Chris Matthews

On Thursday night, it appeared as though MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews was tired from the long hours covering the 2020 Democratic presidential debates as he observed #TBT with riffs about how Barack Obama and his rise are “still thrilling to me” even though “[t]he only thing I've ever had against Obama is when he recedes from us” because “I want him back.”

During a live edition of NBC’s Late Night early Thursday morning, left-wing host Seth Meyers attacked MSNBC’s Chris Matthews for daring to challenge Elizabeth Warren on her extreme socialist health care plan following Tuesday night’s Democratic debate. Meyers savaged the Hardball host and accused him of trying to “mansplain” to the 2020 presidential candidate.  

Unlike their late-night analysis after Tuesday’s debate, MSNBC had their acts together on Wednesday night, putting together in many of their initial takes a near-unanimous message that former Vice President Joe Biden was on the defensive and that it was an abomination how many of the Democratic presidential candidates condemned the Obama administration.

Chris Matthews isn’t happy with CNN. The Hardball host fumed over the fact that there was no impeachment talk during night one of the Democratic debate. Matthews asked the same question over and over, demanding to know why Democrats didn’t talk about removing the President. Talking to Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada, he complained, “Congresswoman, last night nobody brought up impeachment. They…

Channeling Bernie Sanders on Wednesday’s Hardball, MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-host and Trump friend-turned-foe Joe Scarborough loudly pontificated about the “un-American” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) aka “Moscow Mitch” for not, in his mind, sufficiently pushing back against Russian meddling and trying to destroy the health care of millions.

Appearing on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on Wednesday, just hours before night two of CNN’s Democratic debate, Hardball host Chris Matthews played debate coach for Joe Biden, advising the former Vice President to deflect any criticism of his record from fellow Democrats by simply attacking President Trump “over and over again.”

CNN host Anderson Cooper pressed Warren on what her ideas would cost people, particularly union workers, who liked their health insurance. Meanwhile, MSNBC host Chris Matthews absolutely grilled the Senator about how much taxes would need to go up to pay for it all and her refusal to answer the question.

Late Tuesday night, MSNBC struggled to form a cohesive narrative following night one of the second set of 2020 Democratic presidential debates. While some admitted they were “shattered” and “shook up by tonight’s debate” and had some far-left proposals, others hailed Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) as the big winner and even appeared “presidential” at times since “nobody took her down.”

The attack dog tone of journalists in the Trump era might make you forget a time when they gushed over another president, the previous one. Chris Matthews famously had a “thrill” up his leg over Barack Obama, but that wasn’t the only example of hailing the Democrat. Four years ago this week, on July 22, 2015, Matthews defended the “immaculate” Obama and his “perfect” family. 

With an embarrassing technical problem to boot, MSNBC’s Hardball featured on Thursday night an irascible host Chris Matthews nagging House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to fulfill the wishes of his constituents (which includes CNN and other media organizations in dark-blue Manhattan) to see through “this unstoppable push” for impeachment.

Continuing on MSNBC’s theme on Wednesday of panic regarding the Robert Mueller hearings, Hardball featured a number of panelists melting down at the possibility that President Trump won’t be impeached, removed from office, and/or be criminally charged, but it was host Chris Matthews who tried to keep up the fight with this opening tag of “second term or prison term.”

That’s right, Trump supporters and non-liberals. According to MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews and lefty author Tim Wise on Monday, 2020 must be framed as not just an election between a Democratic candidate and President Donald Trump but a question of whether Americans want to reelect “a moral danger” supported by a “white identity cult” that rejects “the values that Americans hold dear.”

There comes a time when everyone needs to take a holiday, so it would behoove Chris Matthews to heed this advice soon. Seeing as this past week of Hardball has proven to be a stumbling block for new, creative ways to insult President Trump, Wednesday night’s episode followed the same, banal pattern.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. It seems this adage encompasses the entirety of Chris Matthews’ programming on Hardball. There is no nuance in labeling President Trump as a racist, however that does not deter Matthews from partaking in this practice as a routine. In fact, Tuesday night’s Hardball episode could be seen as a rerun to those who are not loyal viewers.