Seeking to join in on the Star Wars: The Force Awakens hype, MSNBC’s Hardball kicked off Monday’s show with a spoof of the famous franchise’s opening credits that told of a “period of civil war within the Republican party” and “President Obama, Hillary Clinton, & the Republican establishment appear to have formed a coalition rejecting [Donald] Trump’s appeal to the DARK SIDE.”
At the conclusion of the 6:00 p.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC Live, the screen went black and suddenly the title of Matthews’s program appeared in the famous, yellow Star Wars-type font as two words (instead of one) as the title rapidly shrank to nothing on the black screen.
A similar tune to the theme composed by John Williams played in the background as the first paragraph slowly appeared on-screen, line-by-line (with a grammatical error in neglecting to capitalize the “p” in Republican Party): “It is a period of civil war in the Republican party. The future of American politics is at stake. Donald Trump has amassed a commanding lead in the fight for the REPUBLICAN NOMINATION...”
The second of two paragraphs continued on that theme by spinning Donald Trump as the villain representing the Dark Side of the Force:
Meanwhile, political forces are uniting in last-ditch effort to defeat him before the primaries. This weekend, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, & the Republican establishment appear to have formed a coalition rejecting Trump’s appeal to the DARK SIDE of American politics...
A cackling Matthews then emerged and seemed quite pleased with the use of “the Dark Side” to describe Trump, declaring that he “knew it” before linking the new Star Wars film to Hillary Clinton’s claim in Saturday night’s debate that Trump is being used in ISIS recruiting videos:
Obviously, coming off of what you might call or must call a Star Wars weekend, but thanks to the Saturday night debate, the Democrats found a force of their own in Hillary Clinton’s too direct attack on Donald Trump this Saturday night. By that, I mean she may have weakened a more accurate charge against Trump by trying to be too specific.
Later in the show, the Star Wars references briefly returned when the title of the original 1977 film A New Hope appeared on-screen to accompany a photo of President Obama as Matthews began a segment on Obama’s “usually candid” interview with the incredibly sympathetic NPR’s Steve Inskeep in which the President “accused Donald Trump of exploiting, that’s his word, the fear and anger felt by some people, especially who the President called blue collar men caused by a changing economy and stagnating incomes.”
For more of the ridiculous things uttered by Matthews on MSNBC’s airwaves throughout 2015 on Hardball, please check out my colleague Ken Shepherd’s Year-In-Review piece here.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews on December 21 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews
December 21, 2015
7:00 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN GRAPHIC #1 IN STAR WARS TYPE: Hard Ball]
[ON-SCREEN GRAPHIC #2 IN STAR WARS TYPE: It is a period of civil war in the Republican party. The future of American politics is at stake. Donald Trump has amassed a commanding lead in the fight for the REPUBLICAN NOMINATION...
Meanwhile, political forces are uniting in last-ditch effort to defeat him before the primaries. This weekend, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, & the Republican establishment appear to have formed a coalition rejecting Trump’s appeal to the DARK SIDE of American politics...]
CHRIS MATTHEWS: The Dark Side. I knew it. Good evening. I’m Chris Matthews in Washington. Obviously, coming off of what you might call or must call a Star Wars weekend, but thanks to the Saturday night debate, the Democrats found a force of their own in Hillary Clinton’s too direct attack on Donald Trump this Saturday night. By that, I mean she may have weakened a more accurate charge against Trump by trying to be too specific.
(....)
7:20 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: A New Hope]
MATTHEWS: President Obama got unusually candid, I think, about his ethnic background or his racial background if you like that in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep that aired this morning, today. He said some of the over-the-top criticism aimed at him from the right can be explained by it, his background, something we haven't heard from him before and he accused Donald Trump of exploiting, that’s his word, the fear and anger felt by some people, especially who the President called blue collar men caused by a changing economy and stagnating incomes.
