Primaries forced 
Andrea Mitchell to postpone breast 
cancer recovery

A lot of folks might have been wishing the seemingly endless primary season would wrap up, but perhaps no one more than Andrea Mitchell.

The NBC News journalist, 65, reveals she actually put off part of her recovery from breast cancer in order to cover primary season. The MSNBC anchor revealed her diagnosis on her show, “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” last September.

{mosads}Mitchell, who was a guest of honor at last week’s NewsBabes Bash for Breast Cancer at the District’s Howard Theatre — which raised money for the George Washington University Mammovan — told us, “I put off reconstruction after my mastectomy because I wanted to get through the Republican primaries first. I didn’t want to be out again for surgery.”

Joking in remarks to the crowd that the “Republican field did not cooperate,” Mitchell continued to ITK, “It went on so long, I thought it would never end, because I knew I had to get back into the hospital.”

So was she begging Newt 
Gingrich to drop out of the race by the end of it?

“I didn’t care who got out — I just wanted it to be over!” Mitchell explained with a laugh.

Mitchell, who credits an annual screening for catching her breast cancer while it was still in an early stage, contends she won’t have to fret as much about her health as election season heats up, saying, “I’m good for the long term.”