Hardball

Liberal MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews on Tuesday slimed the House GOP investigating Attorney General Eric Holder as racist, insisting that the possible contempt charges over Fast and Furious had an "ethnic" feel. Using charged, racial imagery, Matthews demonized, "Is this sort of stop-and-frisk at the highest level? Go after the attorney general, get him to empty his pockets, stand in the spotlight."

The Hardball host, who had previously been ignoring the Fast and Furious scandal, changed course and portrayed the whole thing as a bigoted witch hunt. Talking to former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Matthews speculated: "I don't want to start too much forest fire here, but it is my instinct: Is this ethnic, Mr. Mayor?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is clearly scared to death Barack Obama won't be reelected in November.

On Monday's Hardball, the host upped the attacks on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ending his program with a hate-filled monologue about how the former governor of Massachusetts is a "dangerous," unthinking puppet controlled by neo-cons, the religious right, and Grover Norquist (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Chris Matthews on Monday smeared supporters of enforcing America's immigration laws, linking them to the post-Civil War "back to Africa" movement for African Americans. After liberal columnist David Corn insisted that Mitt Romney had boxed himself in, politically, on the issue, Matthews snarled, "How is this any different than the big boat argument of people when it comes to African Americans after the Civil War?"

Matthews continued, "This idea of 'put them on a boat and send them back where they came from.'" Finding the worst motives in his political opponents, Matthews insisted, "You know, he says that in polite language, but that's what Romney's been saying. 'Get home where you came from.'" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

With a program entitled Hardball, MSNBC audiences should expect, well, "hardball" questions of politicians no matter what their ideological leanings, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on the June 14 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity. Instead, host Chris Matthews recently and quite openly confessed his eagerness to aid Democrat Elizabeth Warren's campaign to defeat Sen. Scott Walker (R-Mass.) this November.

"Let me help you on this, to the extent I, as a journalist, can help you," Matthews offered Warren on his June 13 program. [see the full video below the page break]

We at NewsBusters have been calling MSNBC's Chris Matthews a sycophant for Barack Obama since at least February 2008 when the so-called journalist bragged on the air about getting a thrill up his leg at the sound of the former junior senator from Illinois' voice.

It was therefore quite pleasing to hear former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele tell the Hardball host that to his face Thursday during a contentious exchange about the current White House resident's economics policies and who should be blamed for their failure (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Chris Matthews isn't even trying anymore. The liberal anchor on Wednesday went into full Democratic adviser mode. Talking to Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, he turned an interview into a strategy session, saying of the campaign against Republican Scott Brown: "Let me help you on this, to the extent that I, as a journalist, can help you."

Providing an additional contribution, Matthews somehow managed to skip the controversy that's been plaguing Warren's campaign for a month and a half: The fact that she has repeatedly tried to pass herself off as a Native American. (At one point, the Democrat claimed she was 1/32 Cherokee.) While avoiding this embarrassing subject, Matthews incredulously wondered, "Why are the polls so close?...You should be miles ahead of [Brown]." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday mocked Ann Romney for having a horse that might be heading to London to represent America in the Olympics.

I guess aside from his obvious lack of national pride, the Hardball host didn't know that the wife of the Republican presidential candidate credits horseback riding with helping to reduce her multiple sclerosis symptoms (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday outrageously compared Dorothy Sandusky standing by her alleged child rapist husband, Jerry, to Pat Nixon supporting Richard Nixon. The liberal cable anchor was discussing the molestation case and shockingly inserted a political comparison.

After legal guest Kendall Coffey tried to explain how Mrs. Sandusky could be a helpful witness to her disgraced husband, Matthews linked the 52 counts of sexual abuse to America's 37th president: "This is the new story of our life: The wife who stands by their man, as if they were Pat Nixon standing up there putting up with the ignominy that their husband's 100 percent responsible for and yet being loyal." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Of course you probably won't hear an apology or retraction on the network's programming, but PolitiFact.com has determined that MSNBC's Chris Matthews was in error when the Hardball host claimed on his June 4 program that a new Florida law -- which has been on hold by a federal judge -- made it utterly impossible for voter registration drives to sign up new voters over weekends. The law requires voter registration drive volunteers to turn in new voter registration forms within 48 hours after having collected them. "You don’t have to be a lawyer to own a calendar or know what a weekend is. A weekend is 48 hours," Matthews sneered at Florida GOP chairman Lenny Curry, insisting that its impossible to register new voters over a weekend without running afoul of the law

But the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald-run PolitiFact site did what Hardball producers should have done before Chris took to the air, actually look up and read the text of the legislation. In doing so, PolitiFact found that there's an exception in the law that takes weekends into account:

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is clearly worried the President that once gave him a thrill up his leg is not going to get reelected.

Appearing on Jansing and Company moments before Barack Obama's press conference Friday, the Hardball host said the President has "got to be aggressive. He’s got to be big time. Stop this nickel and dime, a couple of bucks for the teachers, a couple of bucks for the firefighters. 'I'm going to reduce the payroll tax.' This is pissant" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Considering how you're on the payroll and all ...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews made an observation to colleague Ed Schultz last night that was presumably intended as a compliment but could easily be seen as passive aggressive (video after page break) --

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews bombed on the game show Jeopardy! three weeks ago missing questions many fifth graders would have had no problem with.

