Prior to Donald Trump’s rally Monday night in Dallas, Texas, Chris Matthews and the panelists on MSNBC’s Hardball mocked Republican women and voters from “southwestern Virginia” of Scots-Irish heritage who’ve “got an attitude” and previously supported Democrats like Jim Webb. Matthews wrote them off as white people “like Pat Buchanan...the people that went to the mountains when they immigrated to the United States, they went right to the rural areas and they've got an attitude.”
Chris Matthews
By Mark Finkelstein | September 11, 2015 | 8:34 PM EDT
A few months ago, I took some flack in these quarters for suggesting that, his annoying liberalism aside, Chris Matthews is in his heart an American patriot.
That same patriotic proclivity displayed itself tonight. On the anniversary of 9-11, Matthews profusely praised his guest Rudy Giuliani for his leadership on that day. And in a spontaneous aside, Matthews called RFK's assassin, the Palestinian Sirhan B. Sirhan, "the first terrorist."Can you imagine Rachel Maddow—or Barack Obama for that matter—doing the same?
By Ken Shepherd | September 10, 2015 | 8:56 PM EDT
On his September 10 Hardball program, cradle Catholic Chris Matthews voiced his disdain for political candidates discussing their religious faith and/or citing the Bible at a campaign event. The target of Mr. Matthews's wrath was Dr. Ben Carson, who recently quoted from the biblical book of Proverbs to answer a question related to Donald Trump.
MSNBC's Matthews: Racism May Account for Only 10 Percent of GOP Approving of Obama's Job As President
By Ken Shepherd | September 9, 2015 | 9:03 PM EDT According to Hardball host Chris Matthews, President Obama's skin tone may well account for his paltry 10 percent job-approval rating among Republicans.
By Ken Shepherd | September 8, 2015 | 9:22 PM EDT
A few weeks ahead of Pope Francis's visit to the United States, liberal cradle Catholic Chris Matthews -- who once opined that it was somewhat en vogue for "really anti-gay" folks to convert to the faith -- used the upcoming visit as an opportunity to praise the pontiff as a foil for more conservative and traditionalist wings of the Catholic Church, particularly in the United States.
By Mark Finkelstein | September 8, 2015 | 8:12 PM EDT
Maybe Biden can do one of those DirectTV ads: "Hi, I'm Joe Biden. And I'm Creepy Joe Biden" . . .
On this evening's Hardball, Cook Report editor Amy Walter revealed that during a South Carolina event, Joe Biden kissed her mother, who had never before met him, on the lips. Walter said that her mother's reaction was "okay well, there we go." Chris Matthews flew to Biden's defense: "that's a very Philly thing [Biden's not from Philly]. Nothing wrong with it. Just very direct and very loving." Need we say that if a Republican candidate had smooched an unsuspecting woman on the lips, the calls for his immediate withdrawal from the race would be echoing through the MSM halls? Bob Packwood, anyone?
By Ken Shepherd | August 27, 2015 | 8:32 PM EDT
Wow. This is quite telling. On his Hardball program tonight, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, a native of the City of Brotherly Love, compared Hillary Clinton's campaign to the NL East cellar-dwelling Philadelphia Phillies -- 50-77 record, 20.5 games behind division-leading New York Mets.
By Ken Shepherd | August 26, 2015 | 9:35 PM EDT
Does MSNBC host Chris Matthews give ANY thought to the structure of his interviews? In a chat on Wednesday night's Hardball with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) about her memoir, Matthews shifted from talking Klobuchar growing up with an alcoholic father to asking her thoughts on what it was like to, I kid you not, what it was like to work with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
By Scott Whitlock | August 25, 2015 | 12:27 PM EDT
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."
By Ken Shepherd | August 24, 2015 | 9:13 PM EDT
Congressional Republican opposition to the Iran deal simply boils down to kowtowing to opposing by the Israelis, MSNBC's Chris Matthews suggested during a roundtable discussion exchange with Republican strategist John Feehery on the Monday edition of Hardball. "Why don't we just turn it over to the Knesset then?" Matthews sneered, in reply to Feehery citing Israel's concerns about Iranian-sponsored terrorism. "Why have even a foreign policy in this country?"
But mere moments later, Matthews defended liberal Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who is on record opposing the deal, by saying that of course he's "going to defend the interests of Israel and it's legitimate he do so. OK, there's nothing wrong with that. It's a fact."
Chris Matthews: 'Gutsy' of McCaskill to Back Iran Deal; Fails to Note Iran Allowed to Self-Inspect Govt. Facility
By Ken Shepherd | August 20, 2015 | 8:59 PM EDT Teasing his softball interview with Sen. Claire McCaskill, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews hailed as "gutsy" the Missouri Democrat's coming out today to endorse President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran. Missouri's nickname is the "Show-Me State," yet nowhere in his interview did Matthews ask McCaskill about the logic of jumping on board a nuclear deal by which, as NBC's own Andrea Mitchell reported, the International Atomic Energy Agency will allow the Islamic Republic to self-inspect a military installation.
By Kyle Drennen | August 20, 2015 | 12:48 PM EDT
After former President Jimmy Carter criticized “the government of Israel” during a Thursday press conference for having “no desire for a two-state solution” with the Palestinians, MSNBC Hardball host and former Carter speechwriter Chris Matthews hailed his old boss: “...he stuck it to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. Why not?...He might as well stick it to the guys who’ve caused him trouble, as he’s seen it, especially Netanyahu. Why not stick it to Netanyahu? He deserves it.”