The early results have been coming in for the New Hampshire primary and the cable reaction is split. Chris Matthews, who has raged against the socialism of Bernie Sanders, on Tuesday compared some Democratic voters to drunks: “There seems to shaping up a dichotomy, a division, perhaps a civil war in the Democratic Party between those who want a revolution, which I think is a minority in the party, and those who just want a ride home. They want to get a designated driver. Get ‘em home. ” In contrast, CNN’s Van Jones cheered the “phenomenon” of Sanders.
Matthews expanded on the drinking metaphor: “Whether it is Buttigieg or it’s Amy Klobuchar or maybe Mike Bloomberg. Someone to get them home to where they feel good about their country again.” Speaking of Pete Buttigieg’s campaign, Matthews derided the mayor’s debate performance: “Pete pulled back on Friday night.... But he made a big mistake.... He didn’t want to offend the Bernie bros."
Over on CNN, liberal analyst Van Jones haled the “phenomenon” of Sanders and somehow complained that people “aren’t talking about him.”
The big excitement is Am Klobuchar. “I think I can, I think I can.” You have somebody everybody has written off. “When is she putting cards on the table and walk away?” She's catching fire. That's the thing about politics. You never know when your moment is going to come. Her moment came Friday, you see her, she's up there. So that’s exciting. I don't think we should miss the obvious though.
Bernie Sanders is a phenomenon! He doesn’t get any attention. People don’t talk about him. We talk about it, he continues to rack up big numbers, big margins. He is doing stuff we don't talk about enough. He’s appealing to young people and people of color, increasingly, and women, and the beer track voters people talk about for Biden. They show up for Bernie Sanders. He has an army of unbelievable donors. If anybody else had that, “We would say this guy is our guy.” For whatever reason, we continue to talk about everybody but Bernie Sanders.
According to an analysis of January’s evening newscast coverage of the 2020 campaigns, the networks have given Sanders the most attention out of all the Democratic candidates.
Regarding Andrew Yang, who dropped out Tuesday night, Jones mourned, “I can't tell you how sad I am that Andrew Yang is leaving this race. I think that he represented a positive populism.... His idea around universal basic income was at like three percent or no percent a year and a half ago and now it's a 55 percent popular idea in some polls.”
A partial transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC live coverage
2/11/2020
6:17pm ET
MATTHEWS: There seem to shaping up a dichotomy, a division, perhaps a civil war in the Democratic Party between those who want a revolution, which I think is a minority in the party, and those who just want a ride home. They want to get a designated driver. Get ‘em home. Whether it is Buttigieg or it’s Amy Klobuchar or maybe Mike Bloomberg. Someone to get them home to where they feel good about their country again.
It’s going to be — Klobuchar did really well Friday night and she did really well because of audacity. For some reason, Buttigieg, Pete pulled back on Friday night. He — I don’t know what he thought he was riding. But he made a big mistake. He didn’t go through. He was winning. He should have stayed with it. Given audacious answers. Instead he played it careful. He didn’t want to offend the Bernie bros or the Bernie people.
CNN live coverage
2/11/2020VAN JONES: The big excitement is Am Klobuchar. “I think I can, I think I can.” You have somebody everybody has written off. “When is she putting cards on the table and walk away?” She's catching fire. That's the thing about politics. You never know when your moment is going to come. Her moment came Friday, you see her, she's up there. So that’s exciting. I don't think we should miss the obvious though.
Bernie Sanders is a phenomenon! He doesn’t get any attention. People don’t talk about him. We talk about it, he continues to rack up big numbers, big margins. He is doing stuff we don't talk about enough. He’s appealing to young people and people of color, increasingly, and women, and the beer track voters people talk about for Biden. They show up for Bernie Sanders. He has an army of unbelievable donors. If anybody else had that, “We would say this guy is our guy.” For whatever reason, we continue to talk about everybody but Bernie Sanders.
...
JONES: I can't tell you how sad I am that Andrew Yang is leaving this race. I think that he represented a positive populism. So much of politics now is who do you hate? Do you hate the liberal elite? Do you hate billionaires? who do you hate? And the thing about Andrew Yang is you could join the Yang Gang and not hate anybody. He just wanted to make sure that we retooled the economy for these new challenge.
I think from a decade perspective he may wind up being a much more significant voice than we recognize tonight. And also he broke a color barrier. He's an Asian-American guy and now that's a thing. You saw a lot of young Asians getting involved, and also it wasn't a big thing. And I think to lose Andrew Yang at this point, His idea around universal basic income was at like three percent or no percent a year and a half ago and now it's a 55 percent popular idea in some polls.
