Chris Matthews, infamous for throwing out outrageous attacks against Republicans, has chosen President Obama’s second inauguration as a perfect opportunity to slam the GOP as a party of cheaters. Speaking with the all-liberal MSNBC inauguration panel, Matthews suggested that in future elections, the only way Republicans can win election is if they rig them in their favor.
Matthews’ rant began when he groused that the Republican-controlled state legislature in Pennsylvania could change the way the state allocates electoral votes for president to one based on winning congressional districs rather than the present winner-takes-all model. Of course, Nebraska and Maine have similar ways of apportioning their electoral votes. In fact President Obama won one electoral vote from the Cornhusker State in 2008, but now that Republicans in a blue state are considering it, “There's so much of this willingness to rig the election by the Republicans now.” [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]
Matthews, who is a self-described liberal who previously toyed with running for the U.S. Senate, continued by comparing Republican politics to the political situation in Lebanon:
They know they're heading into demographic trouble. They know they're going to be a minority. It's almost like Lebanon. We got to fake the census now. When I see them doing is okay, we're never going to be popular again, so we're going to have to rig it.
No one on the all liberal panel dared to challenge Matthews's ridiculous assertion, with Rachel Maddow wholeheartedly agreeing with him, saying the Republican mentality is “[t]o hold on as long as we can. It’s short term thinking but it might be really effective.” Had MSNBC wanted a real conservative to offer viewers a different perspective, it could have brought The Cycle co-host S.E. Cupp down from New York.
Instead, the inauguration panel decided to stack their inaugural coverage with four ultra-liberal hosts, Ed Schultz and Chris Hayes rounding out the panel, each of them remaining silent as Matthews continued to demonize Republicans on a day the media love to tell us is not about a president and his party but about the pageantry of democracy.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
MSNBC Presidential Inauguration 2013
January 21, 2013
1:33 p.m. EST
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I was watching you the other night, and I was struck. And you are way ahead of me on this. I think we have a lot of residential segregation in this country. You live in this city. We have large African-American areas where they're 90% Democrat. As we say in politics, you waste votes. 40% of those votes you don't need. But also this thing you’re talking about, if states like Pennsylvania ever get controlled by Republican legislators, if they're able to do that, what you were talking about the other night, that is frightening. Where they break up the block, the unit rule for big states like Illinois and Pennsylvania, and where states that normally were an automatic Democratic presidential vote, they start getting only 55% of that in terms of CD (Congressional District)'s. That's a loss.
RACHEL MADDOW: Yeah, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio.
MATTHEWS: That's a huge change. And that's a state decision as you point out.
MADDOW: Yeah, and that could happen lightning fast. You think that Michigan moved fast on right to work? That could happen lightning fast.
MATTHEWS: And they’re willing to rig it. As we saw in Pennsylvania, and this is why I went after Reince Priebus that morning. There's so much of this willingness to rig the election by the Republicans now. They know they're heading into demographic trouble. They know they're going to be a minority. It's almost like Lebanon. We got to fake the census now. When I see them doing is okay, we're never going to be popular again, so we're going to have to rig it.
MADDOW: To hold on as long as we can. It’s short term thinking but it might be really effective.
