Matthews On Ark. Dem Runoff: 'Gets Back to the Old Days of the Democratic Party Trying to Make Sure There’s a White Candidate'

The more Chris Matthews is on live television within a 24-hour period, the likelihood of him saying something completely strange increases dramatically as each moment passes.

On MSNBC's June 8 special coverage of electoral primaries around the country, Matthews, the host of MSNBC's "Hardball," expressed his views on the Arkansas Democratic primary runoff, which incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln narrowly defeated Bill Halter. (h/t @francesmartel)

"The fact that this might be a close race tonight tells you that neither of the candidates has a mandate coming out of this," Matthews said. "The idea of a runoff is to get a mandate."

However, Matthews admitted he wasn't a fan of the runoff and suggested it had ulterior racial motives dating back to "the old days of the Democratic Party," [emphasis added]

"I don't even like these run-offs, do you?" Matthews asked. "I don't know why they have them. It gets back to the old days of the Democratic Party trying to make sure there's a white candidate or whatever. I don't know what the gizmo in this whole thing is. But why do they have to have run-offs? I guess it was back when they were a one-party state. They were all Democrats. They wanted to have someone with something like a mandate for the general. I don't get it."