MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell on Monday sadly recounted being on the campaign plane when Hillary Clinton's team got news of then-FBI Director James Comey's Oct. 28, 2016, letter about her email server investigation, calling the images "devastating."
Mitchell's comments came while Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Bill Clinton, appeared on "Morning Joe" to promote his new book assigning Comey the blame for Hillary Clinton's 2016 election loss to Donald Trump. Host Joe Scarborough was enthusiastic about the book, saying "the FBI director elected Donald Trump, and you have charts to prove it."
Davis made his case—complete with charts—saying Clinton likely would have gotten more than 330 electoral votes without Comey's letter, which informed Congress of the existence of newly discovered emails related to Clinton's private email server use, reopening the FBI's investigation into the matter.
Scarborough gave himself and co-host Mika Brzezinski credit for, according to him, both saying at the time of the letter, "This is going to change everything."
"And it did, just like that, " Scarborough said.
"We definitely said that," Brzezinski added.
"And I was on the Clinton plane, and the minute that happened, we knew what was going on," Mitchell said, looking forlorn.
"Those pictures from that day on that plane are—" Brzezinski started.
"Devastating," Mitchell said.
"Devastating," Brzezinski agreed.
Clinton has frequently assigned blame for her election loss to Comey's letter. Clinton once said that "if the election had been on October 27, I'd be your president."
Was surreal to watch @HillaryClinton sitting by the window and silently nodding while Lanny Davis told the crowd she’d be president today were it not for James Comey. https://t.co/fXfD7MBlnz
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) February 6, 2018