Chris Matthews Calls Romney’s Attacks on Gingrich ‘A Snuff Movie’

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews had some harsh criticism for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney Monday.

In a discussion about the viciousness in the GOP race, the Hardball host said, “I’ve never seen one, but it’s like a snuff movie we’ve been watching here” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The segment began with Matthews sharing some recent poll numbers, after which he said, “It seems to me that there’s been collateral damage here, damage that might last. The question is of course will it last?”

The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson agreed with his host and then elaborated, “We’ve also learned that Romney, the Romney camp has a tendency toward over-confidence. We’ve seen that a couple of times, and toward going so totally negative that they forget to project a positive image of their guy, which as you know from history, that’s not a good idea. You have to make a positive case for your guy to be president, and they’re not really doing that.”

Matthews replied, “This is like, I’ve never seen one, but it’s like a snuff movie we’ve been watching here. They kill, they kill Newt Gingrich but they don’t sell the candidate.”

So much for the post-Gabrielle Giffords shooting political civility.

More importantly, when Barack Obama begins spending what many estimate will be $1 billion on negative ads to attack his Republican opponent, will Matthews and his colleagues be calling that a snuff movie and complaining about the harsh rhetoric in the campaign?

Yes, that was a rhetorical question.

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