On her Tuesday MSNBC show, host Andrea Mitchell tried to downplay the controversy swirling over the misleading biography put forward by Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis: "[She's] being forced to answer media reports down there that she had slightly altered her resume or focused on the single mom aspects of it and didn't really give the timeline correctly." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Mitchell continued by actually warning Republicans to tread lightly on the issue: "You never want to be on the defensive about giving your biography when you're running for office, but this is a careful balancing act also, given her appeal to many women and the fact that she's potentially running against a man."
In an interview with Davis in July of 2013, Mitchell lobbed softballs to the left-wing abortion advocate and urged her to do more to stop pro-life legislation in Texas.
Following that interview, Mitchell acted as a PR flack for Davis, tweeting out a picture of Davis with a quote from the exchange.
NBC eagerly promoted Davis's deceptive life story with a fawning profile by Maria Shriver on the January 15 Today show. So far, the network has failed to offer any correction.
Here is a transcript of Mitchell's January 21 remarks on Davis:
1:20PM ET
(...)
ANDREA MITCHELL: And switching gears to Wendy Davis, someone we've talked about quite a bit in Texas, running for governor, running for the nomination for governor, the Democratic nomination. And now forcing – being forced to answer media reports down there that she had slightly altered her resume or focused on the single mom aspects of it and didn't really give the timeline correctly. You never want to be on the defensive about giving your biography when you're running for office, but this is a careful balancing act also, given her appeal to many women and the fact that she's potentially running against a man.
RUTH MARCUS [WASHINGTON POST]: Sure, she did live in a trailer for some time. She was a single mom for some time. But she did acknowledge being a little bit loosy goosy with the facts. And it's actually really quite analogous to the Christie story, which is, the more prominent you get, the more intense the scrutiny is on you and your behavior. And I think, to some extent, on both of those figures, are reaping a little bit of the perils of notoriety. She needs to just make sure from now on that she gets her story precisely straight because the – she didn't need to really amplify it that much. It would have been fine just on its own. It's always the cover-up, not the crime, it's always the exaggeration, not the actual facts of the case. So you know, honesty the best policy. What a surprise.
MITCHELL: In politics as well as in life.
