From time to time, the liberal media will not only have their masks slip, but completely give away the store in terms of their partisan motivations and strategy. During Thursday’s dinner break in the Senate impeachment trial, MSNBC seemed to have done just that, conceding the trial to be the left’s latest attempt to remove President Trump from office because they don’t like him.
Hardball host Chris Matthews cracked the door open, admitting that Republicans don’t have any motivation to join Democrats in throwing Trump out so close to the election even though “every state of fact that was beautifully done by Adam Schiff.”
Matthews stated correctly that, for Democrats, “[t]hey’ve been wanting them out, some — a few in the Democratic Party have wanted him out since they met him, they heard of him, they wanted him out” and believe (as he does too) that Trump’s “the wrong guy to be president because he does stuff like this” with Ukraine.
When The Beat host Ari Melber tried to bring up the case of Watergate initially being something no one took seriously, Matthews struck back with even more honesty that, unlike with Nixon, today’s “economy is damn good.”
Adding that he’s “a little bit of a Marxist when it comes to about how politics works,” Matthews unspooled the rest of his case, nuking the breathless, obsessive, and wall-to-wall media coverage acting as though there’s plenty of unknowns (click “expand”):
MATTHEWS: [W]hen we studied economics, you couldn't get unemployment numbers like this and so I think people say do we want to bump this guy off? Get rid of him politically? Do we really want to do that? Republicans have that figured out. I just wish one person on either side would crack and, say, one Democrat would say, I think we've got the case here, but let's move on. We've got the case. We're not going to get 67 votes. I can see the other side. Let's move on. Or one Republican saying this stinks so bad that I can't see saying yes to this guy serving another day in office, but we know neither of those are going to happen and that's why people consider this tedious because nothing is going to change. Don't we agree with that?
MELBER: I'm supposed to fit in a break here but it’s such an interesting question on the table, I want to kick it back to Chris Hayes, which is many Democrats would argue in response to Mr. Matthews, a self-declared Marxist interpretation.
MATTHEWS: Just give that – give that to Twitter right now.
CLAIRE MCCASKILL: I have a feeling they’ve already got that.
MELBER: Twitter, here you go.
Hayes countered by arguing for the trial’s necessity in the sake of fairness for the 2020 election because “there's a sense, I think a strong sense that 2016 wasn’t fought on fair terrain because of the involvement of a foreign adversary in a systematic and criminal way.”
After Matthews countered with the complaints that the 2016 Democratic primary wasn’t entirely fair to “[t]he Bernie people,” Hayes and The Root’s Jason Johnson joined Matthews in (presumably inadvertently) admitting how pointless the trial has become (click “expand”)
HAYES: To me — to me, that was the reason they broke the glass, because this involved the election. I think that that — I think that's both justifiable and as for what you're saying, let me say this one thing in the history of the American republic, no senator has voted to convict someone of their own party. We've had three — we’ve had two trials so far. It's never actually happened.
JOHNSON: You also have this element almost of yes, it was political, yes, it was after 2018. But it’s almost like a makeup call, right? Cause Mueller didn't give them what they wanted. They didn’t get enough people excited and literally the guy — it's like the guy who leaves prison on a drug charge and then he goes for his plug. Mueller didn’t do it and then tries to do the exact same thing with the call to Zelensky. Someone had to step.
MATTHEWS: We have been trying — those who believe this President’s guilty — since the beginning and with the Mueller — first it was the Mueller report. This is going to get him. When that report comes out, this guy’s gone and when he testifies, he's really gone. We keep thinking that people are going to have their heads turned by facts.
Ooops. So much for convincing the public that Trump must be removed or else America as we know it will cease to exist.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber on January 23, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber
January 23, 2020
6:52 p.m. EasternARI MELBER: If what you did was right why did you have gloves at the scene? Why did you drive off in a get away car?
MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, you reference the O.J. case. I think this — the problem is I think we're in the sentencing phase. I don't think we're in the phase of guilty or not guilty. I think you get these men and women together, maybe the old chamber and turn off the sound or whatever and mics and they agree this guy did something pretty awful and it was — it was an abuse of power. It all meant the — every state of fact that was beautifully done by Adam Schiff and the rest would be agreed upon. Okay. So what are you going to do about this? We going to throw this guy out of the office? Republicans will say, you're not throwing my party leader out of office in an election year. Nine months to go, we’re not throwing our guy. It's our guy. The other guy, it's your guy. So they — of course the Democrats don't have any stakes in this. It's your guy. They've been want them out. They’ve been wanting them out, some — a few in the Democratic Party have wanted him out since they met him, they heard of him, they wanted him out. They don't like him because — and by the way, it's the context of this whole thing that’s ignored. It's the wrap sheet on this guy. We know who he is. We knew he would do something like this and the Democrats had an attitude about him and I think the right one. It’s my attitude about him and since the beginning: He's the wrong guy to be president because he does stuff like this.
MELBER: But isn’t it fair —
MATTHEWS: And the Republicans say yeah, but he's working for us. We’ve got low taxes. We got less regulation. We can have a 50-50 shot at winning this general election. Again, he won one for us.
MELBER: I want to ask you. Isn't there another layer to it like the early days of Watergate which is when the abuse or alleged abuse under review targets one side, then that side is in the position of saying, this is terrible in the beginning how much credence do people give to Daniel Ellsberg?
MATTHEWS: Nobody wanted Nixon to continue in office. The economy was in stagflation and I am a little bit of a Marxist when it comes to about how politics works. I really think economics drives it. Right now the economy is damn good. We were studied — when we studied economics, you couldn't get unemployment numbers like this and so I think people say do we want to bump this guy off? Get rid of him politically? Do we really want to do that? Republicans have that figured out. I just wish one person on either side would crack and, say, one Democrat would say, I think we've got the case here, but let's move on. We've got the case. We're not going to get 67 votes. I can see the other side. Let's move on. Or one Republican saying this stinks so bad that I can't see saying yes to this guy serving another day in office, but we know neither of those are going to happen and that's why people consider this tedious because nothing is going to change.
MELBER: But brie —
MATTHEWS: Don't we agree with that.
MELBER: I'm supposed to fit in a break here but it’s such an interesting question on the table, I want to kick it back to Chris Hayes, which is many Democrats would argue in response to Mr. Matthews, a self-declared Marxist interpretation.
MATTHEWS: Just give that – give that to Twitter right now.
CLAIRE MCCASKILL: I have a feeling they’ve already got that.
MELBER: Twitter, here you go.
MCCASKILL: Twitter is already on it.
MELBER: We talked to a lot of people already on the Hill who say the Democrats giving Donald Trump a pass had the leader of the Democratic Party in the house doing that. Speaker Pelosi holding back her caucus through the entire Mueller saga.
HAYES: Yes.
MELBER: And then saying enough is enough.
HAYES: Right and I think the reason is a combination of political calculation and actual first order, principled umbrage which is that the scheme here was using the office of the presidency for the next election. I mean, the sense that — that the election will not be — you know, there's a sense, I think a strong sense that 2016 wasn’t fought on fair terrain because of the involvement of a foreign adversary in a systematic and criminal way and —
MATTHEWS: Oh, by the way, the Democratic Party didn't feel that was fought — the primary fight was fought on an even plane. The Bernie people do not think it was a fair fight on even territory.
HAYES: That's true and there’s — there’s always —
MELBER: We may be getting off topic.
HAYES: — there's questions about the margins about — [INAUDIBLE]
MATTHEWS: But it's all questions of what's unfair.
HAYES: To me — to me, that was the reason they broke the glass, because this involved the election. I think that that — I think that's both justifiable and as for what you're saying, let me say this one thing in the history of the American republic, no senator has voted to convict someone of their own party. We've had three — we’ve had two trials so far. It's never actually happened.
JOHNSON: You also have this element almost of yes, it was political, yes, it was after 2018. But it’s almost like a makeup call, right? Cause Mueller didn't give them what they wanted. They didn’t get enough people excited and literally the guy — it's like the guy who leaves prison on a drug charge and then he goes for his plug. Mueller didn’t do it and then tries to do the exact same thing with the call to Zelensky. Someone had to step.
MATTHEWS: We have been trying — those who believe this President’s guilty — since the beginning and with the Mueller — first it was the Mueller report. This is going to get him. When that report comes out, this guy’s gone and when he testifies, he's really gone. We keep thinking that people are going to have their heads turned by facts.
HAYES: No. There’s no — no.
JOHNSON: No. It’s emotion unchanged.
