MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews almost never passes up the chance to bash Ted Cruz as a modern day Joe McCarthy and Wednesday night was no different as he flaunted the comparison while New York Daily News columnist Linda Stasi complained that Cruz’s allegations about mob ties to Donald Trump were “racist and disgusting.”
The Cruz bashing kicked into high gear when Matthews turned to Stasi to ask what she made of “Cruz's comment about — about, well he said yesterday on the Glenn Beck Show, taking Trump over the reported business — business — he talked about dealing with mobsters” that Matthews felt was “a typical, typical Ted Cruz, McCarthyite comment.”
For full context, here’s the clip of what Cruz told Beck:
The idea that Donald is threatening delegates, we're seeing this pattern over and over again. [SCREEN WIPE] And Donald Trump's campaign put out publicly his supporters, the phone number of the state chairman, he has received over 3,000 calls of death threats. Donald needs to understand he is not Michael Corleone. I understand that Donald has had some very shady business deals with people that are currently in prison — mobsters, but presidency should not be la cosa nostra.
Matthews chimed in immediately when the clip ended by lamenting that Cruz supposedly told Chuck Hagel “the same thing” and thus “[h]e’s Joe McCarthy.”
Stasi leapt at the opportunity to speak and proclaimed that, “as an Italian-American,” she “really, really, really resent[ed] that comment because the truth is, every time somebody is bad, they're immediately mobsters, they’re immediately Italian.”
Mocking Cruz as “Teddy boy,” Stasi played the race card like a true liberal and compared Cruz’s claim to what Trump stated in his presidential announcement about Mexicans:
I have had — that's a very racist thing to say and that ain't going to fly here in New York, Teddy boy. That ain't going to fly where there’s a lot of them, there’s a lot of Italian-Americans and what he said, to me, is as racist is what Trump says about Mexicans. Sorry, but it is. You can’t just say that.
Just when one thought the segment could not have derailed any further, Stasi ruled that it was also unfair and racist for Cruz to claim that Trump was aligned with mobsters even though “everybody in New York knows somebody that's in prison or in the mob”:
You cannot say that and if you're builder in New York, you can't even — how — everybody in New York knows somebody that's in prison or in the mob or something. If you're in the media, if you’re in anywhere, you do. What he said is racist and disgusting.
The relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews on April 13 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews
April 13, 2016
7:10 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me ask you something. What about Cruz? I’m not going to let you go, Miss Stacey, until you tell me what you think of Cruz's comment about — about, well he said yesterday on the Glenn Beck Show, taking Trump over the reported business — business — he talked about dealing with mobsters. Here’s a typical, typical Ted Cruz, McCarthyite comment. Let's watch.
REPUBLICAN SENATOR TED CRUZ (Tex.) [TO GLENN BECK]: The idea that Donald is threatening delegates, we're seeing this pattern over and over again. [SCREEN WIPE] And Donald Trump's campaign put out publicly his supporters, the phone number of the state chairman, he has received over 3,000 calls of death threats. Donald needs to understand he is not Michael Corleone. I understand that Donald has had some very shady business deals with people that are currently in prison — mobsters, but presidency should not be la cosa nostra.
MATTHEWS: How can a guy — I mean, I’ve been watching. He did the same thing to Chuck Hagel. He’s Joe McCarthy. He makes these accusations that Trump is mobbed up, clear as a bell. What do you make as of that?
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS’s LINDA STASI: First of all, I, as an Italian-American, really, really, dreally resent that comment because the truth is, every time somebody is bad, they're immediately mobsters, they’re immediately Italian. I have had — that's a very racist thing to say and that ain't going to fly here in New York, Teddy boy. That ain't going to fly where there’s a lot of them, there’s a lot of Italian-Americans and what he said, to me, is as racist is what Trump says about Mexicans. Sorry, but it is. You can’t just say that. You cannot say that and if you're builder in New York, you can't even — how — everybody in New York knows somebody that's in prison or in the mob or something. If you're in the media, if you’re in anywhere, you do. What he said is racist and disgusting.
MATTHEWS: I don't know anybody in the mob. You know anybody in the mob?
NYT’s NICK CONFESSORE: I don't know anybody in the mob. Sorry
MATTHEWS: Bob, do you know anybody in the mob.
THE HILL’s BOB CUSACK: No, I don’t, but —
STASI: Have you not interviewed anybody that was ever —
MATTHEWS: I don't want to know.
