According to Hardball host Chris Matthews, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is the victim of opportunistic critics "trying to hang" Baltimore's Democratic mayor for her now-infamous statement in which she said that her city's police force tried to give rioters "space" within which they could "destroy" stuff.
Hardball
By Ken Shepherd | April 27, 2015 | 9:38 PM EDT
Right to work states south of Maryland are partly to blame for the rioting in Baltimore, Hardball host Chris Matthews suggested as he wrapped a Monday night interview via satellite with former NAACP president and former Congressman Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.): "I wish the jobs hadn't first gone south, Congressman, because that's where they went first. And they went to the right-to-work states, you know where they went, where the unions didn't have any power. You could get people to work for nothing and the stuff wasn't that good that was made down there."
By Ken Shepherd | April 23, 2015 | 8:48 PM EDT
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.
Matthews Hypes Former GOP Congressman Who Called for Carbon Tax, Won Kennedy 'Profile In Courage' Award
By Ken Shepherd | April 22, 2015 | 8:32 PM EDT Tonight with his interview of former South Carolina Republican Congressman Bob Inglis, MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews worked a trifecta of Matthewsian tropes into one segment: adulation of all things Kennedy, bashing the GOP as "anti-science," and praising a renegade Republican for taking a liberal position on a policy issue, in this case a so-called carbon tax.
By Ken Shepherd | April 22, 2015 | 3:45 PM EDT
While Chris Matthews's April 21 interview with President Obama was not brimming with obsequious fawning nor visible leg tingles, he nonetheless squandered an opportunity that a more assertive journalist might have taken to scrutinize President Obama, particularly on his handling of the Iranian nuclear negotiations.
By Ken Shepherd | April 21, 2015 | 9:18 PM EDT
Salon editor-at-large Joan Walsh is not worried in the least about Iran's arming/equipping of anti-Israel, anti-American Houthi rebels in Yemen, nor in the Islamic Republic obtaining Russian-made surface-to-air missiles which could take down American or Israeli jets seeking to bomb nuclear facilities.
"This is a nuclear deal, it's not an everything deal," Walsh huffed in reaction to mild concerns voiced by Hardball host Chris Matthews and former Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.), concerns not so much about the folly of the nuclear deal itself but in how Iran's actions are making it harder for President Obama to find support in Congress.
By Ken Shepherd | April 21, 2015 | 4:21 PM EDT
On Monday's Hardball program, Chris Matthews and gang worked furiously to shield Hillary Clinton from legitimate scrutiny over foreign donations to the Clinton Global Initiative, with Matthews grousing that the former secretary of state was facing a GOP "firing squad" who were hoping to bring about the "crib death" of the Clinton presidential campaign.
Matthews: Huckabee May Be Guilty of 'Sedition' for Urging Americans to Not Enlist for Military Until Obama Leaves Office
By Ken Shepherd | April 20, 2015 | 9:01 PM EDT Former Arkansas governor and potential 2016 Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee may well be guilty of sedition, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews charged on his April 20 program. The offense which merits the charge?: Huckabee urging Americans to not enlist in the U.S. military until after President Obama leaves office.
Chris Matthews: Sentence Gyrocopter Pilot to Lecturing Congress About the Need for Campaign Finance Reform
By Ken Shepherd | April 16, 2015 | 9:15 PM EDT <<<Update [3:03 p.m. Eastern; Nov. 20, 2015]: I'm reposting this as a flashback post in light of Hughes's guilty plea entered in court today. According to the Associated Press (via NBC Washington), the prosecutors will recommend up to 10 months in prison while Hughes will attempt to convince a judge to let him off with probation. Sentencing is scheduled for April 13, 2016.>>>
Chris Matthews's 'Snake-Charmer' Dog Whistle?; Will Leftists Complain About Racist 'Microaggression'?
By Ken Shepherd | April 15, 2015 | 8:23 PM EDT MSNBC host Chris Matthews loves to slander Republicans as often speaking in code or blowing racial "dog-whistles." Of course, doing that could open him up to charges of the same when he speaks carelessly.
By Mark Finkelstein | April 15, 2015 | 8:05 PM EDT
This was ugly. On his MSNBC show this evening, Chris Matthews criticized Jeb Bush, who will be speaking at Liberty University, for "stooping" to "that evangelical crowd"
Let's play some political madlibs and imagine that instead of "stooping to that evangelical crowd," Matthews had criticized a candidate who spoke at an Islamic center for "stooping to that Muslim crowd." Cue the cries of religious bigotry!
By Mark Finkelstein | April 13, 2015 | 8:57 PM EDT
We conservatives have countless beefs with Chris Matthews. But in contrast with the current crop of liberals inhabiting MSNBC, the American left at large—and the Oval Office—Chris is much more of an old-school Cold Warrior, and, dare I say it, a patriot.
And so it was that on this evening's Hardball, Matthews flatly declared "I hate" the Castro regime. How many other denizens of the left—from Rachel Maddow to Barack Obama—can you imagine saying the same? Matthews thus aligns himself more closely with Ronald "Evil Empire" Reagan than with Barack Obama, who just today was hailed by Tom Friedman for being able to see America from Iran's perspective.