MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell defended four Democratic congresswomen attacked by President Donald Trump by falsely claiming that none of them were socialists on Thursday.
In a Wednesday speech, Trump attacked by name Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D. Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and defended a tweet insinuating that the four minority women should "go back" to their country of origin. Only Omar is actually an immigrant, the other three are American-born citizens.
MSNBC covered live a press conference from Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy defending the president, in which he said Trump was waging "a battle over a socialist issue and the socialist Democrats, that's one that he's taken up even in the State of the Union, he promised that this country will never have socialism here."
Mitchell attempted to fact-check McCarthy's comments. "First of all, none of these members of Congress are socialists," she said, "but that is the way the Republican leadership wants to frame this election. They don't have a Democrat to run against, they're not running against Bernie Sanders per se yet."
"There's not a single member of these congressional representatives who are avowed socialists. We don't know where that's coming from other than opposition research," she insisted.
Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib are both avowed members of the Democratic Socialists of America. "Call me a socialist. I don't give a damn," Ocasio-Cortez said during the 2018 election.
Refinery29 reported in 2018 that a campaign staffer for Omar told her local DSA chapter that "she is proud to call herself a democratic socialist, she's very excited about this. So I hope you guys endorse us, too." When asked more recently if she considered herself a democratic socialist, Omar was more circumspect, responding simply "I consider myself a Democrat."