As liberals began to pick up the pieces on Wednesday after Donald Trump was elected the next president of the United States, MSNBC host Chris Matthews provided a succinct embodiment of a liberal’s range of emotions over the course of a special two-hour Hardball from fear to downright strange behavior.
Minutes into the start of the show at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, Matthews seemed to have forgotten that the fact that much of the news media is liberal like him when he predicted that, if Vice President Joe Biden had run for president, he would have been mercilessly attacked by the news media.
“But then again, Biden, because of his gaffes over the years would have been pummeled, I think, by the regular media. The mainstream media would have pummeled the guy as they had done for years,” bloviated Matthews.
Moving to the rampant fears of violence being committed and mass disturbances (but of course ignore the far-left anti-Trump protests), MSNBC guest Simon Marks expressed his far that Trump’s victory will perpetuate “right-wing, anti-immigrant sentiment all over Europe” while Matthews alluded to Muslim immigrants being beaten up.
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Matthews did veer into the strange category, but not before ruling that “Hillary Clinton delivered a powerful and I thought wonderful concession speech this morning offering support for the country’s next president” while expressing sadness at the disappoint on Bill Clinton’s face on Wednesday.
The MSNBC pundit turned seconds later to Washington Post writer Anne Gearan and admitted that he had “walked down the streets of Manhattan up here and because I'm on this network and people know my attitudes about things, they come up to me and they're scared depressed, despaired, desperate even.”
He added that they were creepily “almost clinging” to him, making for “quite an experience I've never had before....but people are scared.”
Within that same segment, Matthews opined that it would behoove Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Senate to not wait and confirm Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court: “Maybe the best job for both of them is to put Merrick Garland in there and move on because I don't think they’re going to the right of him or to the left of him.”
If the bizarre factor hadn’t already been turned up to high, Matthews looked around later in the 7:00 p.m. Eastern hour and informed his guests that he’s struggling with life on planet Earth:
I'm still having a hard time getting myself used to standing on this Earth right now. This is a different Earth today than it was 24 hours ago. It's different place. It just is different. The people I was in the room there at the Hillary hotel tonight — I thought it was interesting. They downgraded the hotel for the concession speech.....another one was proud unhappiness, which I love in politics because it shows true commitment and a loss of something they all counted on as reality.
Going back to policy to round out this compilation of Matthews’s two hour show, he seemed to have forgotten the fact that a number of Trump’s policy proposals could enlarge the size of government and the debt when he hinted that it’d be ideal for Trump to pull a Franklin D. Roosevelt and not follow his campaign promises from one of his first presidential elections:
Well, just remember, Franklin Roosevelt ran in '32 when we were desperate in the depths of the Depression — Great Depression saying my solution to the Great Depression is I'm going to reduce the number of federal employees and reduce the size of government, reduce the deficits. Roosevelt did the absolute opposite and it worked.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on November 9 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
November 9, 2016
6:07 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So the party should have run a more left — a more progressive candidate, but you know, you can argue in another case, I’ll end with you, Kasie. The other case could if the had ran somebody the people liked more like Joe Biden.
KASIE HUNT: Yes.
MATTHEWS: I have heard that argument. But then again, Biden, because of his gaffes over the years would have been pummeled, I think, by the regular media. The mainstream media would have pummeled the guy as they had done for years.
(....)
6:36 p.m. Eastern
SIMON MARKS: Well, I mean, the dangerous part of it is that it feeds into the same dynamic that, in this country that has fed into Donald Trump's election victory here. I mean, it is stoking right-wing, anti-immigrant sentiment all over Europe that is now seen by Europe leaders to be reflected in the politics here. It's not just the European leaders, I think, are scrambling to understand what a Donald Trump presidency means. They're scrambling to get in touch with Donald Trump. There are very few contacts between European leaders and the Trump campaign. In Britain, there is only one national political leader who has a close association and a close understanding of what Donald Trump's all about and that’s Nigel Farrage of the UK Independence Party who suggested today he would like to be Donald Trump's ambassador to Europe.
MATTHEWS: Well, apart from changing the immigration laws, which is tricky in the European-wide society. Does this — and let’s talk about how Americans look at this. We don't like the sign — signs of Nazi kind of going around bullies, operating supposedly on their own, but really under the leadership of the political world, beating people up. You know, the old thing, the bubba boys, in the old days, beating up Pakistani immigrants and thinking that was fun. Is that getting encouraged by this politics?
MARKS: Well, I think there’s no question that is getting encouraged by this politics. Certainly in the U.K. we're seeing the rise of anti-Semitic attacks in cities like London and in cities in the north of the country. We're seeing a rise in confrontations with immigrants who live perfectly legally within the European Union, not to mention the extraordinary controversy surrounding the refuge in camp in Calais recently demolished by the French authorities. The so-called Jungle and also you've got to bear in mind the world leaders have been hearing a contradictory message from the United States. They've been coming here for months, saying to Barack Obama and John Kerry what's going on? Is Donald Trump going to be the next president of the United States? And they've been told don't worry, the good sense, the common decency of the American people will prevail. That hasn’t happened.
(....)
7:01 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Well, several hours later, Hillary Clinton delivered a powerful and I thought wonderful concession speech this morning offering support for the country’s next president. Here she is.
HILLARY CLINTON: Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for and I'm sorry that we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country. [SCREEN WIPE] Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open and the chance to lead.
MATTHEWS: Never seen Bill Clinton look quite like that. He is drawn. He is — boy, something to see that expression. I'm joined right now by The Washington Post’s Robert Costa and Anne Gearan. Both of you guys, let me start with Anne, in terms of — I was saying this earlier. I walked down the streets of Manhattan up here and because I'm on this network and people know my attitudes about things, they come up to me and they're scared depressed, despaired, desperate even, almost clinging it's quite an experience I've never had before and well, you’re a straight reporter and I don't know how people react to you, but people are scared.
(....)
7:10 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: It’s so much better, guys, than what we saw eight years ago when Barack Obama was elected. Remember they were meeting at that Indian restaurant down near the White House, plotting the demise of a President who was just taking office? Or Mitch McConnell saying his number one goal on Earth was to defeat Barack Obama for a second term.
GEARAN: Well, Mitch McConnell got exactly what he wanted which is, you know, an open Supreme Court seat that Donald Trump is going to fill. There’s really no — that's exactly what he was hoping would happen.
MATTHEWS: Well, we’ll see. Maybe the best job for both of them is to put Merrick Garland in there and move on because I don't think they’re going to the right of him or to the left of him.
(....)
7:18 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: I'm still having a hard time getting myself used to standing on this Earth right now. This is a different Earth today than it was 24 hours ago. It's different place. It just is different. The people I was in the room there at the Hillary hotel tonight — I thought it was interesting. They downgraded the hotel for the concession speech. They went away from a fancy hotel to another one was proud unhappiness, which I love in politics because it shows true commitment and a loss of something they all counted on as reality. They thought the reality was that Hillary Clinton was going to start dispensing patronage starting this morning and there were ambassadorships people paid heavily for — that's how it works — and all these positions of authority and prestige were all going to be dished out by her. Instead, she came in basically I don't even have a job. It was so profoundly different than anybody expected.
(.....)
7:41 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Well, just remember, Franklin Roosevelt ran in '32 when we were desperate in the depths of the Depression — Great Depression saying my solution to the Great Depression is I'm going to reduce the number of federal employees and reduce the size of government, reduce the deficits. Roosevelt did the absolute opposite and it worked.