Clearly forgetting his shameful performance, the Hardball host on Monday mocked Miss USA Pageant contestants for not knowing the name of the current Vice President (video follows with transcript and commentary):

At the top of Monday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer warned Mitt Romney against going after President Obama too hard on the stagnant economy: "Romney's campaign using the rise in unemployment to target President Obama's record on the economy, but can he make his point without sounding like he wants the recovery to fail?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Later, fill-in co-host Savannah Guthrie talked to left-wing MSNBC host Chris Matthews about the GOP's economic message and teed him up to slam Republicans: "I mean obviously they see that the bad economy will ultimately be good for his [Romney's] prospects, but they don't want to be perceived as rooting for failure." Matthews ranted: "But of course they are. You know, they've got a spring in their step now. This is great news for the Republicans.....All things being equal, they don't have to do anything except enjoy the economic downturn."

Fox News is taking a lot of heat for broadcasting a four-minute video attacking President Obama on Wednesday's Fox & Friends.

Yet when NewsBusters broke the story that a film mocking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was created by NBC and aired first on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show and then on MSNBC's Hardball in late February, there was no similar media outrage (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

On Friday, NewsBusters reported Salon editor Joan Walsh saying on MSNBC's Hardball, "I didn’t think it was possible to get lower than Andrew Breitbart, but his spawn have."

In a piece marvelously titled "Is It Possible to Get Lower Than Joan Walsh?" Twitchy reported moments ago that this sparked a new hashtag on Twitter:

Salon editor Joan Walsh took a truly disgusting cheap shot at the late Andrew Breitbart Friday.

Appearing on MSNBC's Hardball, Walsh said, "I didn’t think it was possible to get lower than Andrew Breitbart, but his spawn have gotten lower than Andrew Breitbart" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told MSNBC's Chris Matthews Thursday, "You have a more ruthless approach to politics than I do."

This occurred at the end of a lengthy discussion between the two on Hardball when the host strangely began asking his guest what animals he likes at the zoo (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney during the previous day's press gaggle cited a bogus MarketWatch report hysterically claiming "Obama Spending Binge Never Happened."

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler looked at Carney's comments as well as Rex Nutting's article Friday and gave their assertions three Pinocchios:

MSNBC's Chris Matthews doesn't just hate Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's money.

During an interview with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on Hardball Thursday, the host disparaged George Washington as an elite "with a couple of hundred slaves" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

A bogus report published by MarketWatch Tuesday claiming "under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s" has been all the rage at the White House and MSNBC.

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter correctly observed Wednesday:

Chris Matthews managed to keep a straight face, Wednesday, when he seriously repeated the "fact" that Barack Obama is "not" a "reckless spender." Highlighting a seriously flawed analysis by MarketWatch, Matthews marveled, "Every once and a while I come across a fact that just blows me away."

The Hardball anchor insisted that "federal spending is rising at the slowest rate" in 60 years. Embracing this new talking point, Matthews continued, " For four years, from fiscal year '09 through fiscal year '13, we are heading into, no change." Except, of course, this isn't true. As James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute points out, the chart only works if you blame George W. Bush.

Eight days after making a fool of himself on Jeopardy!, MSNBC's Chris Matthews was back to impugning the intellectual capacity of Sarah Palin.

After playing a clip of the former Alaska governor discussing why she wanted John McCain to focus on Barack Obama’s connection to the America-hating Reverend Jeremiah Wright in the 2008 campaign, Matthews mocked Tuesday, “I think her briefing papers have the weight of a comic book” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

On Monday, President Obama said his attacks on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's involvement in Bain Capital are "not a distraction and that "This is what this campaign is going to be about.”

MSNBC clearly got the message for as Politico's Dylan Byers noted Tuesday, this so-called news network's primetime schedule this evening is chock full of Bain:

The University of Notre Dame along with dozens of other Catholic institutions sued the Obama administration Monday to block the mandate requiring employers to provide contraceptives to employees.

In a discussion about this matter on MSNBC's Hardball Monday, host Chris Matthews asked one of his guests, "Do you think they’re all Republican, the bishops?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

A furious Chris Matthews on Monday railed against Cory Booker for his "betrayal" and "sabotage" of fellow Democrat Barack Obama. A bewildered Matthews couldn't understand why the Newark mayor would "trash" the President.

Howling over Booker's break from party loyalty, Matthews snarled, "... I think [this] was an act of sabotage. Whatever the intention was, [Booker] was trashing the entire Obama campaign of the summer." The Hardball host then played a clip of Obama "trying to defend himself against what looked like something like a betrayal." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

I have a serious question for MSNBC's Chris Matthews: How many lies are you willing to tell on national television to get Barack Obama reelected?

On Friday's Hardball, the host gave viewers a plethora of falsehoods and half-truths to giving us an idea of just how far he's prepared to go this election cycle to make sure the objection of his affection remains in the White House (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Hardball's Chris Matthews ranted on Friday that Sean Hannity and Fox News are spreading "crap" about Barack Obama and trying to turn the President into a "black revolutionary" with an "automatic weapon."

Of his competition on the higher rated Fox News, Matthews spewed, "And then he's like a black revolutionary with the automatic weapons, the big sunglasses, the beret. Right?...Is that Sean [Hannity's] image of this president?" The liberal anchor prefaced his comments by threatening, "Let's do a psychoanalysis of this guy, Sean Hannity." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

According to Chris Matthews, the radically pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius has "done more to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies than anyone in this country." Matthews assailed pro-life demonstrators who approve of "dictatorial laws" to reduce abortion. According to him, these protesters need to give the woman, who has made birth control "free," a "little credit."

The Hardball anchor on Thursday insisted that Sebelius, who as Kansas governor vetoed a partial birth abortion bill and entertained radical doctor George Tiller at the official residence, is a hero. Matthews praised, "It could be argued that this one person has done more to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies than anyone in our country."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]