In addition to a special presentation of Morning Joe, and continuing coverage anchored by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC Washington correspondents David Shuster and Norah O’Donnell are also anchoring extended coverage today.
• Mitchell talked about how she had just finished her 1pmET hour yesterday from the Washington bureau when, “all hell broke loose, and the rest unfolded tragically.”
• It was Shuster who was on the air yesterday from the DC bureau (with Monica Novotny in New York) during the frantic minutes after Russert collapsed, as EMS arrived, and finally that news arrived that Russert could not be resuscitated.
• O’Donnell went on maternity leave just last week, returning today to anchor coverage of the man who, in her words, “took a risk when he hired me as a correspondent at 25 years old.” O’Donnell is due to give birth to her third child in early July. It was on Russert’s MSNBC program, in February that O’Donnell announced her pregnancy. “She has [twins] Henry and she has Grace. 13 months…this is an Irish triplet,” Russert said at the time.