Filling in as host on NBC’s Meet the Press, Andrea Mitchell, NBC's Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent and host of MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, rushed to defend her colleague Al Sharpton for his involvement in the Ferguson protests.
During a discussion with the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley, Mitchell declared that Sharpton was in Ferguson “on a peace mission” and not in the words of Riley to “continue to blame whites” for the death of Michael Brown.
Mitchell’s comments came following Riley’s insistence that while the Brown death was tragic “let's not pretend that our morgues and cemeteries are full of young black men because cops are shooting them. The reality is that it’s because other black people are shooting them. And we need to talk about black criminality.”
The WSJ writer continued, this time slamming Al Sharpton and arguing that “the same weekend that this went down in Ferguson, we had 26 shootings in Chicago. But Al Sharpton didn't head to Chicago. He headed to St. Louis because he has an entirely different agenda, which is to continue to blame whites.”
Mitchell briefly defended Sharpton before immediately tried to change the subject by bring up a young girl who has been pitching at the Little League World Series. Unsurprisingly, the MSNBC host didn’t bring up Sharpton’s long history of divisive racial comments, including helping to insight the Crown Heights Riot in the 90's.
See relevant transcript below.
NBC's Meet the Press
August 16, 2014
ANDREA MITCHELL: Before we go, I want to ask you about Ferguson because you have written a whole book, “Please stop helping us: How liberals make it harder for blacks to succeed.” What we have seen in Ferguson certainly shows the disengagement between a local police force and the community.
JASON RILEY: You could say that. I don't want to litigate this in the press. If the officer used excessive force I think he should be prosecuted. But at the same time, let's not pretend that our morgues and cemeteries are full of young black men because cops are shooting them. The reality is that it’s because other black people are shooting them. And we need to talk about black criminality. Blacks are only 13% of the population. But they're 50% of homicide victims in this country and 90% of those victims are killed by other black people. We need to talk about that.
MITCHELL: We certainly saw that the blacks were the victims of the looting, as well.
RILEY: The same time, at the same time, the same weekend that this went down in Ferguson, we had 26 shootings in Chicago. But Al Sharpton didn't head to Chicago. He headed to St. Louis because he has an entirely different agenda, which is to continue to blame whites
MITCHELL: Just to say–well, that is actually not his agenda– because he’s actually there on a peace mission today.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [1]