On her MSNBC show on Wednesday, host Andrea Mitchell fretted over the possibility of Bernie Sanders winning Democratic contests in Iowa and New Hampshire: “And after two primary victories, you're gonna see chaos on the Democratic side, you're gonna see Uncle Joe Biden saying, ‘Well, maybe I should get back in.’ You're gonna see a lot of stuff.”
Hardball host Chris Matthews – on to promote his latest interview with Hillary Clinton – strategized over how Clinton could defeat Sanders: “Well, you know, there's one firewall we haven't talked about, and I don’t know how you erect that firewall. It's women. And I asked Secretary Clinton – and you know her very well – and I said to her, ‘Does it surprise you or disturb you that a lot of young women don't realize what you've been through?’”
Mitchell chimed in: “Their most recent ad that went up was the so-called documentary ad, which shows Hillary Clinton as a young woman....arguing for equal rights and for human rights her entire adult life, and that's the point they're trying to show to the young women who don't know who she really is.”
Matthews worried: “I actually don't know if a woman who's in college now can fully imagine pre-Roe v. Wade, just on that point. It's not everything, but it's a point. To be in college and not having that option, if you will....And do they know what that was like?”
He then quipped: “I'm your feminist today.” Mitchell gushed: “I love it. My feminist everyday.”
Here is a transcript of the January 27 exchange:
12:19 PM ET
(...)
ANDREA MITCHELL: If Bernie Sanders – and it's neck and neck – if those kids turn out, if he wins Iowa, and he’s going to win New Hampshire, most likely – you know, unpredictable, but he's way ahead – then does her firewall hold in the south? But also, he's got some play in the Nevada caucus before they even get to South Carolina. And after two primary victories, you're gonna see chaos on the Democratic side, you're gonna see Uncle Joe Biden saying, “Well, maybe I should get back in.” You're gonna see a lot of stuff.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, you know, there's one firewall we haven't talked about, and I don’t know how you erect that firewall. It's women. And I asked Secretary Clinton – and you know her very well – and I said to her, “Does it surprise you or disturb you that a lot of young women don't realize what you've been through?” I mean, we've got the 15th Amendment, technically, our Constitution allowing blacks to vote after the Civil War. It took until after the first World War for women to get the constitutional right to vote. There was a long lag time there. And now we go to the question of do people know how long it was for women to get their rights to be real citizens? Do the young people know that? And she knows they don't.
MITCHELL: That's why that ad. Their most recent ad that went up was the so-called documentary ad, which shows Hillary Clinton as a young woman, you know, all the different hairstyles. She just put it out there.
MATTHEWS: Yeah, back in Wellesley.
MITCHELL: But basically, arguing for equal rights and for human rights her entire adult life, and that's the point they're trying to show to the young women who don't know who she really is.
MATTHEWS: I actually don't know if a woman who's in college now can fully imagine pre-Roe v. Wade, just on that point. It's not everything, but it's a point. To be in college and not having that option, if you will. And to know that you have to go raise money and go to some doctor in New York somewhere, and that whole thing they used to do. And I'm learning a lot more about that, how it used to be for people. And do they know what that was like? It's a different world, a bigger world in many ways, they're in.
MITCHELL: Chris Matthews –
MATTHEWS: I'm your feminist today.
MITCHELL: I love it. My feminist everyday.
(...)
