The Good Wife star, far-left actor, and Hillary Clinton supporter Denis O’Hare joined MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews Wednesday night to join the pundit in extolling Clinton as “an amazing success story” who had “no problems” while secretary of state to become “one of the most qualified candidates we’ve ever had.”
Upon welcoming O’Hare, Matthews teased his “Let Me Finish” closing commentary by lamenting that “there was little attention paid to Hillary Clinton's rise in politics” on Tuesday night when she clinched the nomination, ranging from the 1970s in Arkansas to “having the guts to run for the Senate for New York.”
Matthews made sure to not mention Benghazi, Russia, or Syria when he oozed that Clinton served as “secretary of state with no problem” before her presidential bid to create “a hell of a political history.”
Nodding along in agreement, the openly gay atheist went on a torrent about Clinton being “amazing” in a slew of categories:
I mean, she's an amazing candidate. She’s an amazing woman. She’s an amazing success story and she's smart. She's passionate. She's determined and she actually achieves the things she sets out to achieve. I mean, I find it so sort of galling to have anyone lecture on her health care and I'm like do you remember she spent how many years of her life as the First Lady work on health care.
O’Hare then turned his attention to what in his mind was Clinton’s miraculous tenure at the State Department (no nod to her e-mail scandal, of course): “The fact that they can try to guess her on foreign policy, she’s spent all those years as secretary of state. She is one of the most qualified candidates we’ve ever had in terms of experience she’s in different realms.”
As if the segment wasn’t already a made-for-TV ad for liberals, Matthews expressed concern for O’Hare being in Hollywood in “the position of being pro-Hillary” instead of pro-Bernie Sanders.
“Okay, we’re out in Hollywood land — when you’re out here and you take the position of being pro-Hillary, is that okay professionally? Or are most people out here Bernie people,” Matthews wondered.
Astoundingly, O’Hare claimed that it was much “harder” to “come out of the closet” as a Clinton fan than a gay man or atheist: “You know, I had to come out of the closet as a gay man. I had to come out of the closet as an atheist – I know I can’t say that on the air...you know, coming out of the closet as a Hillary supporter is harder. It’s harder.”
The segment wound down with O’Hare arguing that Sanders supporters have caused him to be careful in his social circle of friends and repeatedly state he doesn’t despise the socialist senator. To sneak one last line in, Matthews revealed that his children are “with Bernie” because “that’s just a fact.”
The relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on June 8 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
June 8, 2016
7:49 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I'm joined right now by Tony Award-winning actor Denis O'Hare. He's supporting Hillary Clinton. Okay, I’m going to close the show tonight, but you can lead me off. With all the talk about Seneca Hills and the 19th Amendment and all the good history last night, I think there was little attention paid to Hillary Clinton's rise in politics, starting in the 1970s when she went down to Arkansas, an Ivy League grad, married this guy, fell in love with him, got used to the culture down there, got the contact lenses, had the certain hair style. Did everything to adapt — called herself her husband's name and that cultural thing she got to and then she came to the White House, two for the price of one. The health care bill, getting through the embarrassment of the '98 problem we all know about and then going on and having the guts to run for the Senate for New York. The guts when people would have laughed at and then going on to become a hell of a senator from New York, totally accepted, then secretary of state with no problems and running again a second time. I mean, that's a hell of a political history.
DENIS O’HARE: Yeah. I mean, she's an amazing candidate. She’s an amazing woman. She’s an amazing success story and she's smart. She's passionate. She's determined and she actually achieves the things she sets out to achieve. I mean, I find it so sort of galling to have anyone lecture on her health care and I'm like do you remember she spent how many years of her life as the First Lady work on health care. She knows this inside and out. The fact that they can try to guess her on foreign policy, she’s spent all those years as secretary of state. She is one of the most qualified candidates we’ve ever had in terms of experience she’s in different realms.
MATTHEWS: And yet, Bernie won all those 20-some states. What do you think that was about? Just that he was more left than her? I mean, what was his appeal over her in all those states?
O’HARE: You know, the thing is she won for votes.
MATTHEWS: She sure did.
O’HARE: More people voted for her, so we keep saying that Bernie all those — she won more votes. She's more popular than he is. He's so popular. She's more popular.
MATTHEWS: Okay, we’re out in Hollywood land — when you’re out here and you take the position of being pro-Hillary, is that okay professionally? Or are most people out here Bernie people?
O’HARE: You know, I had to come out of the closet as a gay man. I had to come out of the closet as an atheist – I know I can’t say that on the air
MATTHEWS: You’re not related to Madeline O’Hara?
O’HARE: I’m not. She spells her name wrong, but you know, coming out of the closet as a Hillary supporter is harder. It’s harder.
MATTHEWS: So, Bernie is bigger here?
O’HARE: Well, it’s not that he’s bigger, but his supporters and God love Bernie, I am not against Bernie —
MATTHEW: I see how careful you are.
O’HARE: I know. Seriously! I love some of the things he says but his supporters are passionate to the point of — I don’t know —
MATTHEWS: Nasty.
O’HARE: No, you just have to be careful how you approach them and so —
MATTHEWS: I know. I’ve met some of them.
O’HARE: Even my friends I have to kind of say I love Bernie, I'm not picking a fight with Bernie.
MATTHEWS: I’ve got kids.
O’HARE: But I voted for Hillary.
MATTHEWS: I have kids too and they're with Bernie. I mean, that’s just a fact.
O’HARE: I mean, you know, I’m — we’re — I’m a socialist at heart. We’re all socialists.
MATTHEWS: Okay, great. Denis O’Hare. Socialist, actor, atheist, Hillary guy.
