If you’re politically tuned in and following the Texas gubernatorial race, you’re probably aware of Wendy Davis’ recent “Wheelchair” ad, which accuses Greg Abbott, a paraplegic, of not caring for other people with disabilities. It’s been called a “historic low” for political advertising, a field with plenty of deplorable entries, but Wendy Davis hasn’t back down from it. Instead, she’s doubled down on it. She recently spoke with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell to defend the ad. As one might expect, Mitchell quickly let her left-wing bias show, but in this particular instance, she did it by descending to a level one would associate with conspiracy theorists and the grossly uncharitable. Digitas Daily has the video:

Greg Abbott’s “supposed disability”.

Is Andrea Mitchell suggesting that a wheelchair-bound paraplegic is faking his disability? Is it because he’s a Republican? Is it because he’s a prominent Republican politician? After all, if he’s a man in a wheelchair who votes Republican, he can’t be truly disabled because he doesn’t vote Democrat. It’s a theme we’ve seen over and over with how Democrats view women and minorities.

And what does Wendy Davis do? She lets the remark stand. She doesn’t even offer mild criticism of it. She should have shut Mitchell down right away, but when your campaign is desperately flailing about trying to stave off the all-but-inevitable defeat, perhaps you let stuff like this slide.

Texas can do better than that.