Less than 24 hours before President Barack Obama came out to endorse Hillary Clinton for president, MSNBC host Chris Matthews ended Wednesday night’s Hardball by complaining that the American people (and presumably the media too) didn’t spend enough time on Tuesday “salut[ing]” Clinton for what she’s “accomplished in this historic struggle” for women’s rights.
“Let me finish tonight with something that never got said last night, a night history was made. What was missing was a recognition and salute of what Secretary Clinton herself accomplished in this historic struggle. Look at her life and career and you see those achievements, those tests she faced, tests she chose, and tests she passed,” the ever-colorful host began.
Matthews spent the next few moments summarizing her career (minus scandals besides Monica Lewinsky) from marrying Bill Clinton to the failed health care push in 1993 through “the terrors and personal anguish of her husband's troubles of 1998 and then she the raw courage to run for Senate from New York knowing full well there were critics out there waiting to enjoy even relish for her defeat.”
He added that, upon losing the 2008 Democratic presidential primary to then-Senator Barack Obama, Clinton was next “[a]ppointed secretary of state, [where] she did the job impressively.”
Upon noting how she’s run for a second time that featured repeated duels against socialist Senator Bernie Sanders, Matthews implored his subjects to “not forget any of this” and more about the so-called “amazing success story” of Hillary Clinton:
So let’s not forget any of this. From the time she was a senior at Wellesley, Hillary Rodham — now Hillary Clinton has been a leader with guts, with energy and purpose and incredible resilience and she didn't get to where she is right now by any other way.
The transcript of the segment from MSNBC’s Hardball on June 9 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
June 9, 2016
7:52 p.m. EasternCHRIS MATTHEWS: When we return, let me finish with something that never got said last night, the night that history got made.
(....)
7:58 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with something that never got said last night, a night history was made. What was missing was a recognition and salute of what Secretary Clinton herself accomplished in this historic struggle. Look at her life and career and you see those achievements, those tests she faced, tests she chose, and tests she passed. She went down to Arkansas, became First Lady down there, learned the politics of that southern state, left to be the First Lady of the United States and for many women, women we look up to, that alone would have made her a figure of history, a figure of great and worldwide admiration. And then she pushed heard for health care reform and then she withstood the terrors and personal anguish of her husband's troubles of 1998 and then she the raw courage to run for Senate from New York knowing full well there were critics out there waiting to enjoy even relish for her defeat. She ran, she had the courage to run and won. And then she served with great success as Senator from New York, was reelected to a second term, ran for president the first and almost won and accepted it with defeat. She did it with class. She did it in a way that advanced her party, it’s presidential candidate, Barack Obama, and finally her own legacy. Appointed secretary of state, she did the job impressively. She then once again threw herself into the breach, running for the Democratic nomination for president a second time defeating a strong challenge from Senator Bernie Sanders. So let’s not forget any of this. From the time she was a senior at Wellesley, Hillary Rodham — now Hillary Clinton has been a leader with guts, with energy and purpose and incredible resilience and she didn't get to where she is right now by any other way.
