As has been customary, the level of craziness emanating from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews grows exponentially by the late evening and early Thursday morning was no different as he ruled that the Republican National Convention (RNC) chanting “lock her up” concerning Hillary Clinton was akin to what one would hear in Buenos Aires, Argentina or Caracas, Venezuela.
In the next segment, Matthews continued his infatuation with the word “horny” when ruling that Hillary Clinton likely has been searching for a running mate who’s not “too horny for ambition.”
Matthews set up the “lock her up” line by wondering if moderate Republican women in the Philadelphia suburbs will want to vote for a party that’s leveled “this kind of bombastic attack on the only woman who has ever had a prayer of being president.” Mother Jones Washington bureau chief head David Corn responded that by their actions at this convention, the GOP have “really tak[en] the level of discourse to the low level.”
This led Matthews to conclude the segment by invoking two Latin American countries and bizarrely and irresponsibly throwing in the assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (which he falsely asserted was male) as a consequence of such rhetoric:
I've never been to a convention — look, I’ve never been to a convention in Caracas or Buenos Aires, but I’m sure I’ve heard it down there...It is very Latin American. This is wild stuff. My opponent — and too, a lot of countries, they put away the guy who — how about — what is it, Benazir Bhutto? He loses an election, they hang him.
If one wasn’t shaking their head already at Matthews’s latest befuddling musings, he returned in the next segment to dig up his use of the word “horny” that he applied to Mike Pence last week to attribute to what Hillary Clinton is searching for in a running mate who’s not power hungry:
You don't want somebody around you who’s too horny for ambition. Not somebody who’s thinking I can't wait to get this person out cause Hillary will be in her 70s, I can’t wait to move this on and I get to be president faster. You want somebody who has affected the fact like Cheney and perhaps Biden, at least he did for a lot of the period, that he was going to stick around at VP, but that’s it.
The relevant portions of the transcript from the 12:00 a.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC’s Republican National Convention coverage on July 21 can be found below.
MSNBC: Republican National Convention
July 21, 2016
12:47 a.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Okay, here’s my — here’s my question. There are a lot of suburban Republican women out there who are not right-wingers. They’re probably pro-choice. Quietly so, but privately pro — they don’t like women being told what they can’t do. They want their daughters being told what they can’t do and so, they’re looking at this guy. He already is kind of Jackie Gleason kinda of guy, to use an old expression. Bombastic, loud, women don’t know anything.
(....)
MATTHEWS: I’m wondering about that in the ‘Burbs where we [TO ROBERT COSTA] grew up — where you grew up.
ROBERT COSTA: In Philly.
MATTHEWS: I was right on the edge of the ‘Burbs. Are they going to — the women at the train station, are they going to hear —
(....)
MATTHEWS: Are they going to like this kind of bombastic attack on the only woman who has ever had a prayer of being president?
COSTA: It's a little strong. You know, talk to some congressmen here like Pete King from Long Island, you talk to people like Mike Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania —
MATTHEWS: Bucks County.
COSTA: They got to go back to suburban voters. A lot of anti-abortion voters but also a lot of pro-choice women in these districts. Districts that have working women. Women who respect someone’s who’s ascended up a career and this critique against secretary Clinton that we've heard this week has been really personal.
MATTHEWS: Lock her up?
CORN: Lock her — have you ever been —
MATTHEWS: Isn't that over the top?
CORN: Have you ever been at a convention where they chanted lock that person up about the opponent? This is really taking the level of discourse to the low level.
MATTHEWS: I've never been to a convention — look, I’ve never been to a convention in Caracas or Buenos Aires, but I’m sure I’ve heard it down there. Anyway, Robert Costa, Michael Steele, and David Corn. Thank you. It is very Latin American. This is wild stuff. My opponent — and too, a lot of countries, they put away the guy who — how about — what is it, Benazir Bhutto? He loses an election, they hang him.
(....)
MATTHEWS: You don't want somebody around you who’s too horny for ambition. Not somebody who’s thinking I can't wait to get this person out cause Hillary will be in her 70s, I can’t wait to move this on and I get to be president faster. You want somebody who has affected the fact like Cheney and perhaps Biden, at least he did for a lot of the period, that he was going to stick around at VP, but that’s it. That was the limit of the person’s ambition. I think Vilsack — the limit of his ambition is probably VP.
