A gleeful Chris Matthews – who once described Ted Cruz on-air as a non-Hispanic "Cuban national" – opened up the Thursday edition of MSNBC's Hardball exulting that "one-time Canadian" Ted Cruz was "tobogganing to a halt in Iowa" while Donald Trump surges forward in the polls.
Matthews, who seethes with rage every time a Republican so much as lays up a birther joke about President Obama's heritage, has no qualms in relishing the overhyped controversy as regards the Texas senator's eligibility for office.
A few minutes later, still locking his jaws on Cruz, Matthews dusted off another of his favorite repeated smears of Cruz, that he was a modern-day Joseph McCarthy. Curiously enough, he did so in the midst of rebuking Cruz for quoting Robert F. Kennedy – although Cruz mistakenly thought he was quoting President John F. Kennedy.
"You know, it's impossible to come up with a list of how many things Cruz has been wrong on," sneered Matthews. [We could say the same about Jeopardy! champ contestant Matthews.]
"Obviously, Ted Cruz pays no attention to history, or he wouldn't be out there imitating Joe McCarthy so often," the Hardball host complained.
Of course Robert Kennedy was good friends with Joe McCarthy, who had the honor of being godfather to RFK's daughter Kathleen. RFK also served under McCarthy as an assistant counsel on the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Below you'll find video and a transcript:
MSNBC
Hardball
January 21, 2016CHRIS MATTHEWS, at open of program: Good evening, I’m Chris Matthews in Washington. O, Canada! Welcome home up there to Ted Cruz.
A new poll out of Iowa shows that Donald Trump has gotten his message across about where Ted Cruz is coming from. The new CNN/ORC poll has the Calgary-born Cruz tobogganing to a halt in Iowa down at 26 percent, with Trump pulling ahead to 37 percent, an 11-point double-digit jump on the one-time Canadian.
[…]
MATTHEWS: First, this wild situation where Trump is standing for many reasonable establishment Republicans as the last stand against the menacing Cruz. Reason: There’s an old expression in Washington politics. It’s about how you treat people and how you get treated by people because of it: What goes around comes around.
Ted Cruz is now getting his own treatment by other Republicans. Some he’s called liars, people like John McCain, who won’t even give Cruz the minimum regard of being constitutionally eligible to run for president. They just don’t like Cruz.
[…]
7:09 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Ted Cruz has an ability to tick off pretty much everyone. Here’s what he said about the late President Kennedy.
TED CRUZ: JFK would be a Republican today. He stood for religious liberty. And he would be tarred and feathered by the modern Democratic Party. You know, look, as JFK said [adopting JFK impression] “Some men see things as they are and ask why? I see things that never were and ask why not.”
MATTHEWS: You know, it's impossible to come up with a list of how many things Cruz has been wrong on. But I’ll give you one more. Jack Kennedy never said that. That was Bobby Kennedy’s line from George Bernard Shaw. And everybody who covers any history knows that. That’s the line he used to queue the press who were covering him when it was time to run for the buses. It was very well known if anybody pays any attention to history.
Obviously, Ted Cruz pays no attention to history, or he wouldn't be out there imitating Joe McCarthy so often.
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