Over the last week, MSNBC host and veteran NBC News corespondent Andrea Mitchell has been on the radar of the Donald Trump administration. While Mitchell was attempting to ask Secretary of State Rex Tillerson a question during a press conference in Moscow, she ran into opposition from a Russian official.
Mitchell and the Kremlin
Ever since the start of the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump has been forced to deal with the growing speculation that he has been in cahoots with Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
From keeping his tax returns hidden from the American people, to his past and current associates and advisers being in communication with Russian officials, the former host of "The Apprentice" has had the cloud of Kremlin controversy hanging over his campaign and administration ever since. Despite this, Trump was able to weather the storm and pull off one of the most shocking upsets in American political history with a win over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Since then, the FBI and Justice Department have confirmed that Russia not only hacked into the Democratic National Committee during the election, but did so in favor of Trump.
In the weeks that have followed, several of Trump's advisers, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions have been found to have met with Russian officials during and after the election. However, the issue regarding the Russian scandal took a curious turn last week when Putin spoke out against Trump for launching a tomahawk cruise missile attack on a Syrian airbase in retaliation to Bashar al-Assad's chemical attack on his own people. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to Moscow to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which turned into a heated moment with reporter Andrea Mitchell, as reported by The Hill on April 12.
During a press conference with Rex Tillerson and Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Minister scolded Andrea Mitchell for attempting to ask the United States Secretary of State a question. "Mr. Secretary, the Russians don’t believe the intelligence," she said, while adding. "How confident are you, Mr. Secretary..." At this point, Mitchell was cut off by a visibly angry Lavrov.
"Who was bringing you up?” Sergey Lavrov said to Andrea Mitchell in broken English. Then speaking in Russian, Lavrov continued, rhetorically asking, "Who was giving you your manners, you know?"
Mitchell's history
This isn't the first time that Andrea Mitchell has come under fire during a foreign press conference. In March, she was kicked out of a press conference for continuing to grill Rex Tillerson on questions related to Russia and China.