Norah O’Donnell: GOP Voters ‘More Uncomfortable With A Fox Commentator Than A Mormon’

Before NBC’s Norah O’Donnell jumps to CBS, she’s squeezing in some time on the Chris Matthews Show and sharing some unknown facts from a recent NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll of Republican primary voters. Chris Matthews wondered whether candidates like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman would be hurt by their Mormonism with Republican voters, yet O’Donnell revealed some candidates are hurt even more by a different characteristic.

O’Donnell suggested that according to this poll, “among Republicans, they’re more uncomfortable with a Fox commentator than they are a Mormon.” That means, according to O’Donnell, candidates like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, need to be more worried about their connection to Fox News upsetting Republicans, than Romney and O’Donnell need to worry about their religion. Michelle Cottle also suggested Mormonism will not be as big of a deal this time around, since having two Mormons in the race makes it “less exotic.”

This poll seems to be the same one that Chuck Todd referenced earlier in the week, and that strangely puts a lot of focus on asking Republican primary voters about Fox News. Although maybe the poll doesn’t take into account the simple fact that regardless of religion or Fox affiliation, voters simply think Romney and Huntsman are better candidates than Gingrich and Santorum?

Watch the clip from The Chris Matthews Show below:

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