All aboard the hypocrisy train! Throughout Wednesday’s Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews trashed the Republican “song fest” following the passage of tax reform as if it were “a druid celebration of the winter solstice” featuring “Trumpkins” “do[ing] their hosannas” before their “sun king” President Trump.
On tax reform, Matthews proclaimed that the “Trumpkins” should suffer mightily in 2018 and 2020 because it’s the “greatest shorting of the American people in history.”
Matthews should be the last person to call out anyone for what he perceives as an obsession with one particular political figure. One just has to mention Barack Obama causing a “thrill” to go up Chris’s leg in 2008 and any claim made on Wednesday about Republicans will seem petty.
The obsession bled into the opening segment, which was spent fear-mongering the American people about Trump causing a constitutional crisis by firing special counsel Robert Mueller. There, Matthews complained:
After that song fest, I’ll get to it at the White House today where they all like — it was like a druid ceremony for the winter solstice. It was the weirdest thing in the world. They're celebrating how they're stealing all the money from regular people and giving it to their pals and they’re having this weird — everybody had a white shirt on today, I noticed. They were so up for this thing.
“Weirdest thing in the world?” Matthews worshipping Obama like he was a long lost son was, to many people, one of the “weirdest” things ever.
In teasing the actual coverage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Matthews again bemoaned the “weirdly ritualistic” scene like it was “a druid celebration of the winter solstice” with men showing up in “white shirts on like they were told this is a dress occasion.”
“This tax plan is ugly on the inside. It’s deeply unpopular with the people and they know what they're talking about. This is going to ship billions to the top, so will this hurt the Republicans in 2018? It ought to and also in 2020,” Matthews added.
After bringing up the white dress shirts to The Washington Post’s Robert Costa, Matthews described Republicans praising the President’s role in tax reform as “a strange ritual” even though, in his mind: “They were all doing what they always do. It seems like he has to get these hosannas from these people all the time. Let's watch them do their hosannas.”
Speaking again to Costa, Matthews wondered: “Why — why does he like this? Robert, you are my Trump expert. Why does he have to — well, he's not God. You don't pray to him, but these people seem to pray to him. The stuff they say to him at his face is prayer-like.”
“Prayer-like?” “Hosanas?” My goodness. Let’s take another trip down memory lane. Early in the Obama transition, Matthews told Joe Scarborough: “I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work...[I]t is my job. My job is to help this country....This country needs a successful presidency more than anything right now.”
When it came to brain power, Matthews swooned in April 2015 that Obama was “smarter” than everyone else when it came to negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran. Bang up job, Chris. That deal really seems to have panned out well....or not.
The amusing thing was that, as time went on, Matthews admitted that he put his full faith behind Obama. On March 10, 2016, Matthews fondly noted:
I think Obama was so exciting. I think, you know, I was the thrill up the leg and all that. I admit I was overwhelmed by his speeches 'cause I’d go to all these rooms with 200 people in it and I had never heard anybody speak like Obama. His presidency obviously couldn't live up to that level. It couldn't. It was so stellar, the excitement in those crowds. First African-American, young guy, incredibly educated and who could give a speech like nobody’s been able to do since — well, certainly since on the Democratic side, since Kennedy.
Pivoting back to the present, Matthews concluded his segment with Costa and The Root’s Jason Johnson by screeching how the GOP “looked like they were in love with this guy and that is frightening” with “[g]rown people” being “in love with this character.”
Matthews saved the craziest lines for the end of the show. It began with the winter solstice line, but added that it was “the Trumpkins” who “had their ritual today on the back steps of the White House.” Matthews continued:
There we were, the men in white shirts, lined up on both sides of Truman balcony to sing the song of their sun king, Donald J. Trump. It was the strangest of sights. Men and women decked out in their Sunday best saying things about the President they could either not possibly mean or that they had been forced by the Trumpkins back home to believe and like it. Look at this tax bill they're lauding and applauding. Look at it. It's the largest transplant of money in the history of the republic. Trillions of dollars being shoved up to the top to join where most of the money already sits.
