Media

Andrea Mitchell Softballs Joe Biden Interview

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
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MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell threw softball questions at former Vice President Joe Biden during an interview that quickly turned into an anti-Trump fan club.

Mitchell asked Biden 27 questions in total, 19 of which were negatively-framed questions about the Trump administration.

Biden himself was the subject of just three questions, former President Barack Obama was the subject of one question, and Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain were the subjects of two questions each.

WATCH:

Mitchell opened the interview with recent news that White House secretary Rob Porter was resigning over domestic abuse allegations, before quickly pivoting to the investigation of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and eventually asking Biden if Trump is “a liar.”

Of all of the Trump questions she could have asked, Mitchell chose to focus almost exclusively on the administration’s scandals and asked very little about actual policy. She never asked a question with positive framing. She asked about the Rob Porter resignation, the Mueller investigation, Pence’s potential talks with North Korea, Trump’s response to the protests in Charlottesville, Trump’s “shithole countries” comment, Trump’s attacks on Sen. McCain, and the administration’s plans to have a military parade.

Mitchell opted not to ask about tax reform, de-regulation, gains in the stock market, Trump’s conservative judicial appointments, VA reforms, the repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate, the travel ban’s Supreme Court victory, the fight against ISIS (and the freeing of Mosul), Trump’s decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the pending Congressional budget deal, the debate over immigration, or the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.

When Mitchell finally asked Biden about himself, the questions exclusively focused on his potential presidential ambitions in 2020. There was no mention of Biden’s own inappropriate behavior around women, his history of racist comments, or his plagiarism scandal.

Perhaps the only “tough” questions during the entire interview were about Clinton — who Biden has already had no problem criticizing in the past. Mitchell asked if Clinton was a bad candidate, if Comey affected her chances at winning the election, and if Obama made a mistake in endorsing her.

There were no specific questions about Biden’s time as vice president, despite administration scandals like Fast & Furious, the IRS targeting conservatives, Obama’s secret assurances to Putin, spying on reporters, Benghazi, the VA waiting list, derailing the investigation into Hezbollah, the NSA spying on Americans, or Obama’s lies about Obamacare.

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