While on his book tour, Republican Senator Jeff Flake (Ariz.) stopped by Tuesday’s Hardball for an interview in which host Chris Matthews heaped effusive praise on Flake’s book Conscience of a Conservative as one that’s not only “tough” and “hard-hitting” on the GOP and President Trump, but a “very compelling” one too.
Flake strangely didn’t wade too deep into slamming Trump and the party’s voters as he did in previous interviews, but it was nonetheless a friendly segment in which his comments were no different than if Nicolle Wallace or Steve Schmidt were instead sitting next to Matthews.
Right from the get-go, Matthews set the tone:
With the publication of the new book today, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona has quickly emerged as the most outspoken Republican critic of president Donald Trump. And he makes it clear he blames his own party for enabling Trump's rise to power. Well, with the title borrowed from former Senator Barry Goldwater, the book is called Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle.
After the interview started with a pointed back-and-forth about whether Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, Matthews teed up Flake by asking “what’s wrong with Trump.”
Flake flaunted himself as Goldwater (and, by extension, L. Brent Bozell II) when the latter wrote the original Conscience of a Conservative:
I talk about it in the book. Barry Goldwater in 1960 thought that the conservative party, the Republican Party had been compromised by the New Deal. And so he wrote Conscience of a Conservative. I think today we've been compromised by other forces. Protectionism, you know, populism and I don’t think those bode well in the long term. That’s not a government policy.
Eventually, Matthews expressed disappointment with how the interview was going but not the book, declaring he’s “fascinated with how tough you are on Donald Trump.”
“Very hard hitting on Trump. Demagoguery is the word you used. Populism, protectionism, you used all the tough words and you don’t like them. You don't think this President is good for the country, do you,” Matthews wondered.
Flake noted that he’s backed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Trump’s “great...cabinet picks” yet “where I think that he's profoundly unconservative is on things like free trade.”
Matthews then continued to sit by as Flake offered red meat for viewers:
FLAKE: I mean, that's something that we can't abandon as Republicans. We are decidedly less conservative if we do so and also, being conservative on policy is just part of it. You’ve to be conservative in demeanor as well. Conservatives —
MATTHEWS: Is he?
FLAKE: — a conservative — No. Conservative foreign policy ought to be measured and deliberate and sober and that's not what we have today.
Despite it having been at least five to six years after Trump’s despicable birtherism crusade against Barack Obama, Matthews gushed over how Flake spent time on this subject in his book.
“I think it is a tough, well-written book and I just want to keep you to it. Anyway, a portion of your book focuses on conservative conspiracy theories and the recent spread of fake news. Most notably, you criticized those who pushed the false notion that Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S.,” Matthews explained before reading two book excerpts.
“To me, the original sin was saying Barack Obama was born in Kenya or whatever and denying he was a legitimate President, calling him sort of a con-artist. That was, to me, racist in its nature, to claim the guy’s not a true American when he was clearly, to make fun of his documentation to say he was sort of an illegal immigrant. I think you're dead right on that. I don't understand why your party went along with it,” an appreciative Matthews added.
At the end of the interview, the longtime liberal pundit and former aide to Jimmy Carter and Tip O’Neil argued that Flake’s book contained the “same principles” as Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative. Media Research Center president Brent Bozell would probably disagree with that, as per his statement earlier Tuesday.
He also predicted that “everybody’s going to talk about this book” seeing as how “it’s a tough, hard-hitting book” and “very compelling.”
To be honest, Matthews’s asinine claim of “everybody” falling for this book should just be contained to The New York Times, MSNBC hosts, failed GOP campaign officials, and adoring liberal elites on the East and West coasts.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on August 1:
MSNBC’s Hardball
August 1, 2017
7:30 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Welcome back to Hardball. With the publication of the new book today, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona has quickly emerged as the most outspoken Republican critic of president Donald Trump. And he makes it clear he blames his own party for enabling Trump's rise to power. Well, with the title borrowed from former Senator Barry Goldwater, the book is called Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. Flake says that, in the Trump era: “Conservatism has been compromised by a decidedly conservative stew of celebrity and authoritarianism.” And he argues that Republicans are “in denial” about Trump’s presidency: “That unnerving silence in the face of an erratic executive branch is an abdication, and those in positions of leadership bear particular responsibility.” With this book, Flake is calling on conservatives to stand up for their values and challenge President Trump, personally. It comes as the President's son, Eric Trump, echoes his father’s message the party needs on protect President Trump and defend him even more.
(....)
MATTHEWS: I'm joined now by the author of Conscience of a Conservative, Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona. I think it was Frank Mankins who said ignore everything anybody says in Washington before the word “but.” And there he was, Eric coming out saying it is you guys' fault. What do you owe Donald Trump in terms of loyalty as a party?
