On Thursday’s NBC Today, correspondent Andrea Mitchell couldn’t wait to get away from the “razor-sharp rhetoric” of the Republican National Convention and move on to the love-fest for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week: “After today, Hillary Clinton gets her turn planning a convention designed to prove that she is not the demon the Republicans have been portraying all week.”
Mitchell wrung her hands over “Speaker after speaker attacking Hillary Clinton with razor-sharp rhetoric” and proclaimed: “Republicans spent more time this week trying to demonize Hillary Clinton than praise Donald Trump. Democrats say they are going to try to strike a different tone next week.”
Accepting the laughable notion that Democrats would avoid any effort to “demonize” Republicans, Mitchell promoted Clinton’s PR push: “Just as another Clinton helped clean up his image after a bruising primary with a gauzy film in 1992, Hillary Clinton will star in her own biopic by the same producers. Similar to this campaign video highlighting her role as the first woman with a chance to break politics highest glass ceiling.”
She then gleefully gushed over the line-up of speakers at the DNC:
And while the Republican convention was noted for who stayed away, Democratic leaders are all showing up. Michelle Obama is the headliner Monday. Bill Clinton Tuesday. President Obama and Vice President Biden and the mystery vice presidential choice Wednesday. And on Thursday, Hillary Clinton, introduced by her daughter, Chelsea....Plus Elizabeth Warren....And plenty of Hollywood sizzle, with actresses Lena Dunham, America Ferrara, and pop star Demi Lavato all scheduled to speak...
Minutes before Mitchell’s Clinton campaign press release, co-host Savannah Guthrie grilled Ivanka Trump on the tone of the RNC: “How do you feel about the convention and what you hear and what you see? You're on the floor. You hear the excitement. You hear the chants. Sometimes you hear chants like ‘Lock her up’ or ‘Guilty.’ Are you comfortable with all that?”
Here is a full transcript of Mitchell’s July 21 report:
7:42 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Welcome back to Cleveland, where Republicans are in the spotlight this week of course.
MATT LAUER: That's right. We've also heard a lot about the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, so how will she respond at the DNC in Philadelphia next week? NBC's Andrea Mitchell is here with more on that part of this story. Andrea, good morning.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Good morning to you. And then it is her turn. After today, Hillary Clinton gets her turn planning a convention designed to prove that she is not the demon the Republicans have been portraying all week.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Clinton Under Fire; RNC Speakers Blast Dem as She Preps for DNC]
Speaker after speaker attacking Hillary Clinton with razor-sharp rhetoric.
MIKE PENCE: It was Hillary Clinton who left Americans in harm's way in Benghazi and after four Americans fell, said, “What difference at this point does it make?”
NEWT GINGRICH: The cost of Hillary's dishonesty could be the loss of America as we know it.
MITCHELL: Expecting Donald Trump to continue the onslaught in his speech tonight, the Clinton campaign this morning releasing a prebuttal video featuring a more complimentary Trump.
DONALD TRUMP: She really works hard, and I think she does a good job.
MITCHELL: Republicans spent more time this week trying to demonize Hillary Clinton than praise Donald Trump. Democrats say they are going to try to strike a different tone next week.
BILL CLINTON [A MAN FROM HOPE]: I remember living in that old two-story house.
MITCHELL: Just as another Clinton helped clean up his image after a bruising primary with a gauzy film in 1992, Hillary Clinton will star in her own biopic by the same producers. Similar to this campaign video highlighting her role as the first woman with a chance to break politics highest glass ceiling.
CLINTON: The dreams we share are worth fighting for.
KRISTINA SCHAKE [CLINTON DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR]: We're not trying to reintroduce her. We’re not trying to re-brand her. We’re trying to just tell the story of who Hillary Clinton is.
MITCHELL: And while the Republican convention was noted for who stayed away, Democratic leaders are all showing up. Michelle Obama is the headliner Monday. Bill Clinton Tuesday. President Obama and Vice President Biden and the mystery vice presidential choice Wednesday. And on Thursday, Hillary Clinton, introduced by her daughter, Chelsea, who made her first convention appearance as a curly-haired 12-year-old in 1992. Plus Elizabeth Warren, appealing to disappointed Bernie Sanders supporters. And plenty of Hollywood sizzle, with actresses Lena Dunham, America Ferrara, and pop star Demi Lavato all scheduled to speak, as Clinton hopes to shore up her support among younger voters, a group she has struggled with during a prolonged primary fight with Bernie Sanders.
SCHAKE: She understands that she really has some work to do there and she's eager to do it. To get out there and talk to young women and young men about stakes that they have in this election.
MITCHELL: But perhaps the most important step that Clinton will take to counter the Republicans is choosing a running mate, and that decision could come at any moment.
LAUER: Who’s that going to be, Andrea?
MITCHELL: I would put my money on Tim Kaine.
LAUER: Okay, there you go. I thought you to go right on the fence, but no. Way to go.
GUTHRIE: Thank you.
