Just when you think you’ve heard it all, you’re shown otherwise. During Thursday’s Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews compared the Russian-backed social media trolls during the 2016 election to the 9/11 hijackers who murdered thousands of Americans in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Matthews was speaking to T.V. hog and Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff (Calif.) in a segment about fake news promulgators when he suddenly invoked the radical Islamic monsters behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“You know, when they came here to bomb us — hit the World Trade Center back in 2001, do you notice how they came here for flying lessons? And Americans gave them flying lessons down in Florida and the guy said I thought they were from Germany. Come on, a little sophistication about who is coming to get the bombing lessons for controlling an airplane to fly it into the World Trade Centers,” Matthews began.
Somehow, that summary of the 9/11 hijackers led to talking about how, in 2016, the evildoers in question “just casually take Twitter.”
“They exploit the hell out of it. It's free. They exploit Facebook. They pay a few bucks and these numb nuts that give them this authority — they treat these platforms like they are open to anybody. Come on, the banks open. Doesn't it amaze you that people like Zuckerman [sic] act like they are so neutral on this fight between the bad guys and the good guys,” Matthews added. And, yes, he actually said Zuckerman instead of Zuckerberg.
The segment’s chyron “How Russia Won” tacitly pushed the notion that the Russians (not the voters) put Donald Trump in the White House (thus robbing scandal-ridden Hillary Clinton of what was rightfully hers).
Needless to say, the liberal media will do whatever it takes to undermine the 2016 election results and delegitimize the Trump presidency, no matter the cost or insults it sends to his supporters.
Matthews’s comparison between fake news trolls and the 9/11 hijackers was paid for by Coca-Cola, IHOP, National Car Rental, and VistaPrint.com.
Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on September 28:
MSNBC’s Hardball
September 28, 2017
7:21 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: But isn’t this our problem? You know, when they came here to bomb us — hit the World Trade Center back in 2001, do you notice how they came here for flying lessons? And Americans gave them flying lessons down in Florida and the guy said I thought they were from Germany. Come on, a little sophistication about who is coming to get the bombing lessons for controlling an airplane to fly it into the World Trade Centers. And now these guys just casually take Twitter. They exploit the hell out of it. It's free. They exploit Facebook. They pay a few bucks and these numb nuts that give them this authority — they treat these platforms like they are open to anybody. Come on, the banks open. Doesn't it amaze you that people like Zuckerman [sic] act like they are so neutral on this fight between the bad guys and the good guys. Are they neutralists?
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF (Calif.): Well, you know, it — I think it certainly it has taken the social media companies a long time to come to the realization that, in addition to all the good they do, bad actors can also exploit it.
MATTHEWS: You think they are not open to this because it just keeps the door wide open for money?
SCHIFF: Look, this is going to be part of our oversight. How soon did they discover how their platforms are being used? What steps did they take? Were they willing to do the hard, internal analysis or not really want to see what was there?
