In a complete state of denial on Thursday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell interrupted live coverage of Donald Trump speaking at a Florida campaign rally to supposedly “fact-check” the candidate for citing a bombshell report that the FBI was conducting an extensive investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail and charitable foundation scandals.

Mitchell refused to accept reality: “Just a lot of fact-checking to do. She's not under criminal investigation. In fact, it's not an investigation. It's just a review of the e-mails. She did not lie to the FBI, according to James Comey. There was no grounds to prosecute her. So there are no lies, there’s no criminality.” She fretted: “I don't know even where to start....but I mean, we have to put it in some context.”

Reporting live from the rally, correspondent Peter Alexander condescendingly remarked: “Well, I think, Andrea, in the simplest of terms, you can't let the facts get in the way of a good story. And for Donald Trump that's been what he's been focused on over the course of the last several days.”

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He proceeded to dismiss the reporting in question:

Obviously taking what we do know to be the facts, the review that is taking place behind closed doors by agents within the FBI, and sort of extrapolating that based on some unsubstantiated reporting, some of it most recently from Fox News, about this criminal investigation. Anonymous sources suggesting that an indictment is likely and even suggesting that the State Department was interfering with the investigation right now.

In the 10 a.m. ET hour, anchor Craig Melvin similarly rejected the news as “reporting that hasn’t been verified by this network.” However, despite such hand-wringing, MSNBC actually covered the story twice Thursday morning.

Here is a transcript of Mitchell’s November 3 exchange with Alexander: