Fresh off his foaming praise for Hillary Clinton’s policy speech in the previous hour, MSNBC handed Hardball host Chris Matthews the keys to the network’s 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour and with a handful of characters, they continued to sing her praises for being “really strong and forceful” and creating a “halleljuah” moment that Democrats should “do more often.”
Time magazine Washington correspondent Jay Newton-Small affirmed that she found Clinton’s speech to be “really strong and forceful” and “took on a lot of attacks and a lot of sort of really kind of gut punches that you didn't see a lot of Republicans taking on until almost throughout the entire campaign.”
“I mean she kind of went for the jugular off the bat. You know, the Daisy commercial right away,” Newton-Small added.
Matthews made certain to expand upon his thoughts from earlier in the day by pontificating about how “it was beautifully written and beautifully delivered” based on “her temperament, everything about her confidence in what she was saying was so powerful, she didn't have to argue.”
In the next segment, former Clinton administration adviser Marc Ginsberg stated that his reaction to the speech was simply “hallelujah” in the way that Clinton “effectively tore him limb from limb” on “[h]is phony foreign policy, his bravado, his sort of Custer's last stand attitude about everything that goes on around the world and the sense of belittling allies and, in effect, inflating adversaries.”
A few minutes later, Matthews touted the 17 U.S. flags that were stationed behind Clinton as a sign that “[s]he made a very patriotic appeal at the end of the speech about what America stands for and about how America is a great country” because “[w]e don't have to make it great again.”
“It is great and the values of our country. She really gave the speech I wish Democrats would do more often, grab back the flag, stop letting the other party be the patriots,” Matthews stated with a clear sense of longing for the days when the left didn’t trash America (which might not ever be reversed).
What Matthews uttered struck a chord with Ginsberg as he admitted: “Now you're talking exactly the way I feel. I feel as a Democrat who has been fighting this fight over foreign policy for decades.”
After Matthews pointed out that liberals should “stop calling America the bad guy,” Ginsberg reverted back to promoting the Democratic presidential candidate:
I have known Hillary Clinton for 35 years. She's carried the flag for this country both as First Lady and as Secretary of State. She has enormous respect for her tenacity, her surefootedness. Look, there’s many things that could have happened differently in the Obama foreign policy if she had her way. The White House is what stopped her in many respects for delivering many of the things that now the President is having to contend with.
The relevant portions of the transcript from the 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC Live on June 2 can be found below.
MSNBC Live
June 2, 2016
4:06 p.m. Eastern
JAY NEWTON-SMALL: I thought it was — I thought it was really strong and forceful. She hasn't been great at kind of soaring, at kind of rising above 30,000 foot level and in this case she really did and she also took on a lot of attacks and a lot of sort of really kind of gut punches that you didn't see a lot of Republicans taking on until almost throughout the entire campaign. I mean she kind of went for the jugular off the bat. You know, the Daisy commercial right away.
(....)
4:09 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: I noticed two things about the speech. First of all, it was beautifully written and beautifully delivered. Everything you said about temperament, her temperament, everything about her confidence in what she was saying was so powerful, she didn't have to argue. It wasn't a sales pitch. She said this is the way things are. This what is believe and you're going to buy it. Couple things, there was nothing in there about her. This speech could have been given by any number of people. Nothing about her experience from Iraq and the decision she made back 2001 and ‘02, nothing about her decisions with regard to Libya or Syria.
(....)
4:20 p.m. Eastern
MARC GINSBERG: I’ll tell you what. I was saying while I was sitting in the green room hallelujah! Thank goodness someone finally took in one speech and effectively tore him limb from limb. His phony foreign policy, his bravado, his sort of Custer's last stand attitude about everything that goes on around the world and the sense of belittling allies and, in effect, inflating adversaries. She has the capacity and tenacity to make this happen.
(....)
4:23 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Okay, let me talk to you about something else that’s not intricate, it's big. Trump has ran as a nationalist. People may not like the scent of his nationalism. It sounds too to the right, obviously. Hillary, look at all those flags there today, this wasn't some superficial look, putting some flowers up behind you. These were flags. 17 flags. Brian Williams counted them. She made a very patriotic appeal at the end of the speech about what America stands for and about how America is a great country. We don't have to make it great again. It is great and the values of our country. She really gave the speech I wish Democrats would do more often, grab back the flag, stop letting the other party be the patriots.
GINSBERG: Now you're talking exactly the way I feel. I feel as a Democrat who has been fighting this fight over foreign policy for decades. Look, I have known Hillary Clinton —
MATTHEWS: You have to stop calling America the bad guy. That’s one thing.
GINSBERG: I have known Hillary Clinton for 35 years. She's carried the flag for this country both as First Lady and as Secretary of State. She has enormous respect for her tenacity, her surefootedness. Look, there’s many things that could have happened differently in the Obama foreign policy if she had her way. The White House is what stopped her in many respects for delivering many of the things that now the President is having to contend with.
MATTHEWS: Yeah. Well, a lot of people who take my position on foreign policy do it because they're mad at the United States. I do it because I'm worried about the United States and looking out for it, but Hillary today was looking out for us. It was a very brave nationalistic — a very American speech I should say.
