A pretty big Florida recount screw-up from NBC’s Andrea Mitchell

It’s one thing to misidentify a public figure’s political affiliation offhandedly during a broader discussion on something relatively bipartisan or, at the very least, not explicitly red-versus-blue. The mistake can always be chalked up to a minor, negligible slip-up.

It’s another thing entirely to make this sort of error in service of a broader narrative that suggests a certain party is guilty of partisan, unethical, hypocritical, or potentially illegal behavior. And this is exactly what NBC’s Andrea Mitchell did this week when she claimed falsely that the woman at the center of the Florida Senate and gubernatorial recounts is a registered Republican.