Reacting to the resignation of John Boehner, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Friday assessed the state of the modern Republican Party. After Brian Williams wondered, “who is the Republican establishment,” the cable host insisted that the GOP has been supplanted “by the sun belt because of the civil rights passage in ‘64.”
He sneered, “Now, we have a Solid South which is pro-white in the South and we have a western party in the mountain states, which is Mormon and conservative.” The modern Republican Party is “pro-white”? Is that why the GOP has an African American, two Hispanics and a woman running for the nomination?
Matthews concluded, “So, except for the left coast, as we still cheerily call it, California and Washington state and Oregon and sweeping over to the east, the country is pretty red.”
Earlier on MSNBC, Williams insisted that a major obstacle for Boehner was having to “put up” with the Tea Party.
ABC’s live coverage included Cokie Roberts lamenting that the departure will make life “harder” for Obama.
[Thanks to MRC intern Michael McKinney for the transcript.]
A transcript of the comments is below:
Live MSNBC coverage
09/25/15
11:07BRIAN WILLIAMS: Chris, who is the Republican Establishment?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, we know who it was. It was the Bush family. And the Bush family was sort of pushed aside briefly by the Reagans, sort of Bonapartist era for a bit. It was back to the Bushes. It's Bob Dole. It's Bob Michael. It's Midwest, as I said, cloth-cut Republicans, generally, with some old money like the Bushes. It's a party of the Northeast and the Midwest, historically, and now more the Midwest, of course its been supplanted by sun belt because of the civil rights passage in '64. As Lyndon Johnson well foretold, darkly foretold, It would be the end of the Solid South. Now, we have a Solid South which is pro-white in the South and we have a western party in the mountain states, which is Mormon and conservative. So, except for the left coast, as we still cheerily call it, California and Washington state and Oregon and sweeping over to the east, the country is pretty red.