REPUBLICAN SENATOR JEFF FLAKE (Ariz.): Well, obviously, I’m a Republican. The President is a Republican.
(....)
MATTHEWS: Okay, let’s talk about what's wrong with Trump? What's wrong with Trump?
FLAKE: I talk about it in the book. Barry Goldwater in 1960 thought that the conservative party, the Republican Party had been compromised by the New Deal. And so he wrote Conscience of a Conservative. I think today we've been compromised by other forces. Protectionism, you know, populism and I don’t think those bode well in the long term. That’s not a government policy.
MATTHEWS: You skipped demagoguery this time. It’s your book. Is Trump a demagogue?
FLAKE: I think that all of us, at times, as politicians, demagogue and he does some of it too. But I do think that we bear the responsibility as elected officials to stand up more than we have and I talk, this problem isn't just this administration. It came long before. I talk a lot in the book my time in Congress, 2001 to 2012 in the House of Representatives. We became a decidedly less conservative party and we jettisoned limited government party and we sent like drunken sailors. And then when we couldn’t argue that we were the limited government party, then we started to argue on thing like flag burning and the wedge issues and then, you know, we lost the majority in 2006 and we deserved to do so and then we lost the presidency in 2008. And I fear this majority the Republicans think is here to stay won't be here very long if we continue down the path we' on.
MATTHEWS: What is it in the nature of the Republican Party? Is it just a fact that the polling numbers show that 80something percent of Republicans — registered Republicans — self-identified Republicans like Trump's position on everything and they like him? That explains why there's been such party loyalty to this guy who’s not really a Republican. What explains that sort of everybody down the line refused to do what you're doing? Challenge him?
FLAKE: I think you see it on both the Republican and the Democratic side. There’s fidelity to —
MATTHEWS: This book is about your side. This book is about your side.
(....)
MATTHEWS: What’s getting this book a lot of publicity and a lot of attention — the reason I'm fascinated with how tough you are on Donald Trump. Not this sort of generalized critique you're offering about the world conditions you’re giving me here. You have a different tone right now in this room than you have in this book. This book is very hard hitting. Very hard hitting on Trump. Demagoguery is the word you used. Populism, protectionism, you used all the tough words and you don’t like them. You don't think this President is good for the country, do you?
FLAKE: Well, let me say —
MATTHEWS: Well, no, in this book, it says he’s not good.
FLAKE: I'll talk about what I talk about in the book.
MATTHEWS: Okay, good.
FLAKE: I say in the book that I've agreed with him on many things. You know, Supreme Court justice, great one. Great, you know, cabinet picks. I worked him on regulatory reform. But where I think that he's profoundly unconservative is on things like free trade. I mean, that's something that we can't abandon as Republicans. We are decidedly less conservative if we do so and also, being conservative on policy is just part of it. You’ve to be conservative in demeanor as well. Conservatives —
MATTHEWS: Is he?
FLAKE: — a conservative — No. Conservative foreign policy ought to be measured and deliberate and sober and that's not what we have today.
MATTHEWS: I think it is a tough, well-written book and I just want to keep you to it. Anyway, a portion of your book focuses on conservative conspiracy theories and the recent spread of fake news. Most notably, you criticized those who pushed the false notion that Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S. saying that: “When a conspiracy theory becomes a litmus test orthodoxy, objective reality is at risk.” When it comes to the use of alternative facts, you say “giving away one's agency to such confusion of fact and fantasy when one has power – well, that's truly dangerous.” I agree with you. To me, the original sin was saying Barack Obama was born in Kenya or whatever and denying he was a legitimate President, calling him sort of a con-artist. That was, to me, racist in its nature, to claim the guy’s not a true American when he was clearly, to make fun of his documentation to say he was sort of an illegal immigrant. I think you're dead right on that. I don't understand why your party went along with it.
FLAKE: Well it was an awful thing and not everybody in the party did but more of the party should have stood up at that time and said, hey, this is baloney. Let's get off this kick. Some of us did. More of us should have and because we didn't, we allowed people to move forward spouting that stuff and then it gets worse and you come to a point where today, I saw a poll just last week that half of all Republicans believe that President Trump won the popular vote. No, he won the election. He is the president legitimately. But he didn't win the popular vote. That's an objective fact.
(....)
MATTHEWS: Anyway, I think it’s great you came on. I think it’s a tough, hard hitting book. It is very compelling and everybody’s going to talk about this book.
FLAKE: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: Conscience of Conservative. I read the first one by Barry Goldwater. This one is little different. Same principles, thank you, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona.
