Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, appeared on Sunday’s Meet the Press and did her best to make excuses for potential Democratic losses in the November midterm elections.
Speaking to moderator Chuck Todd, Mitchell complained that the “Texas Supreme Court decision on Saturday morning is going to be really telling, if there are more voter restrictions placed in some of those states, it's going to be really hard for Democrats.”
Todd opened the segment by discussing the troubling poll numbers for Democrats leading up to the midterms:
Generic ballot among the likely voters, the biggest lead we've reported yet for generically for the Republicans. In the Annenberg one, 49-44, this is the NBC/Wall Street Journal, earlier in the week among registered voters, it also had 45-43, but among the likely, it went up to five. Here's what I can tell you. All Democrats agree, it was a bad week for them. The question is, is it holding?
Mitchell did concede that Democrats were struggling before the election but conveniently pushed the MSNBC line that GOP “voter restrictions” could hurt Democrats in November:
It's a bad week for Democrats. The White House has been under fire. At the same time, Neil Newhouse, our Republican former partner in polling has said that it's the get out the vote effort, and that Democrats do a whole lot better at getting out the vote. And it's going to come down to a ground game. I think that a ground game, I think that Texas Supreme Court decision on Saturday morning is going to be really telling, if there are more voter restrictions placed in some of those states, it's going to be really hard for Democrats.
The MSNBC host provided no actual evidence to back up her claim that “voter restrictions” will cost Democrats in November but her argument does echo those made by her “Lean Forward” colleagues on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, Chuck Todd refused to press his colleague on her highly charged accusation against the GOP and did his best to change the subject by turning to Republican strategist Mike Murphy to talk about other issues relating to the midterms.
See relevant transcript below.
NBC’s Meet the Press
October 19, 2014
CHUCK TODD: And welcome back, the panel is still here. We've got our new NBC News/Wall Street Journal Annenberg weekly tracking survey, Andrea Mitchell. Generic ballot among the likely voters, the biggest lead we've reported yet for generically for the Republicans. In the Annenberg one, 49-44, this is the NBC/Wall Street Journal, earlier in the week among registered voters, it also had 45-43, but among the likely, it went up to five. Here's what I can tell you. All Democrats agree, it was a bad week for them. The question is, is it holding?
ANDREA MITCHELL: It's a bad week for Democrats. The White House has been under fire. At the same time, Neil Newhouse, our Republican former partner in polling has said that it's the get out the vote effort, and that Democrats do a whole lot better at getting out the vote. And it's going to come down to a ground game. I think that a ground game, I think that Texas Supreme Court decision on Saturday morning is going to be really telling, if there are more voter restrictions placed in some of those states, it's going to be really hard for Democrats.
CHUCK TODD: Mike Murphy, your buddy Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist, had this great quote this morning in The Post, “There's a way, but there's a wall. Government's failing, nothing works. People are trapped in a room with President Obama and the Democratic Party, and there's a huge demand for change. They want to get out of that room, but the only door out there leads them to a room full of lepers. And that's the Republican Party.” Is he right?
