Closing out Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews suggested that Hillary Clinton must pass “a test of leadership” to take the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and become the next U.S. president that has nothing to do with any number of the scandals she’s involved in but simply whether she can corral Bernie Sanders supporters without capitulating to them.
Matthews not surprisingly declared that Republicans have already “fail[ed] that test” as “Speaker Boehner let Donald Trump pipe up that birther theory” and “host[ed] a Tea Party all these years, letting them yelp and filibuster and even stop the government and we saw what all this appeasement of the hard right has done.”
Pointing out that “[t]he party of Abraham Lincoln is the party of Donald Trump,” he proclaimed that “all this happened because the elected officials of the party stood back and bought peace at whatever price they could get it and the price has been the Republican Party itself, now in bondage buried in the basement of Trump Tower.”
After rambling on and on about Republicans, Matthews finally circled back to the whole focus of his commentary in the Democrats:
The Democrats now face a similar test as the nominee battled those she defeated. Does she accept the agenda of the candidate she’s beaten and act as if his positions are her positions? I think we know the answer as the great Democrat Adlai Stevenson once said best it’s the duty of leaders to lead and that's the test Republicans failed.
The loud-mouthed MSNBC host went right back to attacking the GOP as having brought in tea party figures to their mainstream and closed without any mention of the tension he discussed earlier in the show at the Nevada Democratic gathering: “While the battle of the Republican Party is over, the party has lost. Trump has won. The battle of the Democratic Party has begun between now and Philadelphia. The question is whether it's likely nominee has the fight to lead it.”
The transcript of the segment from MSNBC’s Hardball on May 18 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
May 18, 2016
7:58 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with a test of leadership. We've all watched elected Republicans fail that test. We saw Speaker Boehner let Donald Trump pipe up that birther theory of his. We saw Republicans host a tea party all these years, letting them yelp and filibuster and even stop the government and we saw what all this appeasement of the hard right has done. The party of Abraham Lincoln is the party of Donald Trump and all this happened because the elected officials of the party stood back and bought peace at whatever price they could get it and the price has been the Republican Party itself, now in bondage buried in the basement of Trump Tower. The Democrats now face a similar test as the nominee battled those she defeated. Does she accept the agenda of the candidate she’s beaten and act as if his positions are her positions? I think we know the answer as the great Democrat Adlai Stevenson once said best it’s the duty of leaders to lead and that's the test Republicans failed. It's what happened to the people who could have, should have been setting the course the past half dozen years rather than buckle and snuggle up to the tea party and shrink before the birthers and the wild ones, they could have made their case of what should be done, rather than pander they might just have led. While the battle of the Republican Party is over, the party has lost. Trump has won. The battle of the Democratic Party has begun between now and Philadelphia. The question is whether it's likely nominee has the fight to lead it.
