Amidst the amusing shout-outs to Hardball host Chris Matthews on the 20th anniversary of the show being on MSNBC, Thursday’s show provided a potpourri of nonsense in the form of two takes. One take pertained to fears that the public impeachment hearings won’t go as well as the left hopes and then the other compared former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to the ugly, racist George Wallace.
In the A-block, Bloomberg’s Shannon Pettypiece told Matthews that “there is a risk for Democrats here, and at least this is what Republicans are hoping, is that they will now also get their public crack at these witnesses, and that, like we saw with the Mueller testimony and with the Kavanaugh testimony, having these public hearings might not go as well for the Democrats as they hope.”
Ah, yes. So the fear is those dastardly Republicans will screw things up by being the ones who play politics and wreck what’s already been set in motion? God it.
Matthews asked her to elaborate, so she argued that Republicans would “chip away” that credibility of Democratic witnesses and “muddy the water,” thus being uncooperative in her mind. Of course, this was opposed to going along with the impeachment.
She continued by citing the Kavanaugh hearing as having been scuttled in effectiveness because of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “grandstand[ing]” and raising irrelevant questions about Blasey Ford:
I mean, look at how they went after Christine Blasey Ford trying to bring up things about how she had a fear of flying or whether not she did. You know, look at the way Lindsey Graham was able to grandstand and have the sort of moment that came out.
Talk about living with your head in the sand. Between the coverage we did at NewsBusters and the entire book by Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino, it was the left who played politics in trying to ruin an innocent man.
Later in the show, former New York Times executive editor and Alabamian Howell Raines offered the absurd comparison between Sessions and Wallace (click “expand”):
I think Jeff Sessions immediately becomes the front-runner in the Republican senatorial race. The vote is early March and I think he’s as close to a sure thing as you see in — in — in an Alabama contest at this point. He also represents a very serious threat for Doug Jones, who ran a brilliant campaign in 2017 to defeat both Trump and Roy Moore, but this is hardball politics, Alabama-style and the fact is, defiance is the single trait that Alabama — white Alabamians treasure most in a candidate. Fighting Trump will remind them that Sessions is a little banty, rooster, reminiscent of George Wallace and so — but it’s important for people who understand politics back in conventional rules to understand that Alabama voters have what Kyle Whitmire, a local columnist, called sustained cognitive dissonance when it comes to political races. So they will vote for Trump at 62 percent or better, as they did previously, and they will send Jeff Sessions back to the — at least give him the nomination for the Senate, without feeling any — any conflict at all[.]
While he wasn’t (at least in this case) comparing their policies, but it’s nonetheless a tired trope by the liberal media. For those who don’t recall, a lefty journalist lashed out at Sessions for holding his Asian granddaughter during his AG confirmation hearing. Then again, we all know how Raines felt when Jones was elected.
Between having family members of different racial backgrounds and his long legal career, this was the sort of nonsense that the liberal media tolerate being hurled at conservatives while resorting to pearl-clutching when there’s a negative connotation made about liberals.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on November 7, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
November 7, 2019
7:09 p.m. EasternSHANNON PETTYPIECE: But I do think there is a risk for Democrats here, and at least this is what Republicans are hoping, is that they will now also get their public crack at these witnesses, and that, like we saw with the Mueller testimony and with the Kavanaugh testimony, having these public hearings might not go as well for the Democrats as they hope.
MATTHEWS: How so?
PETTYPIECE: Well, if Republicans feel like they’re able to chip away at these witnesses, chip away at the credibility —
MATTHEWS: How do you chip away at Vindman?
PETTYPIECE: — muddy the water —
MATTHEWS: How do you chip away at Taylor? How do you chip away at this new guy, Kent?
PETTYPIECE: — I mean, we’ll see. I mean, look at how they went after Christine Blasey Ford trying to bring up things about how she had a fear of flying or whether not she did. You know, look at the way Lindsey Graham was able to grandstand and have the sort of moment that came out.
MATTHEWS: Yeah, but everybody believed the heart of her testimony. Everybody on the other side said, well, she can’t name the place and the time but she damn well remembered it happen.
PETTYPIECE: And Kavanaugh ended up getting confirmed, so they’re hoping to follow a similar model to that —
MATTHEWS: Wanna bet, Shannon, —
PETTYPIECE: — that once these witnesses get in front that they can kind of go after them.
MATTHEWS: — he’s going to be impeached?
PETTYPIECE: Well, but will he be removed from office?
MATTHEWS: No, I don’t think anybody thinks that.
PETTYPIECE: And as long as the Republicans support him, behind him, yes.
MATTHEWS: That is not the goal. The goal is to impeach the guy.
(....)
7:31 p.m. Eastern
HOWELL RAINES: I think Jeff Sessions immediately becomes the front-runner in the Republican senatorial race. The vote is early March and I think he’s as close to a sure thing as you see in — in — in an Alabama contest at this point. He also represents a very serious threat for Doug Jones, who ran a brilliant campaign in 2017 to defeat both Trump and Roy Moore, but this is hardball politics, Alabama-style and the fact is, defiance is the single trait that Alabama — white Alabamians treasure most in a candidate. Fighting Trump will remind them that Sessions is a little banty, rooster, reminiscent of George Wallace and so — but it’s important for people who understand politics back in conventional rules to understand that Alabama voters have what Kyle Whitmire, a local columnist, called sustained cognitive dissonance when it comes to political races. So they will vote for Trump at 62 percent or better, as they did previously, and they will send Jeff Sessions back to the — at least give him the nomination for the Senate, without feeling any — any conflict at all and the — I think the real danger for Trump — he’s going to carry this state anyway, but if he keeps calling Jeff Sessions a jerk and an idiot and a dumb Southerner and mocking his accent, that will hurt Trump, and it won’t hurt the Sessions at all.
