Matthews has had quite the week already (see here and here), so he kept it going on Thursday’s Hardball as the MSNBC host compared Joe Biden and the rhetoric in his campaign video to Nelson Mandela and, earlier in the show, joked about the prospect of Congress having Trump administration officials arrested and jailed if they ignore House subpoenas.
Matthews closed the show by reminiscing how he “was in South Africa covering the first election open to all races” that “was an exciting moment in history, of course, much like the fall of the Berlin Wall” and led to Nelson Mandela’s election.
“[W]hat will grab you listening to this great man, one of the world’s greatest champions of human rights and political inclusion, is how his words resonate to what’s happening in our country right now. He speaks of those who see ethnic and racial diversity as a basis for national unity and those who use it to divide,” Matthews adding in teeing up a Mandela news clip.
Matthews then made the Biden comparison:
Well, today, Joe Biden made a similar appeal and a similar critique. He spoke of a President who refuses to condemn outright racism, who sees people who back racial separation in this country, American apartheid, if you will, as very fair-minded. Well, 25 years later, the message today is powerfully similar to the message from 1994. It seems that to fight off evil, we must constantly call it out for what it is.
Turns out, Biden has some competition in Matthews’s heart for who’s more like Mandela since Matthews twice in 2015 compared Barack Obama to Mandela (here and here). And it makes sense of Matthews’s worldview as he asserted in December 2013 that South Africa’s last apartheid leader F.W. de Klerk was more patriotic than Mitch McConnell.
Rewinding to the first half of the show, Congressman David Cicilline (D-RH) said that an 1821 Supreme Court ruling gives Congress the power to “imprison” those “who do not comply with a lawful subpoena, who do not produce documents.”
Matthews interrupted to express doubt that the House Sergeant at Arms would do such a thing and concluded moments later by joking that it’d be something he would “want to see”:
Congressman, just do me a favor because I do believe you. I think you’re a great public servant and I love Roadie. I just want to say one thing to you. When they send a sergeant at arms to come arrest Steve Mnuchin, the Secretary of Treasury, give me the tip-off. Will you? I want to be there with a camera. I want to watch that....I — I just want to see — I just want to see the police power of Congress over the White House.
Rewinding to the show’s A-block, Matthews ogled (again) at former Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), wondering if “the age thing” matters in politics.
“You look at — not that I’m allowed to talk about appearances, but the fact is you look like you’re handling age very well,” Matthews swooned. Turns out, Chris, you actually have done that in the past. Just ask Boxer but also now-CNN host Erin Burnett.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on April 25, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
April 25, 2019
7:14 p.m. EasternCHRIS MATTHEWS: What are do you think about the age thing?
BARBARA BOXER: Well, Bernie —
MATTHEWS: Do you think in your later 70s people lose a step or two that’s dangerous for the president? No really.
BOXER: You’re talking to me? You’re talking to me.
MATTHEWS: I know I’m talking to somebody. He doesn’t show a year the best when I first met you, yes, it’s all true. You look at — not that I’m allowed to talk about appearances, but the fact is you look like you’re handling age very well.
BOXER: Well, thanks.
MATTHEWS: I’ve heard it from older people that older people shouldn’t be president. And I just want to know if you have a view on that.
BOXER: I absolutely do. I think it’s crazy to just paint everybody of a certain age with a certain brush and that goes to young people. Look at Mayor Pete. He’s kind of an old soul, you know, and he’s very young and the fact is that, you know, if you’re fortunate enough to really be strong when you get older, you’re much wiser than you were as a kid and as someone in middle age and I think Bernie is older than Vice President Biden. So he kind of took the age thing out of the loop here. But, look, people are going to put that all into their minds when they decide who they want. You got a President who is in his 70s, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he doesn’t understand the Constitution, he’s attacking the fundamentals of our nation and I think Joe and many others could beat this guy. But age, I don’t think that should be in the equation in my opinion. But everyone will decide. They certainly have a big field of people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. I’m waiting for someone over 80 to get in there.
MATTHEWS: I don’t know why you retired.
(....)
7:24 p.m. Eastern
CONGRESSMAN DAVID CICILLINE (D-RH): Since 1821, the Supreme Court has recognized the inherent right of Congress to hold individuals in contempt and to imprison them. That was reaffirmed in a case in 1935 — Congress has the responsibility, and I would say the obligation to hold individuals in contempt who do not comply with a lawful subpoena, who do not produce documents, and we ought to be prepared to imprison them, because we have that inherent right — in order —
MATTHEWS: Okay. I love you, but let me ask you this Congressman —
CICILLINE: — Chris — we got to do it.
MATTHEWS: — the Sergeant at Arms, in the House to go pick up the secretary of the treasury, break past his Secret Service agents, grab him and take him to Capitol Hill and put in to some calaboose or something. I don’t — I can’t see that —
CICILLINE: — Chris, that’s exactly —
MATTHEWS: — I can’t see that.
CICILLINE: — Chris, that’s exactly what happened in 1935. They put the person in custody for 10 days. Look, Congress has to be serious about this. We have a right under the Constitution to get these documents, to hear this testimony under oath.
MATTHEWS: Okay.
CICILLINE: Our oversight responsibilities cannot be done without information, and witnesses and testimony. If the president prevents that from happening we can’t do oversight. We have three ways —
MATTHEWS: I hear the argument.
CICILLINE: — to make sure that witnesses comply and we’ve got to use them.
(....)
7:29 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Okay. Congressman, just do me a favor because I do believe you. I think you’re a great public servant and I love Roadie. I just want to say one thing to you. When they send a sergeant at arms to come arrest Steve Mnuchin, the Secretary of Treasury, give me the tip-off. Will you? I want to be there with a camera. I want to watch that.
CICILLINE: It’s the threat of that that’s going to force those witnesses to show up and comply with the subpoena.
MATTHEWS: I — I just want to see — I just want to see the police power of Congress over the White House.
(....)
7:54 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
MATTHEWS: Anyway, Nelson Mandela’s words from a quarter century ago resonate in today’s America.
(....)
7:58 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: A quarter century ago, I was in South Africa covering the first election open to all races. It was an exciting moment in history, of course, much like the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was the end of that country’s regime of racial segregation known as apartheid, the emergence of majority rule, and the election of Nelson Mandela, who’d been in prison 28 years for battling for that moment, as president and what will grab you listening to this great man, one of the world’s greatest champions of human rights and political inclusion, is how his words resonate to what’s happening in our country right now. He speaks of those who see ethnic and racial diversity as a basis for national unity and those who use it to divide. Here’s Mandela is in the midst of his historic win.
NELSON MANDELA: We have used that diversity in order to build a strong nation, unlike the National Party, which used those diversities to keep us divided, and to foment racial hostility among South Africans. Our vision of South Africa therefore has been one where you have a bill of rights which entrenches the right of every South African, irrespective of color.
MATTHEWS: Well, today, Joe Biden made a similar appeal and a similar critique. He spoke of a President who refuses to condemn outright racism, who sees people who back racial separation in this country, American apartheid, if you will, as very fair-minded. Well, 25 years later, the message today is powerfully similar to the message from 1994. It seems that to fight off evil, we must constantly call it out for what it is.
