During live coverage of the Super Tuesday primaries, after Rachel Maddow declared that Newt Gingrich has a way of giving speeches that move people in the audience unlike fellow conservative Rick Santorum, Chris Matthews launched into his latest round of personal attacks on the former House Speaker, asserting that he "looks like the devil," and that he appears "diabolical."
The MSNBC host described Gingrich as a "menacing force" and accused him of doing "evil things" when he ran Congress. Below are both video and a transcript of the relevant portion of MSNBC's Super Tuesday coverage from Tuesday, March 6:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think Newt's a negative force.
RACHEL MADDOW: Newt can be a negative force in a way that moves people, though. He can be negative in a way about the President that moves people who hate the President.
NEWT GINGRICH: I've said before the only reason I know he's not the devil is because he looks like the devil. I mean, he does look like the devil, and he has that maniacal look to him - a diabolical look, I should say - and he is a menacing force in American political life. And most people will tell you, and I do know this, from the time he came to Congress in the 1990s, he brought it down. He created an environment of hostility across the aisles that we've never been able to get away from since then.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: He was personally the turning point.
MATTHEWS: He did it. He did things, evil things like say, "Keep your spouse back in the district, come to Washington alone so that you could become a pure politician. He just created a terrible environment.
