Just think, this was on Thursday night, so the week from hell for MSNBC’s Hardball and host Chris Matthews was far from over with. Thursday’s installment featured he and various guests demanding that “we cannot allow” “a potential criminal” in President Trump to appoint another conservative Supreme Court justice because he’ll keep Trump from prison and do his bidding “for three decades.”
Pivoting from an update on from The Capital Gazette newspaper shooting, Matthews screeched that “[i]t’s impossible to see another decision that will have greater or sure will greater shape the kind of country we do live in.”
When it comes to conservative (and not liberal) justices, Matthews declared that the Supreme Court will always make political decisions on things like “decid[ing] presidential elections, the number of guns in the country, the power of money in our politics and on and on.”
Matthews later teed up Hollywood director and walking Notable Quotable Rob Reiner by fretting that the Supreme Court “will decide the fate very well of this President” on “[a]ll kinds of issues, obstruction of justice and possible collusion with the Russians” and yet the Senate will be “let[ting] him pick one of the people to decide his own fate.”
Reiner implored liberals to let go of their feelings about the Merrick Garland nomination because “[w]e have a President of the United States that, right now, is under investigation for possibly conspiring with a...foreign enemy power to disrupt our democracy and steal an election.”
Behold the ridiculousness from Meathead:
I don’t think we want as Americans to allow somebody who is possibly colluding with a foreign enemy to making choices that are going to affect our lives for the next 30, 40 years. That’s the issue and make no mistake about it. We cannot allow this. We have to see what happens with the Mueller investigation, whether or not Donald Trump is guilty or not guilty of major, major crimes and if he is, he should not be allowed to pick the next Supreme Court justice.
MoveOn.org spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre suggested that this Supreme Court justice symbolizes Trump “buying himself a get of jail free card” while Matthews followed up with more vitriol about right-leaning Court decisions being political with the Court showing “its amazing brazeness.”
“This Court is unbounded in its power and it’s not just the social issues we fight about like abortion and marriage equality. It’s everything. It’s all political,” he shouted.
Reiner tried to make a nonpartisan case but, of course, it came across as a conspiracy theory-laden, left-wing case (click “expand” for more):
And wherever you come down on any of these issues, I would hope as an American you don’t want a potential criminal choosing one of our Supreme Court justices. That’s what it comes down to. I mean, I don’t care whether you’re a pro-life or pro-choice, I happen to be, you know, pro-choice and I happen to be in favor of gay rights and civil rights and workers rights and all those things and those things are in jeopardy, but whatever — wherever you come down ideologically, we can all agree that we shouldn’t have a potential criminal choosing our next Supreme Court justice.
On abortion, Matthews brought up the President’s stupid assertion that woman should face criminal punishment (whether that’s charges, execution, or jail time, we don’t know) to claim that he’ll find a justice who agrees with him on this “sort of biblical kind of answer.”
To end the show, Matthews’s “Trump Watch” commentary was another portrait of someone who was slowly losing control of their faculties in the calmness department.
He started by declaring that the pick replacing Anthony Kennedy will do “his will for three decades,” so “there’s nothing that the Congress decides this year or the years ahead that is likely to matter as much as this decision.”
“So, don’t let anyone tell you picking this decisive member of the Supreme Court is not essentially a political decision, to pick a Republican justice is to have a Republican court. If the Democrats in the United States Senate cannot resist Trump’s putting the country’s highest court in a death grip, they will and should pay an insufferable price. Now is the time for political warfare, not after this coming election when the enduring historic damage had already been sustained,” he concluded.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on June 28, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
June 28, 2018
7:02 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Now to the epic battle over President Trump’s Supreme Court pick to replace Anthony Kennedy. It’s impossible to see another decision that will have greater or sure will greater shape the kind of country we do live in. The Supreme Court has proven his willingness to decide Presidential elections, the number of guns in the country, the power of money in our politics and on and on. Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell clearly plan to jam what will be a 30-year choice through Congress which is four months to go before the people will speak in issues midterm’s elections.
(...)
7:06 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Rob, thank you for joining us. I have — there’s another lay of concern here. This Supreme Court, when it’s full up with nine justices, will decide the fate very well of this President. We’ve got a special counsel loaded for bear. All kinds of issues, obstruction of justice and possible collusion with the Russians and how — what materials and what testimonies have to be accepted, whether he has to testify or not and they are going to let him pick one of the people to decide his own fate.
ROB REINER: That’s the biggest problem. I don’t think we should get hung up on the egregious — effects of what Mitch McConnell did to Barack Obama and a tit-for-tat kind of thing. We have a President of the United States that, right now, is under investigation for possibly conspiring with a firent [sic] — foreign enemy power to disrupt our democracy and steal an election. I don’t think we want as Americans to allow somebody who is possibly colluding with a foreign enemy to making choices that are going to affect our lives for the next 30, 40 years. That’s the issue and make no mistake about it. We cannot allow this. We have to see what happens with the Mueller investigation, whether or not Donald Trump is guilty or not guilty of major, major crimes and if he is, he should not be allowed to pick the next Supreme Court justice.
