Andrea Mitchell delivers emotional final words on last show as MSNBC host

Seasoned NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell has signed off her daytime MSNBC show, Andrea Mitchell Reports, for the final time.

After announcing in October that she would be leaving and revealing her exact date of departure just this week, Mitchell spoke on air following a clip montage Friday. “Just a few final thoughts about the stories that we’ve shared over these 17 years, you and I, and the miles I’ve traveled to bring them to you,” she said. “I’ve anchored this program all over the world, as you just saw, from Moscow to Beijing, Nairobi to Ramallah, Havana, Islamabad, Kabul, Baghdad, yes, telling America’s story, as well, all over the United States, starting with Iowa and New Hampshire.”

Mitchell reiterated that she wouldn’t be disappearing from screens completely — far from it. She will remain at NBC News in the role of chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent.

“This hour has always been driven by what I love most, deep reporting on politics and foreign policy,” Mitchell continued. “As I announced last October, in these challenging times, I want to get back to my roots and learn more about your lives, tell your stories as we face tectonic changes in our nation and our world, after also doing that for 17 years, hosting this daily show on MSNBC, I’ll be doing that from now on full-time, where this amazing ride first started 47 years ago, right here at NBC News as chief Washington and chief foreign policy correspondent, continuing to cover politics and foreign policy.”

With time dwindling, the journalist was surprised by dozens of colleagues she’d worked with on the news show, streaming into the studio to individually give her hugs and well wishes. Mitchell was moved as they all clapped for her, and her final words as anchor were to tease that she would be on Friday’s Nightly News and Meet the Press on Sunday.

The announcement that Mitchell would leaving her program, the network’s longest-running one in daytime, came a week after NBC’s longtime political director, Chuck Todd, left, citing the desire to take on new projects.

Mitchell explained on her show in the days before the presidential election that she was leaving because she wanted “to do more of what I love the most: more connecting, listening and reporting in the field,” she said. “Especially as whoever is elected next week is going to undertake the monumental task of handling two foreign wars and the political divisions here at home.”

She wanted to cover news stories from a “different vantage point,” she said, and “not on a schedule of a daily show.”