Sexist Matthews: Is Fiorina Hiding Behind Her Gender In Order to Launch 'Scurrilous' Attacks on Hillary?

May 5th, 2015 8:44 PM

In a shockingly candid moment betraying his sexist view of Republican female politicians, Hardball host Chris Matthews mused Tuesday night that Carly Fiorina may lob "scurrilous" attacks at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton while banking on her gender to shield her from scrutiny. Later in the segment, he also envisioned Republican suburban housewives sneaking out of the house to vote for Hillary without "telling hubby."

Matthews made the relevant remarks after airing a clip of Fiorina hitting Clinton for her blaming the deadly Benghazi attacks on a YouTube video -- something the administration knew early on to be patently false -- and for Clinton's shady dealings regarding email secrecy on her house-bound server. 

Towards the end of the segment, Matthews let slip his cartoonishly sexist view of female Republican voters, particularly wealthy suburban married ones, when he envisioned them "sneak[ing] out and vot[ing] for her" but "without telling hubby."

Here's the relevant transcript: 

MSNBC
Hardball
May 5, 2015

CHRIS MATTHEWS, host: Newly-minted Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorino [sic], the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, has pounced on Hillary Clinton and Benghazi. Here she goes. 

CARLY FIORINA from Good Morning America interview: She wasn't transparent about Benghazi. IN fact, just the opposite, she peddled a fiction about it for months. She hasn't been transparent about her server and her e-mails.

MATTHEWS: Well, that salvo from Fiorino [sic] launches a presidential race with two strong presidential opponents.

[...]

MATTHEWS: [NPR contributor] Cokie [Roberts], it's so great to have you on. Can you tell me, do you think Fiorina, Carly Fiorina, has this notion in her head that she can get away with even scurrilous attacks on Secretary Clinton because she is a female. Do you think there's something going on there or not? Open question.

[...]

MATTHEWS: Cokie, let me ask you, my friend: Is it possible that there'll be a lot of women say their husband's making a ton of money, they live in the suburbs, they've always voted Republican. Come election day, Hillary Clinton is a credible candidate for president. She may be a bit to the left of some of these Republican women. They're going to sneak out and vote for her?

ROBERTS: Sure. In fact, right now in the polls -- 

MATTHEWS: Without telling hubby?

ROBERTS: Absolutely. But the reason she's doing well now is because she is getting white women, and that's unusual for a Democratic candidate, so you have to figure that that's already going on. 

MATTHEWS: Nedra? 

NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press White House correspondent: Yeah, I mean, that's what the Clinton campaign is banking on, right, that this is going to be the year of the woman and they'll be able to pull over some of these voters who otherwise might not vote for a Democratic candidate. 

ROBERTS:  But, you know, a lot of Republican women, a lot of Republican women vote Democratic anyway. I mean there's an awful lot of canceling out each other's votes in Republican. households.