Appearing as a panel member on Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell praised Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine as "heroic" on the issue of guns because of his history of supporting more gun control. After far-left panel member and MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow questioned whether he really was "progressive," and host Chuck Todd described both Kaine and Hillary Clinton as moving left to "catch up to the party's movement," Mitchell jumped in to brag on Kaine's left-wing credentials: "Well, on guns, he was always there. He was heroic in Virginia on gun laws."
Host Todd had brought up the issue of Kaine receiving gifts and former Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Ed Rendell's lukewarm defense of the Virginia Senator. Todd:
I want to throw out the one thing that Trump's trying to hit Kaine on -- two things, but the one big one is the gifts in Virginia. I only throw it out there is I heard Ed Rendell asked to defend it, and he struggled, Andrea. He said, "Well, it's illegal in Pennsylvania." Okay, well, legal in Virginia. That wasn't exactly a resounding defense.
Mitchell defended the Virginia Democrat:
Virginia has a very strange -- let's face it -- strange gift law. The difference with Bob McDonnell -- who came, you know, was convicted and then the supreme court overturned it is, there was no quid pro quo. He declared it. That was the main thing. He declared everything, put it down. In fact, computed higher numbers to staying in friends' houses. He put everything down. He was meticulous about it. So they don't think it is a big ethics thing.
She then related that Clinton was a "happy camper" over choosing Kaine as she added:
Just on his progressivity or lack of it, he has this civil rights background, I mean, I was in the room, and what you saw on TV yesterday in Miami in that largely Hispanic, you know, campus, that wonderful campus in Miami. It was extraordinary, the enthusiasm for him and the affection and, having watched her all of these years, you're absolutely right, Chris. She has found her guy. She was a happy camper.
The far-left Maddow then injected:
He's no progressive, but they will tell a very progressive story about his history, The party has moved to the left while he's always been a sort of solid liberal.
After Todd suggested, "Both of them are trying to -- I've always -- I feel like both Clinton and Kaine are trying to catch up to the party's movement," Mitchell added: "Well, on guns, he was always there. He was heroic in Virginia on gun laws."
