NBC News' Andrea Mitchell said Wednesday that NBC News and MSNBC are not airing newly surfaced audio of Barack Obama talking about "redistribution" because it had not been authenticated yet. The network later approved the clip for broadcast, and located the full-length video.
In 1998, Obama — who was an Illinois state senator at the time — told college students, "I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot." A recording of the comments surfaced Tuesday, fresh on the heels of leaked video of Mitt Romney's remarks at a closed-door fundraiser.
On Wednesday, Mitchell discussed the remarks with Obama campaign spokesperson Ben LaBolt and Chuck Todd.
"Let's explain this redistribution issue," she said. "Because we have not authenticated this 14-year old tape from Loyola College when Barack Obama was a state senator, so because we have not, independently at NBC News and MSNBC, authenticated it, we’re not airing it."
The White House has confirmed that it was Obama's voice on the tape, but has not said whether it was unedited. Politico notes that Chuck Todd did play the audio on Wednesday's "Daily Rundown," but NBC News decided to wait for a full review before airing the remarks again. The audio was authenticated and approved for use Wednesday afternoon.
The network went a step further and requested the full-length video from Loyola, which part of which aired in an "NBC Nightly News" segment with Mitchell later that night. Watch the report below (via NBC News):
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