On Friday's Hardball on MSNBC, during an interview with former Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn, host Chris Matthews oddly gushed over his liberal guest's claims in her book that she had put "hexes" on people and possibly caused their early demise. She even made a crack about how her friends keep trying to get her to put a hex on President Donald Trump.
Near the end of Friday's show, the MSNBC host touted the veteran Washington Post journalist as "frightening" as he introduced a segment to promote her book, Finding Magic: A Spiritual Memoir. Matthews:
Sally Quinn has always been one of the most frightening people in Washington. Glamorous, yes, I'll give you that -- but when you wrote for the Washington Post when you went after people like Steve Martindale or what's-his-name, Hamilton Jordan -- they died. You wrote these huge -- I used to read them on the bus, these gigantic takeout pieces in the Washington Post -- when your husband was running the paper, which was a hugely successful paper -- the Washington Post, it crackled with excitement.
He then added:
And now you write a book where you say, "If you think I was scary as a reporter, I can put a hex on you." Talk about the spiritual power of wishing someone to die. How's that work?
Before she could answer, the MSNBC host further injected:
This is a book you got to read because it's the only book I've read about D.C. and the spiritual power that comes alive with a really smart person with strong focus.
Quinn recalled being taught about the occult somehow as part of her Presbyterian upbringing. After she added, "I don't know whether it works or not," Matthews persisted with his fascination over the possibility that she had caused people to die prematurely: "But you knocked off a couple of people with hexes."
Quinn elaborated:
I did put hexes on people, but you can also call it spells or prayers or wishes. I didn't wish them to be knocked off -- I wished them only to suffer what they had caused me to suffer --
She then informed viewers that her friends have had made many ill wishes against President Trump as she added:
If you're in Washington, for instance, look at how many people wish other people ill in Washington, D.C., and I cannot tell you how many people -- my friends, who do not believe in this, have begged me to put a hex on Donald Trump.
Matthews couldn't get over the hexes:
But the parts I liked to read -- I got them in galley form -- what I liked is the hexes of course. How can I not like the fact you knocked off some people just by wishing them evil?
Such a positive reaction to Quinn's eccentric spiritual history by the MSNBC host contrasts with how Alabama Republican Senate nominee and conservative Christian Roy Moore has been received with freakouts by other MSNBC personalities, including Stephanie Ruhle and Nicolle Wallace.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Friday, September 29, Hardball on MSNBC:
7:50 p.m. ET
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Sally Quinn has always been one of the most frightening people in Washington. Glamorous, yes, I'll give you that -- but when you wrote for the Washington Post when you went after people like Steve Martindale or what's-his-name, Hamilton Jordan -- they died. You wrote these huge -- I used to read them on the bus, these gigantic takeout pieces in the Washington Post -- when your husband was running the paper, which was a hugely successful paper -- the Washington Post, it crackled with excitement.
And now you write a book where you say, "If you think I was scary as a reporter, I can put a hex on you." Talk about the spiritual power of wishing someone to die. How's that work?
SALLY QUINN: Well, let me just say --
MATTHEWS: No, you have it in here. You can't run away from it.
QUINN: I'm not. Listen --
MATTHEWS: This is a book you got to read because it's the only book I've read about D.C. and the spiritual power that comes alive when a really smart person with strong focus.
QUINN: Yes. Well, I did, in my youth -- because I was raised in Savannah, Georgia, by Presbyterian Scots who believed in the standing stones and time travel and voodoo and the occult and ghosts and psychic phenomena and astrology and tarot cards, and so I was raised -- that was what I called my embedded religion.
MATTHEWS: Does it work?
QUINN: Well, I don't know whether it works or not.
MATTHEWS: But you knocked off a couple of people with hexes.
QUINN: I did put hexes on people, but you can also call it spells or prayers or wishes. I didn't wish them to be knocked off -- I wished them only to suffer what they had caused me to suffer --
MATTHEWS: So it was justice here?
QUINN: Yes, and so, I mean, if you're in Washington, for instance, look at how many people wish other people ill in Washington, D.C., and I cannot tell you how many people -- my friends, who do not believe in this, have begged me to put a hex on Donald Trump.
(...)
MATTHEWS: But the parts I liked to read -- I got them in galley form -- what I liked is the hexes of course. How can I not like the fact you knocked off some people just by wishing them evil?
