On Tuesday, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews was in tip-top shape when it comes to spouting off wacky quotes, suggesting print journalists are “heroes,” John Brennan is a “patriot,” and admitting he had no clue who Ariana Grande was before Monday night.
The first face-palm came almost two minutes into the show, admitting that former CIA Director Brennan’s testimony was that “of a clear patriot com[ing] the day after another bombshell report in The Washington Post that the President asked two top intelligence officials this March to say there was nothing linking his campaign to the Russian meddling.”
Speaking later to Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley (Ill.), Matthews ruled that Brennan is “a straight — straight arrow,” which Republican Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) among others would disagree with.
Matthews also claimed that the Trump-Russia investigation itself is “a patriotic cause” people of all ideologies should be invested in:
There's a straight — straight arrow guy, a public servant, talking about we have to do something to make sure nobody ever again helps the Russians meddle with our elections, that is a patriotic cause here. How did that strike you? I mean, I think that's the kind of things the Democrats and Republicans can agree on. We don't want anyone messing with our democracy. We sort of invented it, didnt’ we? And we don’t want people taking away from us.
At the end of that segment, Matthews channeled MSNBC’s Katy Tur in thinking that modern-day journalists are “the heroes of our land right now” and specifically “print reporters” going after President Trump.
It’s technically true in the case of Superman’s alter-ego Clark Kent working for The Daily Planet and same for Spiderman’s Peter Parker The Daily Bugle, but that’s not the real world, Chris. Nice try, but no cigar.
A few segments after Matthews compared Trump to Jimmy Hoffa, Time’s Jay Newton-Small informed Matthews that singer Ariana Grande had a Washington connection with her late aunt Judy having served as the president of the National Press Club.
However, Matthews didn’t seem to care as he made a jaw-dropping omission about the Grande family that, prior to Monday’s terror attack, “I never heard of any of them — either her or her niece.”
Come on, Chris. Even plagiarist Fareed Zakaria has heard of Grande.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on May 23:
MSNBC’s Hardball
May 23, 2017
7:01 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, Brennan's testimony in fact, it's the testimony of a clear patriot comes the day after another bombshell report in The Washington Post that the President asked two top intelligence officials this March to say there was nothing linking his campaign to the Russian meddling.
(....)
7:08 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: You know, Congressman, I know people with patriotic feelings like anybody like you who’s serving in Congress, I was so taken with what Brennan said today. There's a straight — straight arrow guy, a public servant, talking about we have to do something to make sure nobody ever again helps the Russians meddle with our elections, that is a patriotic cause here. How did that strike you? I mean, I think that's the kind of things the Democrats and Republicans can agree on. We don't want anyone messing with our democracy. We sort of invented it, didnt’ we? And we don’t want people taking away from us.
(....)
7:13 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS [TO ADAM ENTOUS]: You guys are the heroes of our land right now. Print reporters covering this story.
(....)
7:53 p.m. Eastern
JAY NEWTON-SMALL: Well, I don’t know if you know this, but singer Ariana Grande, who was obviously the person whose concert was bombed in Manchester, actually has a big Washington connection. Her aunt, Judy Grande, was the first female Italian head of the National Press Club and longtime political correspondent for the Cleveland Plain Dealer until she died in 2008 of breast cancer. But her career in her life was an inspiration for Ariana Grande and her feminism.
MATTHEWS: I never heard of any of them — either her or her niece.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Wow.
