In the midst of MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews attacking President Trump for holding an Erie, Pennsylvania campaign rally hours after Hurricane Michael decimated the Florida Panhandle, Matthews found time Wednesday night to try and blame Hurricane Michael on climate change during an interview with Tallahassee Mayor and Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum.
Matthews welcomed Gillum three minutes into the program and after an introductory question about the damage thus far in the region, the loudmouthed pundit made clear what he and almost every liberal journalist desperately want to be a top priority in any hurricane, which is blaming it on climate change.
Here was Matthews’s full question:
Let me ask you about the politics of climate and all this, you know, I think about Miami. I might go down there once and awhile in that other part of your state. I know you're running for governor, so it matters to you. I think about the water level coming up within a few feet of Miami, how your state’s in danger by climate change. Is this regular weather we're getting now? Category 4? Your thoughts?
Gillum eventually climbed out of the political trap door and redirected his focus to the here and now with some current (and possibly future) constituents having lost everything, but he still fell into the trap about tying Michael to climate change (click “expand”):
No. I mean, listen, it's stuff I've been asked, with the panhandle caught by surprise here and I got to tell you, Sunday, I was in Miami, I was going from an event on another mission, as you mentioned in my introduction and we got a call that hey, look, this tropical system looks like it's heading our way and we thought we might deal with a tropical storm and tropical storm force winds. Well, this thing went from that, you know, Sunday night to a category four — near category five storm today. That was — that was significant and obviously that has to do with the warm — the warmth of the Gulf waters at this time and that storm was able to gain tremendous strength and hit our state at 150 miles per hour in the panhandle, seven miles per hour below what would necessitate a category five storm. For all intents and purposes, adding in the wind gusts you're dealing with a category five hurricane hitting the coast of Florida in October. We’ve got, obviously, you know, a challenge on that end, and I'll tell you, we got some work to do in this state to build us a more resilient state, but the truth is right now we have to try to make sure we recover as many people and get as much of our community back up and going as we possibly can. I fear this is going to be a longer journey.
Again refusing to focus on the Hurricane and what his city had done to prepare or will do in Michael’s aftermath, Matthews wanted to know from Gillum what he made of the negative gubernatorial ads supposedly still being run against him during the storm.
“I was informing the public here in North Florida about the storm this morning as we were anticipating impact and in my ear, I could hear a negative ad being run about hurricane response and indicting me in that process...We’ve communities that are underwater this afternoon and what we’re seeing are these negative ads. It's unseemly,” Gillum in part replied.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC's Hardball on October 10, click “expand.”
MSNBC's Hardball
October 10, 2018
7:03 p.m. EasternCHRIS MATTHEWS: Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, Florida, wind gusts reached up to 90 miles an hour today. 90. The mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum joins us now by phone, he's also, by the way, the democratic nominee in Florida's gubernatorial race right now. Mayor Gillum, tell us what's going on in your capital city there in Tallahassee, but also, more importantly, to the west of you. What reports have you been getting, sir?
(....)
7:05 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about the politics of climate and all this, you know, I think about Miami. I might go down there once and awhile in that other part of your state. I know you're running for governor, so it matters to you. I think about the water level coming up within a few feet of Miami, how your state’s in danger by climate change. Is this regular weather we're getting now? Category 4? Your thoughts?
ANDREW GILLUM: No. I mean, listen, it's stuff I've been asked, with the panhandle caught by surprise here and I got to tell you, Sunday, I was in Miami, I was going from an event on another mission, as you mentioned in my introduction and we got a call that hey, look, this tropical system looks like it's heading our way and we thought we might deal with a tropical storm and tropical storm force winds. Well, this thing went from that, you know, Sunday night to a category four — near category five storm today. That was — that was significant and obviously that has to do with the warm — the warmth of the Gulf waters at this time and that storm was able to gain tremendous strength and hit our state at 150 miles per hour in the panhandle, seven miles per hour below what would necessitate a category five storm. For all intents and purposes, adding in the wind gusts you're dealing with a category five hurricane hitting the coast of Florida in October. We’ve got, obviously, you know, a challenge on that end, and I'll tell you, we got some work to do in this state to build us a more resilient state, but the truth is right now we have to try to make sure we recover as many people and get as much of our community back up and going as we possibly can. I fear this is going to be a longer journey.
MATTHEWS: Well, you know, you're on Hardball, what do you make of your opponent out there running against you as Republican, running negative ads trashing you in the middle of this, what do you make of appropriateness of that?
GILLUM: Well, I mean, I agree with Craig Fugate. I agree with Jeb Bush. I agree with governor Rick Scott in this case, said it is unseemly to run those kind of ads. I mean, literally, I was informing the public here in North Florida about the storm this morning as we were anticipating impact and in my ear I could hear a negative ad being run about hurricane response and indicting me in that process and I just thought we've had a lot of divisive politics in our state, but I can't remember a time we didn't have a time when we didn’t statewide candidates pulled down negative campaigns, particularly in parts of the states where people are trying to run for their lives. We’ve communities that are under water this afternoon.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
GILLUM: And what we’re seeing are these negatively ads. It's unseemly.
MATTHEWS: I think when people are running for their lives they shouldn't be hearing trash talking from politicians. Anyway, thank you very much.
GILLUM: Thanks, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Mayor Andrew Gillum of Tallahassee.
