Chris Matthews was on Morning Joe Monday to share his precious insight into the New Hampshire primary coming up on Tuesday. As part of his segment he was asked about how he would historically categorize Marco Rubio’s seemingly embarrassing debate performance the Saturday prior. “I put it with Blade Runner.” Matthews said.
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were very perplexed by Matthew’s analogy since they have never seen the movie. “Blade Runner when Harrison Ford's job was to reveal the replicants from the humans. And to show that people were not humans they were replicants.” Matthews explained. “It’s about catching these people who are pretending to be people, they’ve gotten away, they're robots.”
Scarborough tried to connect the dots Matthews set up. “You're saying Marco Rubio was revealed.” Matthews point is following the latest narrative that Rubio is a fake and robotic candidate. The comparison to replicants is interesting for two reasons.
First, all candidates have their preprogrammed stump speeches that they fall back on. We have even seen it in most of the debates. Every candidate does it. The second reason it’s interesting is because in the movie it’s argued that the replicants are human in a way. They have free thought, memories, and genuine human emotions. Though Matthews may not realize it, by refering to Rubio as a replicant he is pointing out Rubio's humanity in the same metaphysical way the movie does.
This isn’t the first time Matthews has compared a member of the GOP to Blade Runner replicants. In 2009 Matthews used the word to describe Representative Virginia Foxx. Matthews ripped into Foxx because she claimed that Republicans were solely responsible for the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960’s. “I think she's one of these replicants from Blade Runner where they had an imposed memory put into them.” He said at the time.
Transcript below:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
February 8, 2016
8:22:58 – 8:23:53JOE SCARBOROUGH: Oh, can I ask you this really really quickly? Rubio. You love political history like I love political history. The Rubio collapse the other night on the debate stage, do you put that with Dan Quayle and Lloyd Benson? Do you put that with there you go again? Where do you put it?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: A different category?
CRIS MATTHEWS: No, no, I put it with Blade Runner.
SCARBOROUGH: What does that mean?
MATTHEWS: Blade Runner when Harrison Ford's job was to reveal the replicants from the humans.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
MATTHEWS: And to show that people were not humans they were replicants. [Crowd laughs] You gotta see the movie again.
BRZEZINSKI: Heh?
SCARBOROUGH: So, you’re saying what?
MATTHEWS: You didn’t see Blade Runner?
SCARBOROUGH: No. So, what are you suggesting?
MATTHEWS: You didn’t see Blade Runner? Did everybody here see Blade Runner? [Crowd claps]
BRZEZINSKI: Sorry.
MATTHEWS: Everybody here saw it, damn it. It’s about catching these people who are pretending to be people, they’ve gotten away, they're robots.
SCARBOROUGH: And you're saying Marco Rubio was revealed.
MATTHEWS: No, I'm saying it reminded me of Blade Runner.
BRZEZINSKI: Ohhh.
SCARBOROUGH: Wow. Okay. I’ll have to see the movie now.
