Despite covering both Hillary Clinton’s Tuesday rally with President Obama and her Wednesday speech in Atlantic City, NBC News correspondent/MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell and her colleagues were still harping Wednesday afternoon on their narrative that FBI Director James Comey’s announcement has “overshadowed” Clinton’s campaign and what “was supposed to be a triumphant week.”
Ahead of Clinton’s speech near a casino formerly owned by Donald Trump, Mitchell brought on fellow correspondent Kasie Hunt to further promote the line that’s now over 24 hours old that even though Comey’s recommendation of no charges was Clinton’s desired outcome, he nonetheless had muddied or overshadowed her plans for the week.
“I think for her, this was supposed to be a triumphant week. She was going to go campaign with Obama, you were there yesterday in Charlotte, she was going to come here. There is so much for her to work with here in Atlantic City,” Hunt lamented.
Adding how she has been staying “at the Trump Taj Mahal, down the boardwalk now, of course, owned by someone else, but just a symbol” for how Clinton wants to paint Trump’s business career, Hunt added that Clinton “can't drag the focus away from these e-mails.”
While it was brief since she had Democratic New Jersey State Senator Jim Whelan on set with her, Mitchell took a brief moment following Clinton’s speech blasting Trump’s business record to exclaim that Clinton offered “a stem-winding speech here in Atlantic City attacking Donald Trump.”
Moments later, Mitchell posed this question to Whelan that seemed to be aimed at furthering her narrative about Clinton being a victim of the FBI releasing their recommendations this week:
As a Democrat, does it concern you that this FBI criticism by the FBI Director of Hillary Clinton has certainly overshadowed what she was hoping to do here today, do you have questions about her ethics after what you heard from the FBI director yesterday?
Being a faithful Democrat, Whelan (falsely) spun that “apparently from what we're hearing now, from the media, is that Hillary Clinton is not the first secretary of state to make this mistake, that other secretary of states have private servers.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on July 6 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports
July 6, 2016
12:10 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Clinton Email Fallout; FBI Director to Testify Tomorrow on Email Decision]
KASIE HUNT: It strikes me that Comey's going so quickly means that he wants to make sure that he ensures that the investigation is not viewed as partisan or political, that he's willing to explain himself in this forum, as fast as he is, but you know, I think for her, this was supposed to be a triumphant week. She was going to go campaign with Obama, you were there yesterday in Charlotte, she was going to come here. There is so much for her to work with here in Atlantic City. You know, we stayed at the Trump Taj Mahal, down the boardwalk now, of course, owned by someone else, but just a symbol of how things —
ANDREA MITCHELL: Carl Icheon.
HUNT: — by Carl Icheon, exactly. Just such — so much symbolism for things that have gone wrong in Trump's business career, and yet, she can't drag the focus away from these e-mails.
(....)
12:49 p.m. EasternMITCHELL: Well, Hillary Clinton, a stem-winding speech here in Atlantic City attacking Donald Trump for his business practices.
(....)
12:52 p.m. Eastern
MITCHELL: As a Democrat, does it concern you that this FBI criticism by the FBI Director of Hillary Clinton has certainly overshadowed what she was hoping to do here today, do you have questions about her ethics after what you heard from the FBI director yesterday?
NEW JERSEY DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATOR JIM WHELAN: Well, I think first off, clearly Hillary made a mistake. No question and then President Clinton made a mistake meeting with attorney general, talk about a brain freeze, should never have happened, but the fact is, apparently from what we're hearing now, from the media, is that Hillary Clinton is not the first secretary of state to make this mistake, that other secretary of states have private servers, other cabinet officials —
MITCHELL: She's the first to have a private server at her home.
WHELAN: But others did similar type of things. I mean, there may be a nuance, so — but I think the other thing is, really there's a repeated pattern with Donald Trump, that he did in Atlantic City and done elsewhere. It wasn't just Atlantic City.
