MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell slammed Pennsylvania Senate candidate Katie McGinty as a "terribly weak Democratic candidate" during a Wednesday morning appearance on Morning Joe.
Host Joe Scarborough was listing off names of incumbent Republican senators facing reelection who are being forced to make a decision about whether or not they will embrace Donald Trump. When he mentioned Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), Mitchell felt the need to interject with her feelings on McGinty.
"Pat Toomey is running against a terribly weak candidate in Katie McGinty," said Mitchell, with added emphasis on the word "terrible."
McGinty, a former green energy executive who previously was secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, defeated former Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) in a highly competitive primary in which she was embraced by the national party establishment.
She trailed Sestak in the polls all the way up to the last weeks of her campaign, which was marked by an endorsement from President Barack Obama as well as a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.
Sestak complained that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent $4 million to prop up McGinty against him.
"D.C. Democratic money is now used without asking donors whether it can be contrary to the original purpose of the contribution: not against Republicans, but against another Democrat," said Sestak, who added that the party had been corrupted.
Sestak also pointed to reports that the Democratic Party had unsuccessfully attempted to draft six people for a Senate run before they asked McGinty, who was serving as chief of staff for Gov. Tom Wolf (D., Pa.) when she launched her campaign.
McGinty had run for political office once before.
McGinty ran for governor in 2014 but got fourth place in the Democratic primary, pulling in about 7 percent of the vote.