(....)
7:08 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Karine, the people have to fight this nomination are going to be the Democratic leaders. They have got to get out to make this case. They don’t have parliamentary tricks or whatever up their sleeve. They have got to slow this thing down so the voters get to talk first, I think. Your thoughts?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: No, that’s exactly right. I think that they can’t play nice. There is no playing nice here. Everything is at stake. Our fundamental rights are at stake here when you talk about affirmative action, abortion, when you talk about environmental issues, LGBTQ issues, everything is at stake and it is true, the one thing that is also very scary, this is like the worst case scenario here, Chris. Because the other thing too is with Russia, with the Russia investigation, he could be buying himself a get out of jail free card with this pick. He — this is someone who doesn’t believe in the rule of law. He thinks he is above the law and even during the Nixon times, the Supreme Court had to jump in in Watergate. So there’s a lot here at risk and we have to — we have to make sure that the senators, Democratic senators on the inside match the intensity on the outside that they’re going to see from activists, from voters, from Americans.
MATTHEWS: Rob, I know you care about these social issues and individual rights issues like choice, but I think this Supreme Court by 5-4 has shown its amazing brazenness. It picked a President, W, took us to war about your movie Shock and Awe. That’s very relevant. It took us to war with a President who is the only President I can imagine in this planet who would have taken into that war. They picked them, the Supreme Court. Then they decided they are going to let unlimited money play a role in the United States political elections with the Citizens United and no check on the power of people to buy guns. No limited. It used to be something to do with founding a militia. They dropped all that language. This Court is unbounded in its power and it’s not just the social issues we fight about like abortion and marriage equality. It’s everything. It’s all political.
REINER: And wherever you come down on any of these issues, I would hope as an American you don’t want a potential criminal choosing one of our Supreme Court justices. That’s what it comes down to. I mean, I don’t care whether you’re a pro-life or pro-choice, I happen to be, you know, pro-choice and I happen to be in favor of gay rights and civil rights and workers rights and all those things and those things are in jeopardy, but whatever — wherever you come down ideologically, we can all agree that we shouldn’t have a potential criminal choosing our next Supreme Court justice.
(....)
7:15 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Rob, I don’t know if I talked to you about this, but were you taken with the fact he said to me and it’s interesting language, almost creepy language, there needs to be some form of punishment for the woman. I asked about it, for woman. He said yes, the woman. He thought about it,
REINER: Yes.
MATTHEWS: And there is some form of punishment. That’s sort of biblical kind of answer.
REINER: Yes and you were the only one to be able to nail him down on that and get his true answer to that and I put it to people. The pro — the pro-life people think of abortion as murder. They say it, they’ve said it over and over. Well, what is the punishment for murder? It’s either life in imprisonment or the death penalty, so what are we talking about here? Are we saying that the woman and the doctor both have to be put in jail for the rest of their lives or executed? I mean, what are we talking about? This is — this is crazy. This is absolutely crazy and — and — and there’s so much more going to be at stake than just the abortion rights although that’s going to be front and center. But how do you adjudicate that?
(....)
7:58 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: “Trump Watch,” Thursday, June 28th, 2018. What I said last night about the need to resist having a Trump-like justice on Supreme Court is true tonight. It will be just as true 30 years from now when that Trump-like justice will have worked his will for three decades. I say this because there’s nothing that the Congress decides this year or the years ahead that is likely to matter as much as this decision. We attacked and invaded Iraq because we had the one President that would have taken on such an extraordinarily horrible and stupid course. Never forget, it wasn’t the American people who picked W. It was the five Republican voters on Supreme Court. They picked that President, that limited man who called himself the decider who decided on this war of choice. We live in a country where guns are everywhere now. Assault rifles, guns that serve as fully automatic, guns with ammo magazines and allow some killer to stand in a school to kill everyone in a classroom. It was this 5-4 Supreme Court that broke with long constitutional history to declare owning a gun of any kind is an unrestricted and unrestrictable right, ignoring all the history of those words of the Founding Fathers that they were talking about the need to raise an armed militia. It was this 5-4 Supreme Court that said money should have unrestricted power to turn American elections, that the side with the most dollars should have the biggest unlimited voice in our popular elections. So, don’t let anyone tell you picking this decisive member of the Supreme Court is not essentially a political decision, to pick a Republican justice is to have a Republican court. If the Democrats in the United States Senate cannot resist Trump’s putting the country’s highest court in a death grip, they will and should pay an insufferable price. Now is the time for political warfare, not after this coming election when the enduring historic damage had already been sustained.
