Matthews Jokes About Obama Bringing Gun to Knife Fight When Dealing with GOP

On Sunday’s syndicated Chris Matthews Show, as the group discussed how a budget fight between a Republican Congress and President Obama might play out politically, host Matthews joked about the Chicago saying about bringing a gun if one's opponent has a knife, and putting enemies in the morgue as a metaphor for how Obama might deal with Republicans politically – a saying President Obama also has a history of using:

CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: But Obama knows how to play confrontation politics the Chicago way, and this is the kind of thing that, this is where the rubber meets the road.

MATTHEWS: You mean like Jimmy the Cop, "They come at you with a knife, you go at them with a gun"?

PAGE: You’ve got it. And remember-

MATTHEWS: "They put you in the hospital, you put them in the morgue"? Is that what we’re talking here?

Notably, some MSNBC liberals like Keith Olbermann have a history of accusing Republicans of inciting violence by using metaphors, and just a few weeks ago, Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks filled in on MSNBC’s The Ed Show and went to lengths to accuse Republicans of inciting violence with metaphorical rhetoric, all while ignoring Obama’s own similar history.

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Sunday, September 19, syndicated Chris Matthews Show:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Clarence, does he have Bill Clinton's finesse and plainness like Clinton did? The minute it got to the tough-

CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Nobody’s got Bill Clinton’s finesse, but-

MATTHEWS: He was good at that stuff. He was good when it got to Newt.

PAGE: But Obama knows how to play confrontation politics the Chicago way, and this is the kind of thing that, this is where the rubber meets the road.

MATTHEWS: You mean like Jimmy the Cop, "They come at you with a knife, you go at them with a gun"?

PAGE: You’ve got it. And remember-

MATTHEWS: "They put you in the hospital, you put them in the morgue"? Is that what we’re talking here?

PAGE: Just look at Clinton versus Gingrich. They faced each other down, and who got blamed for the shutdown? It was Gingrich and the Republicans.