Andrea Mitchell: VA Scandal 'Far More Serious' Than Obama's Other 'So-Called Scandals'

On her Friday 12 p.m. ET hour MSNBC show, host Andrea Mitchell joined fellow media liberals Stephen Colbert [1] and Chris Matthews [2] in labeling the VA scandal the first real scandal of the Obama administration: "...this is the biggest political problem that the President has faced. This is far more serious than a lot of so-called scandals that have popped up from time to time in the last couple of months." [Listen to the audio [3]]

USA Today's Susan Page affirmed: "I totally agree with you, this is much more perilous for the President politically. Benghazi, they can dismiss that as a partisan battle. The Affordable Care Act, they can argue, 'This is actually going to work pretty well, just give us a little more time.'"

Page failed to make the obvious connection that the VA scandal demonstrates the failure of government-run health care and conveniently skipped over the IRS and NSA scandals.

She concluded: "I think this is a different issue – a different problem for the White House, a more serious one, and one that has really the potential to be a big problem for Democrats running in November."

Here is a transcript of the May 30 exchange:

12:13 PM ET

(...)

ANDREA MITCHELL: And Susan Page, politically, this is the biggest political problem that the President has faced. This is far more serious than a lot of so-called scandals that have popped up from time to time in the last couple of months.

SUSAN PAGE [USA TODAY]: You know, I totally agree with you, this is much more perilous for the President politically. Benghazi, they can dismiss that as a partisan battle. The Affordable Care Act, they can argue, "This is actually going to work pretty well, just give us a little more time."

On this he had bipartisan outrage, including some pretty senior Democrats saying Shinseki had to go. I don't – I think we had Christi Parsons from the Chicago Tribune ask, "Why is this different from Kathleen Sebelius?" I think this is a different issue – a different problem for the White House, a more serious one, and one that has really the potential to be a big problem for Democrats running in November.

(...)