MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell was visibly annoyed on Tuesday in response to President Donald Trump's meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in which he pointedly left out the mayor when heaping praise on federal and local officials for their response to Hurricane Maria.
Trump was seated at a table between First Lady Melania Trump and Puerto Rico's Democratic Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, where he took a veiled shot at San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, with whom he had a Twitter feud over the weekend, according to the Hill:
"He's not even from my party, but he started right from the beginning appreciating what we did," Trump said of Rosselló in remarks at a National Guard base. "This governor did not play politics. He didn't play it all. He was saying it like it was and he was giving us the highest grades."
Cruz attended the briefing, but sat far away from the president. Trump did not mention her during his remarks, even as he cast praise widely on other federal and territory officials for their work.
Mitchell did a recap of Trump's interactions with various local and federal officials, noting that he only did a quick handshake with Cruz, while thanking all the other leaders there for their hard work.
"He then brought in all of the other local officials, but you see that quick handshake with the mayor what was said, according to the travel pool, was 'How are you?' said the president. The mayor said, 'Good, sir. I just wanted to say, sir, it's not about politics.' The president then looked away and walked away and said, 'Thank you everybody,'" Mitchell said.
Mitchell then started talking about all the people who Trump praised, including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon, as she noted the "political dynamic."
NBC White House correspondent Peter Alexander agreed with Mitchell and noted how the meeting had the same feel as the June cabinet meeting where his cabinet went around the table praising Trump.
Mitchell later reiterated that it was "notable" that Cruz was the only elected official who never got the opportunity to speak at the meeting to her knowledge.
"It was very pointed that she said, 'It's not about politics' when she was shaking his hand there and then when they went to sit down, he opened his remarks by thanking the governor for not playing politics from the start, but did not give her any kind of 'thank you' for what she's doing for her people or give her an opportunity to speak," she said.
"That's a pretty deliberate slight, politically," Mitchell added.