While interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris last week, Andrea Mitchell inaccurately claimed that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that kids should not be taught about slavery or its aftermath in schools — but on Wednesday’s episode of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Mitchell said that she had been “imprecise” when discussing the governor’s stance regarding the teaching of slavery.
She said that DeSantis is not against schools teaching about slavery. But Mitchell said the governor “has opposed the teaching of an African-American studies curriculum” and the utilization of “some authors” as well as “source materials that historians” and “teachers say makes it all but impossible for students to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath.”
Minutes after Mitchell’s comments aired, DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin noted on Twitter that the governor’s administration will be declining media requests from NBCUniversal-related outlets until Mitchell apologizes for claiming that DeSantis opposed schools teaching about slavery.
“To all of the bookers and producers reaching out to our office from @NBCNews and @MSNBC for @GovRonDeSantis to join your shows, this will be the standard response from our office until @mitchellreports apologizes and your track record improves,” Griffin tweeted.
He shared a screenshot of a message in which he declared: “I think we need to take a step back. There will be no consideration of anything related to NBC Universal or its affiliates until and at least Andrea Mitchell corrects the blatant lie she made about the governor ‘[Governor DeSantis] says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren’—this is false), and NBC and it’s affiliates display a consistent track record of truthful reporting. Please feel free to pass this up and around the network.”
Griffin described Mitchell’s Wednesday remarks as “a typical non-apology response that doubles down on the original lie.”
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