Andrea Mitchell responded to Newark Mayor Cory Booker's (D.) contention that attempts to portray the Obama Administration as unfair to women with respect to cabinet level positions are tantamount to "swift boating" Sunday on Meet the Press:
ANDREA MITCHELL: Let me say, that was a White House photo, that picture taken by the president's photographer, that indicated who was around him when he was dealing with the fiscal cliff negotiations, that's what that picture represented. At the highest levels of the White House and in the cabinet, you have men and they are white men. Now, the numbers -- we can play the numbers game but as another Democratic president said during a transition in 1992, "you bean counters, you women's groups who are counting heads, I'm gonna fill these jobs" but they were at lower levels. The fact is that men helped elect the president. Women voted for the president in the greatest numbers but the men on his team were the predominant people. You have two women who are the White House deputy chiefs of staff, Nancy-Ann DeParle is leaving this week, but two women and neither of them are being mentioned at any of these trial balloons to replace Jack Lew, and that's why - including women in the White House, I have to tell you I wrote a story about this this week and I did not get one complaint. I get lots of complaints from the White House about things that I say and and do, sometimes it's correct. Sometimes I have to correct something. But not one person, and I talked to several people inside the White House, women, and they said, no, we didn't have any problem with what you wrote about this week - the women are not happy.