A day after he wondered why terrorists always use bombs, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews spent parts of Wednesday night’s show comparing President Barack Obama to Reggie Jackson in being a clutch campaigner for Hillary Clinton this fall but worrying that the President’s jousting with Donald Trump could cause him to lose “some of his glow.”
Going into a commercial break near the bottom of the hour, Matthews opined that eight years after their bitter primary race, “President Obama is Hillary Clinton's perhaps biggest guide supporting her, set to hit the campaign trail” next week.
It was following this that Matthews prided himself for a rather preemptive prediction that Obama’s “going to be Mr. October” in a nod to former Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees hitter Reggie Jackson’s clutch hitting in the MLB postseason.
“He is starting early. I think it was Reggie Jackson. He’s starting in what — it’s still June and he’s going to be her biggest campaigner,” Matthews bloviated.
Later in the show, Matthews quoted a Politico Magazine article reporting that gushed about the President’s eagerness to go after Trump:
Obama is not going to stop mocking and controlling Trump. The only person who enjoys it more than the Democratic base and the press is the President himself, who alternates between seeing the Republican nominee as a charlatan and as a dangerous amplifier for hatred.
Matthews finished the quote and opened the floor to his assembled panelists to elaborate but not without expressing some trepidation that Trump could draw Obama “down to [his] level”:
So, whoever wanted to speak then, go at it because I think the president so far enjoys driving trump crazy. The danger will come when Trump finds a way get to back at him and pulls him down to Trump's level and then the President loses some of his glow.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on June 29 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
June 29, 2016
7:28 p.m. EasternCHRIS MATTHEWS: Up next, the campaigner in chief. Eight years ago, they ended their rivalry and now President Obama is Hillary Clinton's perhaps biggest guide supporting her, set to hit the campaign trail. I've said before he’s going to be Mr. October. He is starting early. I think it was Reggie Jackson. He’s starting in what — it’s still June and he’s going to be her biggest campaigner.
(....)
7:39 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Anyway, Politico the Magazine also reported today that “Obama is not going to stop mocking and controlling Trump. The only person who enjoys it more than the Democratic base and the press is the President himself, who alternates between seeing the Republican nominee as a charlatan and as a dangerous amplifier for hatred.” So, whoever wanted to speak then, go at it because I think the president so far enjoys driving trump crazy. The danger will come when Trump finds a way get to back at him and pulls him down to Trump's level and then the President loses some of his glow.
