The news cycle is slower between the holidays, but there's still something ridiculous. On MSNBC's Morning Joe on Tuesday, former Hardball host Chris Matthews compared "rural rage" at the liberal elites to....terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Iraq who hate the U.S. military. He's still throwing hardballs.
Let's guess the farmers and the ranchers and the small-town bankers and barbers in rural America are not going to appreciate being lumped in with Islamic State and the Taliban. They're the austere religious scholars of the MAGA-churches, apparently? There were a few notable arguments on the Sunday network shows:
Robert Costa on CBS's Face the Nation: Host Margaret Brennan asked what special counsel Jack Smith's office was thinking. This must be the internal leak Costa received: Oh, Mr. Smith went to Washington and probed so much deeper than the January 6 Committee, he has a "sprawling case" against Trump. Sounds like Mueller Hype 2.0.
Pierre Thomas guest-hosted ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and sounded like a Democrat press secretary. All his questions were designed to set up Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to insist it's ridiculous (even creating a "toxic environment in Washington") to argue Biden's Justice Department is politicized. The Republicans do a "disservice" to insist Biden's team is trying to put his likely general-election opponent in jail before next November. Nothing about it is partisan!
Tim Alberta appeared on NBC's Meet the Press. It was the latest of many softball book-tour interviews recounting this story of the evangelical Trumpers who ruined his father's funeral by suggesting he was a bad Christian by opposing Trump. Meanwhile, Alberta has claimed that when Trump appeals to conservative Christians, he sounds a lot like Vladimir Putin justifying the invasion of Ukraine. He's like a younger Chris Matthews, where Republicans can be easily compared to dictators and terrorists, and no one fears the "fact checkers."
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget to check out all our year-end "Worst Of" blog posts.
