In the rarely fruitless world of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews groaned at the top of Monday’s show about the ongoing Benghazi and e-mail scandals enveloping Hillary Clinton that have become “termite bites” for the Democratic presidential candidate as Vice President Joe Biden could still join the 2016 race.
Matthews spent roughly the first minute prior to the introduction of the show’s first panel wondering about what impact a Biden bid would have, including concerns that it could “split the moderate vote and give Senator Bernie Sanders a real chance to win” but also “switch attention to the big questions of competence and policy and away of the termite bites of Benghazi and e-mail.”
Hoping that having another candidate in the field would “liberate Hillary Clinton from the bunker and forge her team into a fighting stance,” Matthews further pontificated that Biden would “undoubtedly turn the tables on the status quo and bring alive a political party that's been thrilled on its left but dormant at the center.”
Invoking the late Fox show King of Hill, Matthews hyped that a Biden versus Clinton “make[s] the fight on the Democratic side as exciting as the King of the Hill wildness among the historically tame Republicans” plus “bring[s] hardball to the progressive arena at a time when Bill Clinton, that old warrior, is charging back into the action.”
Speaking at the end of the first segment with panelists David Corn of Mother Jones, The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson and The Wall Street Journal’s Jeanne Cummings, Matthews bemoaned: “He [Bill Clinton] or Biden would both have the same end up impact, getting away from the termite bites, calling out, this stupid e-mail thing that’s never going to away.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews on September 28 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews
September 28, 2015
7:00 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Can there be a bigger question for the Democrats right now? What will it do to the Democrats chances if Vice President Biden jumps into the race soon? Will it split the moderate vote and give Senator Bernie Sanders a real chance to win? Will it switch attention to the big questions of competence and policy and away of the termite bites of Benghazi and e-mail. Will it liberate Hillary Clinton from the bunker and forge her team into a fighting stance? Well, one thing we know: a Biden campaign, a real one would turn the tables on the status quo and bring alive a political party that's been thrilled on its left but dormant at the center. It could make the fight on the Democratic side as exciting as the King of the Hill wildness among the historically tame Republicans. It could bring Hardball to the progressive arena at a time when Bill Clinton, that old warrior, is charging back into the action. The second it’s Hillary versus Biden, you can forget the beanbag.
(....)
7:11 p.m. Eastern
DAVID CORN: Well, he can do the complaining for his aggrieved or, you know, spouse, but I think he is more effective when he actually gets out on the campaign trail. Coming on the shows is good, but when he gets out there, that’s when he’ll be a value to us.
MATTHEWS: He or Biden would both have the same end up impact, getting away from the termite bites, calling out, this stupid e-mail thing that’s never going to away.
CORN: It’s never going to go away.
THE WASHINGTON POST’s EUGENE ROBINSON: Never going away, no.
MATTHEWS: The focus ought to at least personality debates, policy debates, back to the big arena, away from the side show.
