Sean Hannity is sick of Chris Matthews's "hypocritical" pandering on issues of race, calling out the Hardball anchor, Monday, for smearing Republicans even as he protects MSNBC colleagues. Unloading, Hannity attacked, "...If that hypocrite, that phony, Chris Matthews, is so concerned about race issues, he has a colleague at his own network."
The Fox News host then played a montage of MSNBC host Al Sharpton using the n-word and saying other offensive terms. Zeroing in on Matthews himself, Hannity derided, "He plays the race card nearly every day, but he won't criticize his fellow host."
The conservative anchor played a montage of Matthews's race baiting:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: They [Republicans] keep saying Chicago, by the way. Have you noticed? They keep saying Chicago. That's another thing that sends that message, This guy's helping the poor people in the bad neighborhoods, screwing us in the 'burbs. The goal will be to erase not just Obama from the history books, but any evidence that someone of his background should ever think of being president.
This is rotten stuff, isn't it, the Republican effort to kill the black vote in state after state? We can all see what they're doing. Believing they can't convert the African-American vote, they've decided to slaughter it. Same-day registration? You got to be kidding! That's like putting down a welcome mat for African-American voters. Look, this is murder in broad daylight.
The Media Research Center's Geoff Dickens compiled the top 20 worst examples of Matthews's smears. The number one example? The time he wondered if Republicans want slavery back:
What does your study tell you about the nature of the racial piece here of the Tea Party?...Is it sort of a resumption of the Old South, of the way things were before the Civil War, for example?...Is it like that old dreamy nostalgia you get in the old movies, you know what I mean? Gone With the Wind? Is it that kind of America they want to bring back or what? When they don't, where there were no gays, where blacks were slaves, where Mexicans were in Mexico? I mean, is this what they want?
— Chris Matthews to author Christopher Parker on MSNBC’s Hardball, March 20, 2013.
But, as Hannity pointed out, Matthews will not condemn the race baiting of Sharpton.
A partial transcript of the Hannity segment is below:
Hannity
8/24/1510:18pm ET
SEAN HANNITY: We see this every year. Democrats play the race card. So Chris Matthews playing the race card is no different than every other political year, is it?
NIGER INNIS: Absolutely not. And what Trump and other Republicans cannot do is march to the beat of the liberal media establishment and those that are playing the race card. They cannot go to the typical Republican default setting of having private meetings where black lives don't matter, of having a meeting in the Senate dining hall with Al Sharpton because they want to be loved by The New York Times.
GUSTER: ... never going to be loved by The New York Times, and if you want to create a real conservative Republican constituency in black and brown communities, you've got to find new leadership.
HANNITY: All right, then -- here's -- here's is an interesting thing that I think we can look at, at this particular point. Speaking -- if that hypocrite, that phony, Chris Matthews, is so concerned about race issues, he has a colleague at his own network. Let's look at the history of Al Sharpton!
[Montage of Al Sharpton using profanity and the N-word.]
HANNITY: Should Chris Matthews, Eric Guster, be critical of Al Sharpton for playing the race card, considering it's such an important issue to him?
GUSTER: Well, the important thing that Republicans need to do, they need to start talking to minority candidates –
HANNITY: Did I ask you that?GUSTER: – minority groups and start appealing to them. If a person feels totally ignored by a group, like the Republican Party has ignored so many minorities for many years, then of course they're going to be ignored. So that is part of the problem that the Republicans have.
HANNITY: That wasn't the question we're asking. Every election season, your party, the Democratic Party, plays the race card. Chris Matthews did it. Here's a montage. He plays the race card nearly every day, but he won't criticize his fellow host. Watch this.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Up next, what did Paul Ryan mean when he blamed President Obama's victory last week on the "urban" vote? You like that word? Is he blowing that dog whistle again? This thing about getting rid of the work requirement for welfare is dishonest. Everyone's pointed out it's dishonest, and you are playing that little ethnic card there. They keep saying Chicago, by the way. Have you noticed? They keep saying Chicago. That's another thing that sends that message, This guy's helping the poor people in the bad neighborhoods, screwing us in the 'burbs. The goal will be to erase not just Obama from the history books, but any evidence that someone of his background should ever think of being president.
This is rotten stuff, isn't it, the Republican effort to kill the black vote in state after state? We can all see what they're doing. Believing they can't convert the African-American vote, they've decided to slaughter it. Same-day registration? You got to be kidding! That's like putting down a welcome mat for African-American voters. Look, this is murder in broad daylight.
HANNITY: All right, so Chicago, Eric, according to NBC News -- that's racist. Urban is racist if you say the term "urban." And if you talk about a work requirement that too is some type of dog whistle and racism. Are you going to accept that type of rhetoric and discussion and that type of phony rhetoric used by your party?
