ABC’s make-believe Republican Matthew Dowd went completely off the rails Sunday during his appearance on This Week. During the panel discussion of the latest sexual harassment allegations around the country, Dowd went off the deep end and claimed Republicans “empowered” Bill Clinton’s sexually predatory behavior and “gave up their values” by putting “tainted” Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.
According to Dowd, the only reason Justice Thomas was confirmed to sit on the court was that of tribal politics. “I think until we take off our jersey and say some things are not about our Jersey. Some things are not about the tribe that we’re in,” he pontificated. “We saw this in '91, then the Republicans gave up their values in order to get Justice Thomas on the court.”
“They basically called Anita Hill a nut and a liar in order to get Justice Thomas on the court. They empowered Bill Clinton,” he continued to proclaim, devoid of any facts or reason. “But in order to get those things, they decided the ends justify the means. They decided that a tainted person was better to get what they wanted.” He also claimed Trump’s supporters were guilty of siding with a tainted person just to get what they wanted. But his “tainted” label could also be applied to the Clintons.
Apparently, in Dowd’s version of history, there were no Senate hearings or Senator Joe Biden grilling Thomas in a “high-tech lynching” over Hill’s claims, or her evolving story, or all the testimonies from other women who contradicted her.
The most ridiculous part of Dowd’s analysis was that Justice Thomas’ 1991 confirmation somehow “empowered” Clinton’s alleged rape of Juanita Broaddrick in the mid-1970’s. Clinton didn’t need to be empowered because he had a long history of preying on women. His comments effectively covered for Clinton’s sexual assault allegations, so he has no place to stand when he wants to claim to have a moral high ground.
Dowd’s ramblings occurred while they were talking about the sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, and from his point of view, it would be better if the GOP lost the seat. “The worst possible outcome of the Alabama election for the Republicans is if the Republican wins … It hangs over them through the course of this. They’d be much better off with the Democrat,” He said.
He was also pessimistic about how seriously people would take sexual assault claims in the future. And he smeared white people and Christians as being the source of the problem. “Until more women, more non-whites, more non-Christians, are involved in power in the country, this will not change.” He also asserted that they were responsible for racism and were against a woman’s right to vote: “We thought a watershed moment was when women got the right to vote back in the early 1900s. And that turned out there was a big push back on that.”
This kind of off the wall craziness is apparently just what ABC’s wants from Dowd since he’s a staple for the network. But his faux moral pontifications were hypocritical seeing as he once attacked CNN commentator Mary Katharine Ham, a widowed mother, on Twitter for not being as critical of the Trump Administration as he was, and then blocked her after she shot back. His chivalry knows no bounds.
Transcript below:
ABC
This Week
November 19, 2017
9:43:02 AM EasternGEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Carly Fiorina, I take her point that we should try to keep it out of politics. Impossible right now.
MATTHEW DOWD: It’s completely impossible right now. And I don’t think it should be out of politics because politics infuses all of this. One of the questions you canned multiple people is: Is this a watershed moment. An honest answer is, I don't know. Because there’s been watershed moments that I thought in American history that turned out not to be watershed moments. We thought electing Barack Obama was going to be a watershed moment for civil rights in the country and race in America. There was a pushback. We thought a watershed moment was when women got the right to vote back in the early 1900s. And that turned out there was a big push back on that. And so, I think we're in a situation where, until the power structure of America and the world changes, because this is all about power, it won't change until that power structure changes. Until more women, more non-whites, more non-Christians, are involved in power in the country, this will not change.
(…)
9:47:30 AM Eastern
DOWD: I think Lanhee (Chen) right. I think it's more than six months. The worst possible outcome of the Alabama election for the Republicans is if the Republican wins. Because they have to deal with it in the immediate aftermath. They have to deal with it throughout the 2018 midterms. And then they have to deal with it in a presidential election in 2020. It hangs over them though the course of this. They’d be much better off with the Democrat.
(…)
9:51:09 AM Eastern
DOWD: I think part of it-- George, you know, Stephanie, you know, I have been critical of Bill Clinton from the beginning. I didn't vote for him in '92, I didn’t vote for him in '96. A large degree because of this, because of his behavior.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But the leaks came out after. Most of it came out after.
DOWD: There were a series of things that happened in the midst of the campaign that reflected on his value structure in the course of that. I think until we take off our jersey and say some things are not about our Jersey. Some things are not about the tribe that we’re in.
We saw this in '91, then the Republicans gave up their values in order to get Justice Thomas on the court. They basically called Anita Hill a nut and a liar in order to get Justice Thomas on the court. They empowered Bill Clinton. In order to get the things that Stephanie said, all good and great things. But in order to get those things they decided the ends justify the means. They decided that a tainted person was better to get what they wanted. Donald Trump voters did the -- many did the same thing. The GOP did the same thing. A tainted person, we’ll get him in, we'll get us what we want in that. Until we take off our Jerseys and say, enough is enough, there are some things we have to stand for.
