the Democratic Party’s platform as “the most progressive” one ever with “the energy of the party” of Sanders now married to Clinton.
When the rally concluded around 12:22 p.m. Eastern, Mitchell arrived to trumpet the scene as “the picture they wanted” as both the audience and viewers had “just witnessed a milestone for the Clinton campaign” involving “Bernie Sanders, hand in hand, arm in harm with Hillary Clinton.”
Mitchell also added before taking a few moments to reveal some breaking news about the Clinton campaign’s vetting for the VP spot on the ticket, she hyped that the pair were “taking a big step for uniting the Democratic Party for a candidate who now needs all the help she can get.”
Later lamenting the delay of Sanders’s endorsement from when the final Democratic primary occurred on June 14 but did happen “after he got a lot of platform concessions,” Mitchell touted Clinton for having gone “through those issues, but I thought it was very interesting that very close to the top of her speech, she pivoted to what she started to talk about on Friday with the AME Church Convention in Philadelphia, the need to bring the country together.”
Speaking moments later about the platform that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had hammered out over the weekend, Seitz-Wald hyped how it was “the most Progressive platform that the party has ever seen” to illustrate “how much the energy of the party, especially the younger generation is with Bernie Sanders.”
“In that platform is a call for a complete ban on the death penalty. When Hillary Clinton's husband was running for president here in New Hampshire, he left the campaign trail to go back to Arkansas to oversee the execution of an African-American inmate. That was a political — seen as a political smart thing to do,” he marveled.
Seitz-Wald concluded by again returning to the so-called “energy” surrounding the far-left wing and how it’s now joined in unison with Clinton: “She’s on stage with Bernie Sanders, embracing him, embracing his cause and his movement. It shows that's where the party energy really is today.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on July 12 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports
July 12, 2016
12:22 p.m. Eastern
ANDREA MITCHELL: And that’s the picture they wanted. This is Andrea Mitchell in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Good day. We have just witnessed a milestone for the Clinton campaign. Bernie Sanders, hand in hand, arm in harm with Hillary Clinton, taking a big step for uniting the democratic Party for a candidate who now needs all the help she can get....Now, you can see in the crowd, Kristen, you've probably got a good vantage point of Hillary Clinton with Bernie Sanders. This is something she has waited for 36 days, a lot longer than they had hoped for, but finally the full endorsement an embrace from Bernie Sanders, after he got a lot of platform concessions, and she went through those issues, but I thought it was very interesting that very close to the top of her speech, she pivoted to what she started to talk about on Friday with the AME Church Convention in Philadelphia, the need to bring the country together, and to deal with hidden racism in America, to deal with the divisions that have cost the lives of African-American men, women, and children, and to give law enforcement more of the tools and training that they need, so she is very definitely not just talking about the campaign issues on which she and Bernie Sanders have agreed.
(....)
ALEX SEITZ-WALD: It is the most Progressive platform that the party has ever seen. It shows how much the energy of the party, especially the younger generation is with Bernie Sanders. I mean, I think this event really speaks to it. In that platform is a call for a complete ban on the death penalty. When Hillary Clinton's husband was running for president here in New Hampshire, he left the campaign trail to go back to Arkansas to oversee the execution of an African-American inmate. That was a political — seen as a political smart thing to do, and now here we are with a platform that calls for a complete ban on the death penalty. She’s on stage with Bernie Sanders, embracing him, embracing his cause and his movement. It shows that's where the party energy really is today.
