Well, that’s a new one that’ll have our Founders rolling in their graves. At the top of Wednesday’s Hardball, longtime MSNBC liberal Chris Matthews asserted that the feud of President Trump vs. Omarosa Manigault Newman marks “a new era in American politics, an old-fashioned duel that hearkens back to the days of Hamilton and Burr, but with a made-for-reality-TV update.”
“Reality bites....As the star of an old-time TV show once put it, what a revolting development this is. Donald Trump, the reality TV star President, has finally met his match in his former Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman. And now Mr. Reality Show finds himself in her reality show,” Matthews breathlessly proclaimed.
Matthews noted that Omarosa was someone who “learned everything she knows about playing the game from Trump is now out to fire him” (read: removing him from office).
It was here that Matthews made his ludicrous comparison between these two characters and two men from our nation’s founding who ended up literally fighting to the death:
It’s a new era in American politics, an old-fashioned duel that hearkens back to the days of Hamilton and Burr, but with a made-for-reality-TV update. The key to successful reality television is conflict, competition, people duking it out mano-a-mano, a role Omarosa embraced even from her earliest days on The Apprentice.
Give me a break.
Again assigning zero skepticism to Omarosa’s claims about the President, Matthews swooned that, instead of Trump being the host and Omarosa the contestant as it was on NBC’s The Apprentice, “it’s President Trump who’s in the cast while Omarosa is directing” with Omarosa asserting Tuesday that “she even seemed to dare us all to stay tuned.”
“Well, Omarosa’s transformation from villain to whistle blower hasn’t gone unnoticed as we, the viewing public, await her next big reveal,” Matthews hyped before rattling off excerpts from an Axios article and three recent items by national columnists.
He later continued (click “expand” for more):
Well, Trump’s tried everything to shank Omarosa loose, including the usual suspects of his trade, the legal threats, the insults, the nicknames and that old favorite, distraction. He attempted today to change the narrative in his own drama today by retreating to his preferred plot line: the fall back of attacking the Mueller investigation as a “Rigged Witch Hunt.” Desperate to change the channel from Omarosa, he found his latest glistening object, revoking the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, now a senior national security analyst here at NBC News and nine others who have been critical of him.
Speaking with his opening panel, Matthews entertained this liberal media-wide falsehood being peddled that the President’s use of the “dog” insult is racist in nature (while a New York Times list includes all of Trump's Twitter targets for insults and scores were called dogs). In that same discussion, Matthews praised Omarosa’s looks, telling The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker:
Let me talk about her, as a pugilist. She has a face that’s obviously attractive, but she has a face that dramatizes her thinking — have you noticed? She has a dramatic face and when she comes back, you almost think you’re watching. Who wants to ans — who wants to tackle it. Do you want to tackle it? Cause I think — he — you’re watching, you go, what’s she thinking? What’s she doing now? What’s she going to do right now?
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on August 15, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
August 15, 2018
7:00 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Reality bites. Let’s play Hardball. [HARDBALL OPENING CREDITS] Good evening, I am Chris Matthews in Washington. As the star of an old time TV show once put it, what a revolting development this is. Donald Trump, the reality TV star President, has finally met his match in his former Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman. And now Mr. Reality Show finds himself in her reality show. The woman who learned everything she knows about playing the game from Trump is now out to fire him. It’s a new era in American politics, an old-fashioned duel that hearkens back to the days of Hamilton and Burr, but with a made-for-reality-TV update. The key to successful reality television is conflict, competition, people duking it out mano-a-mano, a role Omarosa embraced even from her earliest days on The Apprentice.
[EXCHANGE FROM THE APPRENTICE]
MATTHEWS: This time, it’s President Trump who’s in the cast while Omarosa is directing. On The Daily Show last night, she even seemed to dare us all to stay tuned.
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN [on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, 08/14/18]: Trevor, I would say this. If you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear.
MATTHEWS: Well, Omarosa’s transformation from villain to whistle blower hasn’t gone unnoticed as we, the viewing public, await her next big reveal. In fact, one former White House official told Axios’s Jonathan Swan: “She may be the purest of all the Trump characters. She may be the most Trumpian. She knows the media, she knows about physical presence, like Trump does...that’s I think he’s rattled.” Well, it’s been great fodder for national columnists in the newspapers. Trump biographer Timothy O’Brien said the two were kindred spirits from the start writing: “The future president was fascinated by her. He was fascinated by her self-absorption and nastiness.” The Washington Post’s Kathleen Parker wrote: “All things considered, it sounds like Omarosa and Trump deserve each other.” The New York Times’s Frank Bruni sums up the conflict now facing Trump: “The problem with being Donald Trump isn't just being Donald Trump. It’s all the other, lesser Trumps around you. It’s the versions of yourself that you create, the echoes of yourself that you inspire. They'll devour you in the end.” Well, Trump’s tried everything to shank Omarosa loose, including the usual suspects of his trade, the legal threats, the insults, the nicknames and that old favorite, distraction. He attempted today to change the narrative in his own drama today by retreating to his preferred plot line: the fall back of attacking the Mueller investigation as a “Rigged Witch Hunt.” Desperate to change the channel from Omarosa, he found his latest glistening object, revoking the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, now a senior national security analyst here at NBC News and nine others who have been critical of him.
(....)
MATTHEWS [TO ASHLEY PARKER]: Yesterday, Trump lowered the clash with Omarosa, calling her, a fellow human being and fellow America, a “dog.” Ashley, you reported today that: “Longtime Trump observers say it is a measure of his rage and sense of betrayal that he called Manigault Newman ‘that dog.’ The president, who has an aversion to dogs and other pets, considers canine comparisons to be among his most devastating put-downs.” Whatever, but he did choose the word and it hurt Trump as much as anything he ever said. The dog. It just diminished him, that's what I think.
ASHLEY PARKER: It absolutely did and there was a lot of commentary that it was racist to call her a dog. But at the very least, even people who normally defend him kind of —
MATTHEWS: He doesn't call white guys dogs.
PARKER: I think you would — he calls a lot —
MATTHEWS: He assimilates he does. But he never calls them dogs.
PARKER: So, there was that level of criticism which is something that he is always grappling with, and people who say it’s not racist, he insults everyone, said that this is not helpful language for him to be using. It’s problematic and it gives the White House another issue to grapple with when they’re already with the fallout of the book.
MATTHEWS: Let me talk about her, as a pugilist. She has a face that’s obviously attractive, but she has a face that dramatizes her thinking — have you noticed? She has a dramatic face and when she comes back, you almost think you’re watching. Who wants to ans — who wants to tackle it. [TO PARKER] Do you want to tackle it? Cause I think — he — you’re watching, you go, what’s she thinking? What’s she doing now? What’s she going to do right now?
