One week ago tonight, Chris Matthews told his Hardball audience that Florida mailman Doug Hughes should pay for his illegal gyrocopter stunt by being sentenced to community service consisting of Hughes lecturing Congress for an hour on campaign finance reform. Tonight Matthews doubled down on that suggestion and gave Hughes a platform on MSNBC's airwaves.
Naturally Matthews failed to ask any tough questions of Hughes and, what's more, lamented that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was "blaming the messenger" with his pronouncement that, were he in command, he'd have given the order for Hughes to be shot down.
You can watch the higlight reel by clicking play on the embed below. I've also included the relevant transcripts from the interview segment and the two teases prior to the interview (emphasis mine):
MSNBC
Hardball
April 23
first teaser at 7:15 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And the Florida mailman, actually he is a mailman, who landed that gyrocopter at the U.S. Capitol joins us tonight. A top U.S. Congressman, by the way says that if it were up to him, that copter would have been shot down. My God. Anyway, the pilot, 61-year-old Doug Hughes, is here tonight. Talk about blaming the messenger, congressman!
second teaser at 7:29 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Up next, the Florida mailman -- this is a great guy, coming up. You can't beat this act. Here he is flying... he flew that gyrocopter on to the lawn of the U.S. Capitol to make his protest clear about the corruption of too much money, secretive money in politics. Well, Jason Chaffetz from Utah wanted to shoot that guy out of the sky! As I said, blame the messenger. He's now under home detention, sort of. Actually he can move around. He's here on Hardball tonight. We're going to talk to him. There he is right now [on screen], Doug Hughes. I want this guy to address a joint meeting of Congress. That's what I want him to do. This is Hardball, the place for politics.
The segment itself -- 7:33-38 p.m. Eastern
Rep. JASON CHAFFETZ (R-Utah) on videotape from press gaggle: He is lucky to be alive because he should have been blown out of the air and very well could have been. Uh, he wasn't. Um--
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER at press gaggle: You think he should have been blown out of the air?
CHAFFETZ: I think if you're going to do that and come down, if it was up to me, I would have, I would have taken care of the problem.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: If it was up to me I would have taken care of the problem. Wow, Jason Chaffetz is a tough customer.
Welcome back to Hardball. That was House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, and the problem he wanted to shoot down was Florida mailman, Doug Hughes, who's with us now.
Doug Hughes, by the way, piloted his homemade gyrocopter last week on to the lawn, there it is, of the United States Capitol. He said he's fed up with fat cats pouring millions of dollars, billions of dollars into American politics with no traceability. The old dark money. So the 61-year-old flew literally under the radar with letters to every member of Congress that included this quote from now Secretary of State John Kerry, quote, "the unending chase for money I believe threatens to steal our democracy itself."
Joining me right now from his home in Ruskin, Florida, where he's currently there is Doug Hughes. First of all, Mr. Hughes, congratulations for your message. Let me just, without getting into big trouble, I completely support your message.
Let me ask you, what's the conditions right now of your detention? Are you allowed to walk around, go to the store, go to Starbucks, whatever? Can you do that?
DOUG HUGHES: No, no, I'm under house arrest. I can't leave the inside of my home.
MATTHEWS: The inside of your home. Show me your ankle, the bracelet. I'd love to, the country wants to see that. Can we look at it now?
HUGHES: OK. It's just a GPS.
MATTHEWS: Yeah, let me look at it.
HUGHES: I have to charge it every day.
MATTHEWS: You have to charge it?
HUGHES: It's -- it's not removable, but it can get wet, I can shower with it, but I'm not supposed to -- take it.
MATTHEWS: What is your feeling when you first wake up in the morning and you feel that on your leg? What do you feel about personal responsibility, the goal that you set when you set about this mission to fly the gyrocopter to the Capitol building, how does it all settle when you first wake up in the morning? You said, dammit, I did the right thing, I'm a hero at least to myself? What do you say?
HUGHES: That's the whole thing, Chris, is that it is personal responsibility. If you've read Thoreau on civil disobedience, you have to be willing to accept the consequences for what you're doing if you believe in them. And I do. I don't know what the consequences are going to be. We're going to have to see that through.
MATTHEWS: What percentage of the media coverage has focused on your message and what percentage, do you think, is focused on your means?
HUGHES: Chris, I've watched remarkably little media. Everybody knows better than me how much the media has -- how they've covered it. I do think that the people who don't want to talk about the corruption in Washington do want to talk about hordes of Muslim terrorists coming in on hordes of gyrocopters and jumping out and charging the Capitol with swords in hand. That's the vision that they want to talk about.
MATTHEWS: That's not my cartoon. Anyway, you did get a lot of attention on this. Look at this, syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, who I respect, wrote, "It takes courage to stand where you put your money or to deliver your letters to the U.S. Congress in person. See, Mr. Hughes, your stunt worked."
Let me ask you about the corruption, you call it. Describe an example of what you think a case where big money, any money, changes how a congressman or a senator votes, or a president? Where do you see it happening?
HUGHES: Where I see it happening that bothers me the most is that almost 50 percent of our Congress that's retired, whether they lost the election or they retired, has gone to work for K Street, or as lobbyists, off K Street, earning 14 times what they made in the Congress. And that's not a fixed amount. But on average, 14 times what they made in Congress. And I don't think any of these people are worth $1.5 million or $2 million a year as consultants. I think they're getting paid for voting the way the lobbyist firm they associated with told them they had to vote.
MATTHEWS: So you think it's a post-payment. You think it's a delayed payment for services rendered in office?
HUGHES: Obviously. And I think the American public will see it the same way. And it's totally legal. What I did was illegal. And I may go to jail for it. They do it every day and none of them will ever see jail time for it.
MATTHEWS: How many years would it be after serving in Congress would you say, no more, no lobbying?
HUGHES: Right now, in a lot of professions, you sign a non-compete clause. And under the non-compete clause, you can't go to work for another company that does the kind of business that you were working for. Now, stay with me.
MATTHEWS: I'm with you.
HUGHES: The non-compete clause is in effect after you've left the employ of that other company.
MATTHEWS: Right.
HUGHES: And they can tell you what you can and can't do. We can do the same thing with Congress. We can say, there's a non-compete clause, as far as who you can go to work for or whether or not who you're going to work for, whether or not the amount of money looks suspicious, whether it looks like you're accepting payoffs. And it could be for ten years.
MATTHEWS: Let's see how you make that a law and whether that's constitutional or not, but I like the way you think. Thank you, Mr. Hughes, I think a lot of people are watching right now who sympathize with your cause and they know it's hard to come up with a solution as well. Thank you so much, Mr. Hughes, Doug Hughes. We know who you are. We know your cause. Thank you.
