During his MSNBC show on Thursday night, Chris Matthews discussed a soundbite of Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst stating her stance on the Second Amendment from two years ago and interpreted it as “pretty radical” to the point that “[s]he has talked about killing politicians she doesn't agree with.”

First, here is what Ernst actually said (which was uncovered in a Huffington Post story from Wednesday): “I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, nine millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere, but I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family, whether it's from an intruder, or whether it's from a government should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”

Iowa's primary industry is agriculture, but Iowa farmers are more "worldly," "educated," and "sophisticated" than their counterparts elsewhere in the United States, according to the Huffington Post Media Group's Howard Fineman. While he didn't explicitly make the connection, the inference is that red-state, socially-conservative farmers were not so intelligent.

Ronan Farrow devoted a significant portion of his July 9 show to attempting to coopt the storied heroism of Raoul Wallenberg to spin the Mexican border crisis. The MSNBC host invited the US Ambassador to Sweden Mark Brzezinski and Swedish Ambassador to the US Bjorn Lyrvall onto Ronan Farrow Daily to discuss the accomplishments of the Swedish humanitarian who saved thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust and the Congressional Gold Medal to be awarded to his surviving half-sister.

After the interview, Farrow turned to his two favorite liberal pundits, Karen Finney – of the canceled Disrupt news show – and Howard Fineman of The Huffington Post for their analysis about how we should take to heart the “lesson of Raoul Wallenberg” not to “turn away these people as they’re being persecuted.” [See video below. Click here for MP3]

In a discussion on the June 24 edition of The Cycle regarding the heated Mississippi GOP Senate runoff between U.S. Senator Thad Cochran and state senator Chris McDaniel, MSNBC’s Toure immediately expressed skepticism of the tactics being deployed by the two candidates to appeal to voters.

Toure criticized Thad Cochran for reaching out to Democratic black voters at a time of political convenience because “he hasn't really been reaching out to [them] before now, now that he's fighting for his electoral life, now he's reaching out to them.” While the senator has been widely known for bringing home the bacon to Mississippi voters, those dollars only seem to reach white voters in the eyes of Toure. Then, The Cycle co-host warned that this runoff represented a return to Jim Crow era voter suppression [MP3 audio here; video below]:

MSNBC The Cycle co-host Krystal Ball enjoyed an extra hour with which to bash Republicans and puff the Obama administration today as she filled in on the 1 p.m. Eastern Ronan Farrow Daily program. Ball questioned whether breaking news of the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala, a terrorist wanted for organizing the Benghazi attacks, would “take away a sort of key talking point for Republicans.”

The failed congressional candidate invited Howard Fineman, of the Huffington Post, and Robert Costa of The Washington Post on to Farrow’s program to discuss Republican reaction to the news of the capture. Ball then proceeded to ask if why Republicans “have a huge problem with using our own justice system to go forward and prosecute terrorists,” and are “expressing a lack of confidence in our normal [civilian] justice system.” [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]