During a rowdy and contentious panel segment on Sunday’s Meet the Press, panelist and NBC chief Washington correspondent and MSNBC host, Andrea Mitchell made the hilarious claim that she’s a journalist and not a Democrat.
Anchor Chuck Todd started off this portion of the segment by claiming that there’s “this cabal on the right that seems to like Putin.” Todd then aired comments by former President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying nice things about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After hearing Trump's Putin comments, chief Washington correspondent Kristen Welker claimed that Republicans she spoke to are “frustrated because they say this is a moment where we could talk about the strength of the Republican Party when it comes to foreign policy, and now it's a missed opportunity.”
In response, Mitchell jumped back in and said “Remember Helsinki?” Referring to the U.S./Russia Summit in Helsinki between former President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “You have to go back to Helsinki,” Mitchell continued.
“We were there, Kristen and I sitting next to each other, and we were slack-jawed when former President Trump, at the time President Trump defended Putin's take on 2016 and disagreed with his own head of national security, which led to the DNI contradicting him in real-time,” Mitchell reminisced.
Welker jumped back in to bash Trump again by wailing: “I covered former President Trump. He likes strong men, remember, and so this is something that we saw consistently throughout his presidency, Dani.”
The lone Republican on the panel, Danielle Pletka, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, finally had a chance to weigh in. “I think President Trump's judgment on Russia and on Putin has not been awesome. I think Mike Pompeo misspoke,” Pletka said briefly before being cut off by Mitchell who took issue with what she said. “He said it several times,” Mitchell claimed.
Pletka replied: “I know Andrea, but I don't think that's what he believes.” Then the entire panel erupted and started shouting at Pletka as Todd failed to do his job as the "moderator."
Clearly flustered from being shouted at and not allowed to get a word in, Pletka put her foot down: “Hang on. First of all, there are four of you and one of me. I'm the only Republican sitting here. Hang on a second.”
Mitchell did not like being outed as a Democrat even though she outs herself every day on national television, including numerous times on the panel moments before.
She snapped back: “We're not Republicans or Democrats, we're journalists.” Todd then followed up gesturing towards Mitchell, Welker, and himself “well, three of us are.”
The truth is none of them are. They have proven time and again that they are leftist hacks who are disguised as journalists.
This segment of Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd trying to gaslight their audience into thinking they’re journalists was made possible by Allstate, Charles Schwab, & Liberty Mutual. Their information is linked.
To read the relevant transcript click expand:
NBC’s Meet the Press
2/27/2022
11:24 a.m. EasternCHUCK TODD: I want to pivot to somewhat of a sidebar story of what we're seeing here with Putin and Ukraine, and that is this cabal on the right that seems to like Putin. And it’s lead mostly—look even former President Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo all comfortably calling him shrewd and smart. Take a listen.
(...)
KRISTEN WELKER: Well and Republicans with whom I spoke are just so frustrated, because they say this is a moment where we could talk about the strength of the Republican Party when it comes to foreign policy, and now it's a missed opportunity. Because you have the headlines of Trump and Pompeo praising Putin. And so they're scratching their heads, they're trying to turn the page. By the way, former President Trump was one of the few people at CPAC who talked about Putin, because everyone else there wanted to ignore the fact that he had made those controversial comments.
[Crosstalk]
JEREMY BASH: Why is Trump slobbering over Putin? Why?
ANDREA MITCHELL: Remember Helsinki? You have to go back to Helsinki. We were there, Kristen and I sitting next to each other, and we were slack-jawed when former President Trump, at the time President Trump defended Putin's take on 2016 and disagreed with his own head of national security, which led to the DNI contradicting him in real time.
[Crosstalk]
TODD: You’re sparking over there…
[Crosstalk]
WELKER: I covered former President Trump. He likes strong men, remember, and so this is something that we saw consistently throughout his presidency, Dani.
DANIELLE PLETKA: It is. I think President Trump's judgment on Russia and on Putin has not been awesome. I think Mike Pompeo misspoke. I don't think that Mike Pompeo actually --
MITCHELL: He said it several times…
PLETKA: I know Andrea, but I don't think that's what he believes.
[Crosstalk]
PLETKA: Hang on. First of all, there are four of you and one of me. I'm the only Republican sitting here. Hang on a second.
MITCHELL: We're not Republicans, or Democrats, we're journalists.
TODD: Well, three of us are.
PLETKA: I'm not going to touch that, baby. What I'm trying to say here is that I think that there’s a missed opportunity, as you say, largely because of these stupid, stupid statements, and because there's so much that Republicans can do in Congress. We've seen Republicans push for much stronger sanctions than the Democrats have pushed for, pushed on President Biden for a larger supplemental, ask him why he wasn't prepared despite this excellent information campaign he ran against Russia. If you knew what was coming, why didn't you prepare?
