Like a concerned parent on a business trip checking in on her unsupervised children, an exasperated Andrea Mitchell whined to fellow Washington reporters Susan Page and Chris Cillizza, that they had "let the assault weapons ban...die!" Mitchell, who is currently traveling with the President in Israel, delivered a long range lecture from Jerusalem, on Wednesday's Andrea Mitchell Reports, to Page and Cillizza: "Well, while I'm away you guys let the assault weapons ban, you know, die."
The following is the relevant exchange as it was aired on the March 20 edition of MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports:
ANDREA MITCHELL: Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to not let the assault weapons ban go to the floor for a vote, angered Senator Diane Feinstein who is not giving up.
SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN: This is very important to me. And I'm not gonna lay down and play dead. I think the American people have said in every single public poll that they support this kind of legislation.
MITCHELL: Joining me now for more on that and all the other political news for our Daily Fix today - Chris Cillizza, MSNBC contributor and managing editor of PostPolitics.com and USA Today's Washington bureau chief Susan Page. Hi to both of you. Well, while I'm away you guys let the assault weapons ban, you know, die. Practically. At least Harry Reid says he's not gonna let it go forward.
Susan, to you. His calculus is that it didn't have the votes and he wanted to get something passed. That's good tactics, in terms of the Senate, but it isn't sort of surrendering to the NRA?
-- Geoffrey Dickens is the Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Click here [1] to follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter.