Andrea Mitchell | |
|---|---|
_annual_conference_and_briefing_in_Washington_D.C._on_November_15%2c_2023_(cropped).jpg) Mitchell in 2023 | |
| Born | (1946-10-30)October 30, 1946 (age 78) New Rochelle, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania (BA) |
| Occupation | News anchor |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Notable credit(s) | NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC Nightly News, Today, Andrea Mitchell Reports |
| Title | NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent NBC News Chief Washington Correspondent Host,Andrea Mitchell Reports |
| Spouses |
|
Andrea Louise Mitchell[1] (born October 30, 1946)[2] is an American television journalist, anchor and commentator forNBC News, based inWashington, D.C.
She is NBC News' chief foreign affairs & chief Washington correspondent, reporting on the2008 presidential election campaign forNBC News broadcasts, includingNBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,Today andMSNBC. She anchoredAndrea Mitchell Reports, which aired from noon to 1 p.m. ET weekdays on MSNBC. On October 29, 2024, in closing remarks on her show, Mitchell announced she will be leaving the full time anchor chair in early 2025. Mitchell will remain in her role as chief foreign affairs correspondent.
Mitchell has both appeared on and guest hostedMeet the Press. She was also often a guest onHardball with Chris Matthews andThe Rachel Maddow Show.
In 2019, Mitchell earned aLifetime Achievement Emmy for her journalistic work.[3]
Mitchell was raised in aJewish family,[4] fromNew Rochelle, New York, the daughter of Sydney Mitchell, a businessman, and his wife, Cecile Mitchell. Her family's original surname was Metchik. The family is of Russian-Jewish descent.
Her father was the chief executive officer and partial owner of a furniture manufacturing company inManhattan. He was also the president of Beth El Synagogue in New Rochelle for 40 years. Her mother was an administrator at theNew York Institute of Technology in Manhattan.[5] Her brotherArthur and his wife, Nancy Mitchell, moved to British Columbia in the 1970s. He has dual American and Canadian citizenship, becoming a member of theLegislative Assembly of Yukon and the leader of theYukon Liberal Party in the 2000s.[6]
Mitchell is a graduate ofNew Rochelle High School.[7] She went on to attend theUniversity of Pennsylvania, where she received aBachelor of Arts degree inEnglish literature in 1967. While at Penn, she served as news director of student radio stationWXPN. Staying inPhiladelphia after graduation, she was hired as a reporter atKYW radio. She rose to prominence as the station's City Hall correspondent during the MayorFrank Rizzo’s administration and also reported for sister stationKYW-TV.
She moved in 1976 toCBS-affiliate WTOP (nowWUSA) in Washington, D.C. Two years later, Mitchell moved to NBC's network news operation, where she served as a general correspondent. In 1979, she was named NBC News' energy correspondent and reported on thelate-1970s energy crisis and theThree Mile Island nuclear accident. Mitchell also covered theWhite House from 1981 until becoming chief congressional correspondent in 1988.[8]
.png)
.jpg)
Mitchell has been with NBC News since late July 1978. She has been its chief foreign affairs correspondent since November 1994.[9] Previously, she served as chief White House correspondent (1993–1994) and chief Congressional correspondent (1988–1992).[8]
In 2005, Mitchell's book,Talking Back... to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels, (ISBN 978-0-143-03873-3), was published. It chronicles her work as a journalist.
From 2008 to 2025, Mitchell hostedAndrea Mitchell Reports onMSNBC. She stepped down from that position on February 7, 2025, but will remain NBC News' chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent.[10]
A report inThe Washington Post ("Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry CIA Agent's Identity Was Leaked to Media" by Mike Allen and Dana Priest,The Washington Post, September 28, 2003) that Mitchell had leakedValerie Plame's identity led to her being questioned by theFederal Bureau of Investigation.
In October 2003, on theCapitol, Mitchell said, "It was widely known amongst those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. But, frankly, I wasn't aware of [Plame's] actual role at the CIA, and the fact that she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not untilBob Novak wrote it."[11]
During a July 2005 news conference inKhartoum, Mitchell was forcibly ejected from a room after askingSudanese PresidentOmar al-Bashir some pointed questions. They included: "Can you tell us why the violence is continuing?" (referring togenocide in Sudan'sDarfur province) and "Can you tell us why the government is supporting the militias (Janjaweed)?" "Why should Americans believe your promises?"[12]
After the incident Mitchell said, "It is our job to ask. They can always say 'no comment'... but to drag a reporter out just for asking is inexcusable behavior."[12]
Before the incident, Sudanese officials had expressed reservations about allowing American newspaper or television reporters to join the Sudanesepress pool.Sean McCormack, theState Department's assistant secretary for public affairs, said to his Sudanese counterpart, "I'll convey your desires about not permitting reporters to ask questions, but that's all I'll do. We have a free press." McCormack's Sudanese counterpart replied, "There is no freedom of the press here."[13][14]
During an appearance on MSNBC on June 5, 2008, Mitchell referred to the voters of the southwest Virginia region asrednecks.[15][16] On June 9, she apologized on air, saying "I owe an apology to the good people ofBristol, Virginia, for something stupid that I said last week. I was trying to explain, based on reporting from Democratic strategists, whyBarack Obama was campaigning in southwest Virginia, but without attribution or explanation, I used a term strategists often use to demean an entire community. No excuses, I'm really sorry."[17]
Having been led to believe that a clip showed that presidential candidateMitt Romney was impressed by a touchscreen at aWawa convenience store, Mitchell and contributorChris Cillizza laughed when it was shown onAndrea Mitchell Reports,[18] alluding to a widely held myth thatGeorge H. W. Bush wasunfamiliar with a supermarket scanner in an incident during his1992 campaign.[19] She suggested this might be Romney's "supermarket scanner moment."[20] She said, "I get the feeling that Mitt Romney has not been in too many Wawas along the roadside of Pennsylvania." The full clip puts his comments in the context of his claim that Wawa's "touchtone keypads" (touchscreens) show efficiency in the private sector compared to his statement that it took multiple filings of a 33-page government form for an optometrist to change his address.[20][21][22][23]
Mitchell briefly addressed complaints from theRepublican National Committee and Romney's campaign the following day. Introducing the full clip, Mitchell stated, "The RNC and the campaign both reached out to us, saying that Romney had more to say on that visit about federal bureaucracy and innovation in the private sector. We didn't get a chance to play that, so here it is now."[21]
In February 2019, Mitchell characterized theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising as being against "the Polish and Nazi regimes." She apologized on Twitter for her comment. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance sued Mitchell in Polish court for alleging that Poland played a role in theHolocaust.[24]
She married her second husband, thenFederal Reserve ChairAlan Greenspan, on April 6, 1997, following a lengthy relationship.[5] Previously, she was married to Gil Jackson; that marriage ended in divorce in the mid-1970s.
On September 7, 2011, Mitchell revealed that she had been diagnosed withbreast cancer during a doctor's visit a few weeks earlier. It was caught early and treated.[25]
| Preceded by John Palmer | NBC News ChiefWhite House Correspondent | Succeeded by Brian Williams |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
