Chris Matthews Compares Pro-Gun Senators to 'Jim Crow' Racists

April 11th, 2013 5:26 PM

Hardball's Chris Matthews on Thursday again smeared pro-Second Amendment Senators, this time comparing them to "Jim Crow" racists. While talking about GOP politicians who threatened to filibuster the current gun control bill, Matthews spewed, "But you remember when they fought in the early '60s about, about Jim Crow and getting rid of all those racial things down south where it says white only at the gas station, men's room and everything?"

Talking to journalist Chuck Todd, Matthews continued, "And that was the old states of the confederacy were against any of those changes. But now is there that large a body of Republicans out there that are truly being represented by the don't-even-vote crowd?" Apparently, Matthews has again forgotten that it was the Democratic Party that represented the segregationist south. [UPDATED with video below. MP3 audio here.]

On April 3, Matthews outrageously linked Texas Senator Ted Cruz to the shootings of prosecutors.

A transcript of the April 11 exchange is below:


5:01 ET

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Why would the Republican Party basically take this stand? There's a lot of passion out there. These victim family members, they come on this program. They go on other programs. They go to the Senator's office. You get them on the phone. Their hearts are open. They get hurt. And they say, 31 of them, just give us a vote. And these guys say just forget about it.

...

MATTHEWS: You think back– it's before my time, too. But you remember when they fought in the early '60s about, about Jim Crow and getting rid of all those racial things down south where it says white only at the gas station, men's room and everything? And that was the old states of the confederacy were against any of those changes. But now is there that large a body of Republicans out there that are truly being represented by the don't-even-vote crowd?

CHUCK TODD: It's-- no, it is this slice of the Republican Party that is vibrant in these red states in these primaries.