On Wednesday’s Hardball, MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews decried Republican silencing of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) for breaking Senate rules as “brutal” and “stupid politics” because “people are going to rally to her and say she’s got spunk” for Democrats to defeat President Trump.
Right off the top, Matthews informed viewers that Hardball was airing as the Senate “begins to vote on the confirmation of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General” a day “after the brutal silencing last night of a Senator, Elizabeth Warren.”
Matthews continued teasing upcoming segments on Warren, promising he’d have “[m]uch more coming up on the hot, hot dispute over Senator Elizabeth Warren” because “it's energizing a lot of people...this is the lighting fluid to the Democratic base.”
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Speaking later to Democratic Senator Jack Reed (R.H.), Matthews swooned:
I would think this is the best thing. You know, however it happened, it seems to me Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has given her the most national attention in a positive way she could ever get. I don't think anybody is holding against her what she said in quoting Mrs. King's letter, in fact, they're saluting her for it. On the other hand, people are going to rally to her and say she’s got spunk. She’s got the stuff we're looking for on the Democratic side.
Matthews attempted to draw out USA Today’s Heidi Przybyla into a discussion of sexism, telling her that the appearance “is sort of an essay opportunity for you” to opine on what the Warren controversy “meant to you as a women or as a citizen and then what do you think the political fallout is.”
“Well, my thought [is] Elizabeth Warren could not have done anything on her own to have helped herself as much as Mitch McConnell just helped her. He gave her a massive platform both in terms of her own favorability and personal brand. Elizabeth Warren, up until now, had kind of been a little more silent compared to these whipper snappers like Chris Murphy and Senator Merkley that have been trying to harness that progressive energy,” Przybyla responded.
Turning to The Washington Post’s Robert Costa, Matthews dubbed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s move to halt Warren’s criticism of Sessions as “stupid politics.” He also stumbled onto the possibility that McConnell knew what he was doing on Tuesday:
[C]ould it be that old Mr. Wise Old Owl Mitch McConnell wants the Democratic progressive left to take over the party because he thinks it's easier to beat in Kentucky when the next election is held there? He wants the party to sweep over to the progressive side — the populist side with Senator Warren leading the band?
After the loony MSNBC host wondered if Warren could “be the new champion of the Resistance,” panelist Michelle Bernard gushed that “the country wins” by having her elevated because the sexism she endured by McConnell and “male pundit after pundit” on television criticizing her.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on February 8:
MSNBC’s Hardball
February 8, 2017
7:00 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: The debate on Hardball tonight? Who guards the door? Which office of the American government decides how to protect this country? Who decides where the danger lies and how to guard us? What constitutional limits stand in the way of that decision-making? And finally, who do we blame when that essential accountability fails us? Tonight, we debate those questions even as the United States Senate begins to vote on the confirmation of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. We'll show you the ballots on the Senate floor after the brutal silencing last night of a Senator, Elizabeth Warren.
(....)
MATTHEWS: Much more coming up on the hot, hot dispute over Senator Elizabeth Warren. We're going to get into that situation, how it's energizing a lot of people. Women especially, but not just women. This is sort of like the — what do you call it, this is the lighting fluid to the Democratic base I think. It's going to light them up.
(....)
MATTHEWS: Democrats today challenged Senator Mitch McConnell and Republicans in the Senate after they voted last night to silence — isn't that a word — silence Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Senator was reading a letter at the time from Coretta Scott King, of course, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King. Anyway, that letter from 1986 condemned Jeff Sessions, then the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District for Alabama, for using what she said was, “the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.” Anyway, a few minutes after Senator Warren read from that letter, the following scene played out.
(....)
MATTHEWS [TO DEMOCRATIC SENATOR JACK REED]: How do you think this is going to hurt or help the — your colleague from Massachusetts? I would think this is the best thing. You know, however it happened, it seems to me Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has given her the most national attention in a positive way she could ever get. I don't think anybody is holding against her what she said in quoting Mrs. King's letter, in fact, they're saluting her for it. On the other hand, people are going to rally to her and say she’s got spunk. She’s got the stuff we're looking for on the Democratic side.
(....)
MATTHEWS: This is sort of an essay opportunity for you. What was your reaction to this whole thing? First of all, personally and what it meant to you as a women or as a citizen and then what do you think the political fallout is?
HEIDI PRZYBYLA: Well, my thought Elizabeth Warren could not have done anything on her own to have helped herself as much as Mitch McConnell just helped her. He gave her a massive platform both in terms of her own favorability and personal brand. Elizabeth Warren, up until now, had kind of been a little more silent compared to these whipper snappers like Chris Murphy and Senator Merkley that have been trying to harness that progressive energy. But it became a trigger point for some of the key blocks of the base, both for African-Americans cause they felt like — they weren’t just silencing — he wasn't just silencing her, he was silencing Coretta Scott king, words of her and also women. It became a flashpoint for women who saw in that a form of bullying that they think they’ve said before. Chris, I just went on Twitter and some of the male Trump voters who often troll journalists were using the word, shrill, and some of these words that came up also around Clinton and I think it just became —
MATTHEWS: She wasn't shrill anyway. Let me ask you about women, just generally when growing up, in school, I'm sure you've been through this. You're a different generation than me, but the boys do all the talking. They may not get the grades the girl do, but they do all the talking. The girls are much more reserved about this. Does that strike — is it that primordial? I think it is — telling a woman to shut up.
(....)
MATTHEWS: This — you know, this is stupid politics by Mitch Mcconnell, I think. Unless they want — let's be political here for a second, not in terms of bad manners or whatever, male/female relations, whatever, could it be that old Mr. Wise Old Owl Mitch Mcconnell wants the Democratic progressive left to take over the party because he thinks it's easier to beat in Kentucky when the next election is held there? He wants the party to sweep over to the progressive side — the populist side with Senator Warren leading the band?
(....)
MATTHEWS: Up next, the Democratic resistance may have turned a corner after what happened in the Senate overnight. Will progressives now use it to build a movement? What happened to Elizabeth last night — Elizabeth Warren against Trumpism. Could she be the new champion of the Resistance, if you will?
(....)
MICHELLE BARNARD: Absolutely, Elizabeth Warren wins and the country wins because her — just the appearance of the way he spoke to her and what he said and then you turn on the television this morning, and you see male pundit after pundit saying it has nothing to do with the fact that she's a woman, it doesn't matter, it's just that his constituents don't like her. It does matter.
