Andrea Mitchell: I ‘Completely Misspoke’ About Greg Abbott’s ‘Supposed Disability’

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MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell offered a curious observation on Tuesday when referring to Texas Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial nominee Greg Abbott, but she insists it was merely a slip of the tongue.

“I completely misspoke,” Mitchell told TPM in an email on Wednesday.

The apparent blunder came during Mitchell’s interview with Texas Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Wendy Davis, whose latest campaign ad features the image of an empty wheelchair.

Abbott has been using a wheelchair since 1984, when he was struck by a falling oak tree while jogging.

“Could you have gone after what you see as his hypocrisy by pointing out what he did in that rape case, what he did in these other cases, without the stark image of the empty wheelchair which seemed to be trying to point people towards his own supposed disability?” Mitchell asked Davis.

And with that seemingly skeptical qualifier — supposed disability — Mitchell had stepped in it.

Was she really questioning the legitimacy of Abbott’s paralysis? Not at all, she said.

“I was trying to refer to why Davis had shown an empty wheelchair in her ad, which has been criticized as offensive,” Mitchell explained in her email to TPM. “I in no way intended to question Abbott’s disability.”

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