After having had a great time piecing together a list for readers of some crazy, surprising, and downright weird moments/statements from MSNBC’s late Monday night/early Tuesday morning coverage of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), I thought it would be an appropriate time to do another one for the DNC’s closing night.
Needless to say, MSNBC didn’t relent when it came to moments featuring Hardball host Chris Matthews and cohorts that required one or sometimes multiple double takes. So, without any further ado, here are the five wackiest points from 12:00 a.m. Eastern to 2:00 a.m. Eastern.
1. Brian Williams frets about not ever having had “a balloon drop for anything” in his life.
Upon returning from commercial break, breaking news anchor Brian Williams seemed to be living a world all his own (which he’s probably familiar with) as he exclaimed: “Wow. Just the science of balloon drops has changed over the years. Look, if you're into these, you're into these. It’s a beautiful sight. You don't get to do that often as an adult.”
With co-host Rachel Maddow and political analyst Nicolle Wallace laughing in confusion, Williams ruled that he’s “never had a balloon drop for anything and they're pretty spectacular” to which Maddow joked that one will be held “[n]ext Tuesday 3:00 a.m. at Brian's house.”
Tossing to the Road Warriors correspondents, Williams again went off course joking that those who don’t know them may confuse them with raging drunks:
Because we're close to Hoboken you can almost hear Francis Albert singing, it's a quarter to 3:00 and there's no one in the place but you and me. That's what our road warriors look like. If we didn’t know them, each of them, individually, so well, you would just assume they're all hammered. They're not, they're so tired.
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2. Joy Reid had “emotional connection” to Hillary's DNC speech; “Almost like an Oscars telecast”
AM Joy host Joy Reid was explaining her thoughts on Hillary Clinton’s DNC acceptance speech when she exclaimed how “Hillary Clinton was able to connect people like me, who maybe were sort of studying and watching this, but not really emotionally connected to what she was doing, to create an emotional connection with her.”
Commenting on the DNC itself, she ruled that: “It was a brilliant piece of television, first of all. Let's just acknowledge it was well done. It was almost like an Oscars telecast. It was well done and it built to an emotional crescendo, where at the end, you bought Hillary Clinton as a president.”
3. Try to follow Chris Matthews with this analogy involving the 2016 election and The Honeymooners
Matthews prefaced a comment in the 1:00 a.m. half-hour by warning that he’s going to “try something” even though “I always get in trouble doing this, so I’ll do it” when he equated the 2016 presidential election to the pilot of the long-time running TV show The Honeymooners with Donald Trump as main character Ralph Kramden.
4. Michael Steele jokes DNC was “a lot more fun” thanks to “more drinking”
Former RNC chair and MSNBC political analyst Michael Steele used his turn during the segment in which panelists tell Matthews something he didn’t already know when he first informed the audience at a bar they were broadcasting from that he had “survived a week at the Democratic National Convention.”
When Matthews inquired about which political party was “more fun,” Steele jokingly responded to the amusement of the audience and colleagues: “Oh, this was a lot more fun. There's a lot more drinking for the right reasons.”
5. Enjoy Matthews discussing Philly culture, history, college sports from the Rocky steps
For each night of the convention plus the final night of the RNC, Matthews used the final moments of MSNBC’s live programming before 2:00 a.m. Eastern to show him visiting a certain part of his hometown city of Philadelphia.
Matthews made the final such stop the Rocky steps at the top of the Philadelphia Art Museum where he discussed the city’s colleges, culture, history, and sports with colleague Steve Kornacki.
As an unabashed native of eastern Pennsylvania, it was nice to see Matthews put politics aside for a few minutes each night and show readers a part of the city he clearly has a lot of affection and love for as really anyone would for their hometown.
