ICYMI: Karen Finney at Bat for Hillary Clinton

Years ago,  Karen Finney would sit with Susan Del Percio on "the girls' side of the table" on Dylan Ratigan's MSNBC show and the host would unceremoniously interrupt her on a routine basis.  The habit would precipitate Facebook posts of the video under the rubric "Let Karen speak!"  Karen is elegant and courteous to a fault and would never think of trying to speak over the host.

When Ratigan decided to end his show, Karen was also appearing on Martin Bashir's hour occasionally filling in for the host.   It was there that, in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, she unveiled the role of ALEC in instituting stand-your-ground laws in a variety of states.  The following day all of MSNBC was talking about ALEC, but it was Karen who broke that story.   The "Let Karen speak" movement eventually evolved into a #GiveKarenashow campaign aimed  @MSNBC and carried out at intervals on Twitter.
Ultimately they did give Karen a show which she called "Disrupt" but at possibly the worst viewing hours of the week, 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.  The show came to an end last year and a few months ago Karen ended her relationship with MSNBC.  We have seen her appear as a guest on CNN since then.  But Sunday the game changed.
Karen Finney reentered the building (she is clearly not a "burn-your-bridges" type of person) to appear on the Meet the Press panel.   Also on the panel was MSNBC personality and State Department correspondent Andrea Mitchell who has never hesitated to criticize Hillary Clinton when given a good crisis, or even a bad one, or even none at all.
Karen strode into the batter's box, and it was clear very early that the male guests, Kevin Madden and Scott Bai were largely window dressing - perhaps for diversity's sake.  Mitchell pitched.  It was low and away.  Todd donned the umpire's mask and vest.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

In fact, one of the big high points was Beijing when she went up against everybody and gave the big grinning speech 20 years ago and she was trying to reframe her approach to the campaign on that level. And it got interrupted by this. I think what are the arguments against what she said, she said that everything that she sent to someone at the State Department was captured because the State Department--

CHUCK TODD:

And it turned out that's not true.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

And one day later, it turns out, according to an inspector general's report, and I've dug very deeply into this, Karen.

CHUCK TODD:

Yes, you did.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

Because you'll hate pushing back on me, nothing was captured, nothing was automatically captured, or very little was.

KAREN FINNEY:

The SMART system. The SMART system is not the only system that archives emails

ANDREA MITCHELL:

I know, I'm well aware. I'm well aware of that. But they cannot guarantee what was captured and what was not.

SNIP

CHUCK TODD:

I will pause, I will pause.

KAREN FINNEY:

Also there's the assumption that she used email for classified information. That is not the only form of communication in the State Department. You know that Andrea. There are two very different systems.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

The classification system is separate.

It was apparent throughout that Mitchell perceived herself to be on the panel for the select purpose of doing battle with Karen Finney as a Hillary Clinton surrogate.   The way Karen delivered that last comment was the equivalent of a brilliant follow-through.  She raised her voice and spoke over everyone to get that in and Mitchell was unable to stop her.   That ball sailed right over the center field wall.  Home run, Karen!
You can read the complete transcript here >>>>