Showing disdain for middle America and people not on-board with the liberal media complex, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews mocked red states like Texas and Utah on Thursday plus anyone not concerned about the Trump-Russia collusion news, suggesting they’d “be going crazy and lighting bonfires at federal buildings” if this involved a Clinton presidency.
Matthews had heard a sampling of GOP Senators offering unsatisfactory reactions to the Donald Trump Jr. news when he ruled that he’s “not here to assess the interest there is in Wyoming, in South Dakota, in Texas or in Utah” besides take note of how the Senators mentioned represented those states.
Republican strategist John Brabender attempted to explain that there was something to that, stating how “there is a lot of apathy about” the Trump-Russia story. Brabender tried to continue but was interrupted so Matthews could dismiss this swath of the country:
BRABENDER: I'm talking to a lot of senators and congressman doing town hall meetings. And I’ve asked them: What do you hear about Russia. Nothing. They want to hear about health care, they want to know about —
MATTHEWS: That was true of Watergate for months. It was true of Watergate for months.
BRABENDER: People don’t see how this affects their life right now.
MATTHEWS: I know. Well, you know, it might affect who the president is.
Later, Matthews circled back to Brabender’s comments to again trash rural, western conservative voters, suggesting they’d be furious if this story was about a Clinton presidency instead:
You said that people out in the country aren't focusing on this. I understand there’s still a lot of attitude against the establishment. But if this were Chelsea and Hillary involved in this, you don't think that that crowd out there in Ted Cruz country, in Utah, southern South Dakota, and those other countries represented there — in Wyoming[.]
MoveOn.org’s Karine Jean-Pierre interjected sporadically with approval as Matthews lashed out, parodying hard-working Americans by suggesting such a scandal under a Hillary Clinton administration would have resulted in these folks “going crazy and lighting bonfires at federal buildings.”
Brabender reiterated his argument that “the average American” doesn’t really care about Russia, but was shouted down by Matthews and Jean-Pierre:
JEAN-PIERRE: Hypocrisy. It’s blatant hypocrisy. GOP hypocrisy.
BRABENDER: You’ve actually proved my point. It's a political issue. This time it's the left. Other times it's the right.
MATTHEWS: Your crowd would be livid with excitement right now.
JEAN-PIERRE: You’d be livid. Their hair would be on fire.
MATTHEWS: I love it would be their line all weekend.
JEAN-PIERRE: Screaming from the mountain tops. You guys would be screaming from the mountaintops if this was Hillary Clinton. Absolutely.
Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on July 11:
MSNBC’s Hardball
July 11, 2017
7:35 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, first of all, I’m not here to assess the interest there is in Wyoming, in South Dakota, in Texas or in Utah. I noticed the geographic clutching together of those states that managed to get mentioned there. I really don't believe a word Ted Cruz says because if he had this stuff on trump he’d be eating his ankles off right now going after Trump. Right, John? If he caught him in the middle of the campaign last year before the convention in Cleveland and found out he was consorting, his son was heading up meetings with Manafort and his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his all meeting with this Russian lawyer on behalf of Putin to try to get dirt on the opponent, he’d be saying I can still beat this guy at the convention. He’s not going to walk away from this.
JOHN BRABENDER: Well, look, there’s not a lot of skilled operatives. Let's be clear about this and I think —
MATTHEWS: I don’t trust Cruz.
BRABENDER: — I think — everybody — I don't think Ted Cruz is wrong, though, in this case in the sense of there is a lot of apathy about this. I'm talking to a lot of senators and congressman doing town hall meetings. And I’ve asked them: What do you hear about Russia. Nothing. They want to hear about health care, they want to know about —
MATTHEWS: That was true of Watergate for months. It was true of Watergate for months.
BRABENDER: People don’t see how this affects their life right now.
MATTHEWS: I know. Well, you know, it might affect who the president is.
(....)7:39 p.m. Eastern
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Look, there’s — I think there's clear evidence — text book evidence for collusion. But not only that the collusion actually led to obstruction of justice possibly, right? Because that's what the President did. He fired — no, he fired — here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. If this was Hillary Clinton, we would already be going through impeachment — impeachment committees.
JOHN BRABENDER: But that if it was collusion, it was the worse collusion in history because what did they do? They —
CHRIS MATTHEWS: John, I want to ask you something.
JEAN-PIERRE: No.
MATTHEWS: You said that people out in the country aren't focusing on this. I understand there’s still a lot of attitude against the establishment. But if this were Chelsea and Hillary involved in this —
JEAN-PIERRE: Yep.
MATTHEWS: — you don't think that that crowd out there in Ted Cruz country, in Utah, southern South Dakota, and those other countries represented there — in Wyoming, you don’t think they’d be going crazy and lighting bonfires at federal buildings.
JEAN-PIERRE: Absolutely. Absolutely
BRABENDER: That’s not the question. No, no, no.
JEAN-PIERRE: It's the same thing.
BRABENDER: I don’t think the average American — the average American — would still — with Hillary Clinton
JEAN-PIERRE: Hypocrisy. It’s blatant hypocrisy. GOP hypocrisy.
BRABENDER: You’ve actually proved my point. It's a political issue. This time it's the left. Other times it's the right.
MATTHEWS: Your crowd would be livid with excitement right now.
JEAN-PIERRE: You’d be livid. Their hair would be on fire.
MATTHEWS: I love it would be their line all weekend.
JEAN-PIERRE: Screaming from the mountain tops. You guys would be screaming from the mountaintops if this was Hillary Clinton. Absolutely.
