Chris Matthews really is the last person to be lecturing someone about using extreme rhetoric to score cheap political points. The man who just this week said that GOP concerns over executive orders is “second term birtherism” and who repeatedly blasted Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich as demonic was at it again on February 5.
"Anything that’s nasty about this guy has become the Amen chorus of the Republican Party," Matthews whined to his Wednesday program's liberal guests Joy-Ann Reid and Ron Reagan. [See video below.]
At issue during the segment was a recent report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) which found that ObamaCare will result in 2.5 million Americans choosing to leave the workforce or reduce their hours worked in order to receive ObamaCare subsidies. Matthews immediately spun the CBO report using White House talking points and argued that:
People won't work in situation they only were in because they needed health care and to qualify for it as Joy said quite clearly. They were just working those hours to get the healthcare. Now they don't have to. That is the news.
Guest Ron Reagan followed up by slamming Republicans for:
Highlighting and trying to make into a negative a positive… Do they think that the American people are illiterate that they can't read plain English that they can’t read what the CBO report actually says which is totally different from what the Republicans are pretending it says? And when do we just get sick of that kind of nonsense?
Matthews then used Reagan's comments as a springboard to criticize the GOP again and commented that:
You can't ever put your hand up like John McCain did wondrously remember, and he said no he is a good man when the woman said he is an Arab not that that is a bad thing but she meant it as a bad thing. He said no he is a good American. When’s anybody else going to do that? Is that like something we don’t do any more in the Republican Party anymore? We say wait a minute, hold your horses. We disagree on policy but he is not the freaking devil.
So a man who has a disgusting history of calling the GOP racist and birthers and demonic is condemning Republicans for using “nasty” rhetoric and calling President Obama the "freaking devil"? Of course, Republicans have been doing no such thing. They have been doing what the opposition party is supposed to do: oppose the president and oppose him by finding and highlighting faults with his policies and his leadership. It is boot-licking sycophants like Matthews which impute diabolic motives to Republicans doing their job.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
Hardball w/ Chris Matthews
February 5, 2014
7:41 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, that's pretty clear. Let me go to Ron Reagan on that. It takes a little work. Headline writers are supposed to make things clear. Many people around me today have said these headline writers blew it and some of the people we know around the broadcast world did the same thing because they missed the point. It is not about the drop in demand for labor. There is going to be an increased demand for labor which is good economic news for the whole country. But people won't work in situation they only were in because they needed health care and to qualify for it as Joy said quite clearly. They were just working those hours to get the healthcare. Now they don't have to. That is the news. Your thoughts Ron?
RON REAGAN: Well, I think you have correctly identified the story here. And it really isn’t the CBO report itself which as Joy has pointed out is basically good news for the economy and good news for ObamaCare even the part that the Republicans are highlighting and trying to make into a negative is actually a positive. But the real story here is not the CBO report it’s the Republican dishonesty. And you have to wonder how long will the American public put up with being played for rubes by people like Orin Hatch, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell? Do they think that the American people are illiterate that they can't read plain English that they can’t read what the CBO report actually says which is totally different from what the Republicans are pretending it says? And when do we just get sick of that kind of nonsense?
MATTHEWS: Well what did you make, I mean I’m not going to put this all on the same stew Joy but there is this, the continual statement, we are just talking about it here off camera. The continual statement that gets you where you want to go in right-wing Republican politics and it’s almost the same thing now is simply always being against the president. Somebody in a room says the president ought to be executed and you pile on and you say he is an outlaw. Anything that’s nasty and all the president’s screwing the economy, he’s costing jobs. Anything that’s nasty about this guy has become the Amen chorus of the Republican Party. You can't ever put your hand up like John McCain did wondrously remember, and he said no he is a good man when the woman said he is an Arab not that that is a bad thing but she meant it as a bad thing. He said no he is a good American. When’s anybody else going to do that? Is that like something we don’t do any more in the Republican Party anymore? We say wait a minute, hold your horses. We disagree on policy but he is not the freaking devil.
