There comes a time when everyone needs to take a holiday, so it would behoove Chris Matthews to heed this advice soon. Seeing as this past week of Hardball has proven to be a stumbling block for new, creative ways to insult President Trump, Wednesday night’s episode followed the same, banal pattern.
It must be written in Matthews’s rule book that every show contain a segment decrying President Trump as a racist. Wednesday’s racial conversation began with this exchange between Matthews and former RNC Chairman, Michael Steele:
MATTHEWS: Is this about ideology or ethnicity?
STEELE: Oh, this is a both. That's the beauty of it. He intertwines them both. It is about ideology because, to his base, it plays on an old narrative on how they look at people and how they think about philosophically and politically individuals who disagree with them or they disagree with. But it's also about race because now he's got these faces, these black faces, that he can talk about in terms that he knows is going to spark a reaction. He knows it. This is a — this is a man of a certain age from a certain time. He's 70 plus years old from the 1950s, so when he says go back where you came from, he knows exactly what that triggers. He knows exactly what it means when he says it, and he knows how people are going to react to it.
The predicted writing off of all Trump supporters as ignorant, angry white people shortly followed, courtesy of Matthews. Two examples are below (click “expand”):
…Back in 2016, a million years ago. I think — I was thinking — I know we all knew stuff about the white anger, the white — what's it called —white grievance we know all the words now — white identity as you mentioned is a more frequent, a more current one and we all kept saying but you know there's not enough of them. Because there is a lot of minorities and a lot of sophisticated suburbanites that just are going to trounce these people. Well they didn't trounce them and the numbers were off. So my question is, is Trump now off of the numbers?...Are there as many angry people now as there were four years ago? Are there enough white people to cover the bases for this guy?
(…)
I know we have to talk morality because we have moral standards in our country, including here, but why does Trump get the ride? Why does he get, you know, people that probably go to church on Sunday? They teach their kids to use good manners, not to make racial slurs or ethnic slurs and yet they go, they put the MAGA hat on, and they applaud like crazy people for this guy?
Subsequent to playing a clip of the crowd at a Trump rally chanting “send her back” (referring to Ilhan Omar), Matthews took it upon himself to defend the Congresswoman while excusing her anti-Semitic remarks: “You know the anti-Semitic thing is — that's sort of an aspect, but that's not the main point of what these women have been saying at all? What’s he, Cornell — I can only think of one case I think it was.”
The coup de grace of the evening came near the end of the show with this statement from Matthews:
You know, you know, he gets accused very credibly within the last weeks of being a rapist. He gets — he says terrible things about ethnic groups. The guy says anything he wants. He's almost up to the level of I shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. It's almost there.
It must not be an intellectually stimulating job to repeat the same, tired talking points every night.
Transcript below:
MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews
7/17/19
7:01:12 p.m
57 secondsMATTHEWS: Well, The New York Times reports that Trump's relentless assault on those four congresswomen who style themselves The Squad is part of a calculated strategy. “President Trump and the Republicans have sent the clearest signal yet that their approach to 2020 will be a racially divisive reprise of the strategy that helped Mr. Trump narrowly capture the White House in 2016.” Well late last night he tweeted: “So great to see how unified the Republican Party was on today's vote concerning statements I made about four Democrat” (that's the way Republicans say it) “Congresswomen. He added: “They are now the top most visible members of the House Democrats, who are now wedded to this bitterness and hate.” Earlier today, Trump tweeted: “Thank you to the vicious young Socialist Congresswomen. America will never buy your act!” In an interview this afternoon with the Daily Mail, Trump said he was “not unhappy” with the uproar over his racist attacks. And later today he was asked if he's relishing the fight.
(....)
7:03:34 p.m.
45 secondsMATTHEWS: Is this about ideology or ethnicity?
MICHAEL STEELE: Oh, this is a both. That's the beauty of it. He intertwines them both. It is about ideology because, to his base, it plays on an old narrative on how they look at people and how they think about philosophically and politically individuals who disagree with them or they disagree with. But it's also about race because now he's got these faces, these black faces, that he can talk about in terms that he knows is going to spark a reaction. He knows it. This is a — this is a man of a certain age from a certain time. He's 70 plus years old from the 1950s, so when he says go back where you came from, he knows exactly what that triggers. He knows exactly what it means when he says it, and he knows how people are going to react to it.
(....)
7:07:52 p.m.
39 secondsMATTHEWS: Three of you have been in politics so I want to ask you this. Back in 2016, a million years ago. I think — I was thinking — I know we all knew stuff about the white anger, the white — what's it called —white grievance we know all the words now — white identity as you mentioned is a more frequent, a more current one and we all kept saying but you know there's not enough of them. Because there is a lot of minorities and a lot of sophisticated suburbanites that just are going to trounce these people. Well they didn't trounce them and the numbers were off. So my question is, is Trump now off of the numbers? Cause it comes down to short numbers. 50,000 votes here, 20,000 votes here. Are there enough? Are there any many angry people now as there were four years ago? Are there enough white people to cover the bases for this guy?
(....)
7:13:27 p.m.
12 secondsMATTHEWS: Well I'm afraid Friday the 13th is coming back on this guy. Freddie Kruger is not dead. I'm telling you and whatever you think of impeachment it's not going away. But 95, Jeremy, is the high watermark of those who want to impeach.
(....)
7:17:44 p.m. [TEASE]
23 secondsMATTHEWS: Coming up, the tale of the tape. Newly discovered video — how do they find this stuff — from Mar-a-lago in 1992. Look at these pictures. Little sleazy here, shedding light on the relationship, it looks pretty intimate there, look, look, look, pretty close between him and Epstein and the accused sexual predator Jeffery Epstein. What was really going on back in Trump's Great Gatsby days when he was having those parties?
(....)
7:47:10 p.m.
20 secondsMATTHEWS: Let's talk Turkey. I know we have to talk morality because we have moral standards in our country, including here, but why does Trump get the ride? Why does he get, you know, people that probably go to church on Sunday? They teach their kids to use good manners, not to make racial slurs or ethnic slurs and yet they go, they put the MAGA hat on, and they applaud like crazy people for this guy?
(....)
7:52:15 p.m.
10 secondsMATTHEWS: You know the anti-Semitic thing is — that's sort of an aspect, but that's not the main point of what these women have been saying at all? What’s he, Cornell — I can only think of one case I think it was.
(....)
7:53:46 p.m.
31 secondsCORNELL BELCHER: All he has is racism
MATTHEWS: You know, you know, he gets accused very credibly within the last weeks of being a rapist. He gets — he says terrible things about ethnic groups. The guy says anything he wants. He's almost up to the level of I shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. It's almost there.
RICK TYLER: But it’s going to get worse.
MATTHEWS: Why are they with him that strongly?
BELCHER: Because he is their tribal strongman. And — and — and listen, I don't let Democrats off for this either because when Donald Trump stands up and says I'm going to give you back your country, we knew what he was doing. And Democrats’ reaction to that was, “I’m going to raise the minimum wage.” We have to speak to this tribalism, this growing tribalism in this country. We’ve got to get an alternative to it.