After using zero evidence to support his claim or that it wouldn’t spur economic growth, Matthews ruled that Republicans were “gleaming in the sunlight, worshiping their sun king, glorying in the shortest day of the year” but also “the greatest shorting of the American people in history.”
History can served as an ally in denouncing Matthews’s cartoonish imagery. On June 29, 2016, Matthews expressed fear that Barack Obama would lose “some of his glow” if Trump pulled him “down to [his] level” on the campaign trail. Right after Obama spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Matthews alluded to the “thrill” Obama gave him physically before adding that he “does speaking wonderfully about our country.”
Two days before Trump’s Inauguration, Matthews sermonized:
I think he’s [Barack Obama] a fine man. I think he’s been a fine president....Let me finish tonight with the American president we’re about to lose. Barack Obama is, above all, a fine man. Just look at him. Is there a husband, a father that we would wish more as a model for our sons, for our sons-in-law to have and raise our grandchildren? Is there anyone who carries himself better in word, in sentiment, in temperament, in optimism? Hope. That was the word on that poster. It’s the feeling he exemplified in his last press briefing....To say that no person can make a difference, I give you the fine case of that fine man, Barack Obama.
To be clear, that only scratched the surface in terms of Matthews's love for Obama. Therefore, Chris Matthews should probably sit out any debate about whether or not a single individual or group of people are too infatuated with a politician.
Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on December 20:
MSNBC’s Hardball
December 20, 2017
7:06 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: After that song fest, I’ll get to it at the White House today where they all like — it was like a druid ceremony for the winter solstice. It was the weirdest thing in the world. They're celebrating how they're stealing all the money from regular people and giving it to their pals and they’re having this weird — everybody had a white shirt on today, I noticed. They were so up for this thing.
(....)
7:13 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
MATTHEWS: Coming up, President Trump and the Republicans are celebrating — what a celebration it. It was like a druid celebration of the winter solstice. It was really weirdly ritualistic. All of the guys showed up, by the way, with white shirts on like they were told this is a dress occasion. But what a cost. This tax plan is ugly on the inside. It’s deeply unpopular with the people and they know what they're talking about. This is going to ship billions to the top, so will this hurt the Republicans in 2018? It ought to and also in 2020. That’s ahead.
(....)
7:21 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS [TO ROBERT COSTA]: But today I saw a lot of Republican guys, mostly guys in the Congress and the Senate with white shirts on, all dressed up for the occasion. Do you think celebration is the right message for a tax cut that goes mostly to the top?
(....)
7:24 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: At the White House Republicans took the mic one at a time to praise the president. This is really a strange ritual. They were all doing what they always do. It seems like he has to get these hosannas from these people all the time. Let's watch them do their hosannas.
(....)
7:25 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS [TO COSTA]: Why — why does he like this? Robert, you are my Trump expert. Why does he have to — well, he's not God. You don't pray to him, but these people seem to pray to him. The stuff they say to him at his face is prayer-like.
(....)
7:27 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Well, Republicans don't fall in love they fall in line, but today, they looked like they were in love with this guy and that is frightening. Frightening. Grown people in love with this character.
(....)
7:59 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Trump watch. Wednesday, December 20th, 2017. Like the druids celebrating the winter solstice, the Trumpkins had their ritual today on the back steps of the White House. There we were, the men in white shirts, lined up on both sides of Truman balcony to sing the song of their sun king, Donald J. Trump. It was the strangest of sights. Men and women decked out in their Sunday best saying things about the President they could either not possibly mean or that they had been forced by the Trumpkins back home to believe and like it. Look at this tax bill they're lauding and applauding. Look at it. It's the largest transplant of money in the history of the republic. Trillions of dollars being shoved up to the top to join where most of the money already sits. The cuts in corporate taxes joins the cuts already slashing around in corporate drawers. The big dollar cuts in the top tax rate. The elimination of the corporate alternative minimum tax that makes companies pay at least something. That's gone. The huge cut in estate taxes, which means millions more owned by the rich will be kept in their families, ensuring rich kids comforted by grandpop’s millions for generations to come. How about that one? And there they were today, gleaming in the sunlight, worshiping their sun king, glorying in the shortest day of the year. The day they chose to celebrate the greatest shorting of the American people in history. That's Hardball for now.
