During MSNBC’s 4 p.m. ET hour pre-debate coverage on Thursday, Hardball host Chris Matthews called on Fox News moderators to grill the Republican presidential candidates on evolution: “So I would like to think that Fox is just brazen enough to ask some – what they call bizarre questions....If a person doesn’t believe in science or evolution or the evidence of our life on this earth, that’s a bad start. Okay?”
Matthews fondly recalled GOP contenders being pressed on the issue during a primary debate in 2007: “You know, they [Republicans] get really mad – back when we did the Reagan Library debate a couple cycles ago and somebody asked, John Harris of Politico, who believes in evolution here? A reasonable question....And they get really mad at that because it exposed a couple of them to a particular point of view about science.”
Back in 2011, Matthews similarly fantasized over “bizarre questions” to ambush Republicans with.
Here is a transcript of Matthews’s ranting:
4:22 PM ET
CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know, they [Republicans] get really mad – back when we did the Reagan Library debate a couple cycles ago and somebody asked, John Harris of Politico, who believes in evolution here? A reasonable question. Because it gets to so many aspects of science and how you get to truth. And they get really mad at that because it exposed a couple of them to a particular point of view about science.
So I would like to think that Fox is just brazen enough to ask some – what they call bizarre questions. Because it’s those bizarre questions that really tell you who you’re dealing with here. If a person doesn’t believe in science or evolution or the evidence of our life on this earth, that’s a bad start. Okay? If they don’t believe in Lucy, they think all those bones were planted out there, the whole thing was historically some sort of ruse. If they believe that, slow down before you make them President of the United States.
