Romney slammed by MSNBC's Mitchell for collecting storm supplies

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012: Mitt Romney participates in an event to collect supplies for victims of superstorm Sandy, in Kettering, Ohio. (AP2012)

Even when Mitt Romney cancels campaigning and works to provide Hurricane Sandy relief, the media elites are still dropping bombs on him. The hurricane has given Obama "invaluable imagery and opportunity to be seen in command,“ said CNN’s Dana Bash. Meanwhile, Washington Post columnist Al Kamen cracked that Romney is “finding that, unlike franks and beans, charity and politics can be a tricky mix.”

The “tricky” part of the mix is the media. Their opportunistic bashing of Romney’s food drive shows it doesn’t matter what the Republicans will do, the media will stick to anti-Romney talking points.

In Tuesday afternoon’s broadcast of "Andrea Mitchell Reports" on MSNBC, Mitchell accused Romney of surreptitious campaigning, and asked what are the true intentions of Governor Romney collecting storm supplies after a hurricane. Mitchell reported, “We checked with the Red Cross.  The Red Cross said while they’re always grateful for donations – that this is not what they need or want,” she insisted. “And to now get these canned good from the Romney event in Ohio – and have to first package it – used clothes they have to clean.”

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She turned to Washington Post political analyst Chris Cillizza and sneered,  "It does seem like a thinly veiled [campaign event] – why Ohio?”

If there’s something Andrea Mitchell is not is “thinly veiled” when it comes to sending a political message.

Mitchell revealed herself, yet again, as a liberal partisan, and someone who borders on absent minded when it comes to common sense.  There are 7.5 million people without power, and how dare Mitt Romney try to help those in need?

Mitchell’s MSNBC colleague Martin Bashir added to this anti-charity narrative, going so far as to imply Romney was disobeying the Red Cross. After a clip of Obama speaking at the Red Cross, Bashir asked his guests: “Did you detect perhaps a subtle dig there on Mr. Romney who spent today going against the guidelines established by the Red Cross and holding a campaign rally in Ohio that was dressed up like a charity drive collecting food and other supplies when the Red Cross expressly asked people not to do that?”

As Noel Sheppard of NewsBusters aptly said, “Imagine that. A presidential candidate, who gives millions of dollars a year to charity, does a storm relief event in Ohio, and an MSNBC anchor is disgusted by it because the Red Cross would prefer people donating cash.”

Then on MSNBC's “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” there was another less-than-charming episode of Romney Can’t Win.

Joy-Ann Reid, the former Obama campaign staffer who now runs the NBC-owned site TheGrio.com, insisted “anything he [Romney] does looks almost by nature too political. And he can’t actually do anything. He can’t do anything certainly for Chris Christie. Going around with Mitt Romney and his Secret Service detail through the affected areas of New Jersey would actually cause more problems and wouldn’t help at all.”

But doesn’t Obama have a Secret Service detail, too?

That doesn’t matter to Reid. Obama has power: “whereas going around with the president helps him look at the damage, really view it for himself. He can get something out of doing that with the president. So, I think Romney unfortunately is the odd man out.”

Liberals never really mean it’s “unfortunate” when they argue Republicans just can’t possibly be portrayed as compassionate conservatives.

Matt Vespa is an intern for the Media Research Center.