In the A-Block of Wednesday’s Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews lost his cool in denouncing Republicans like Congressman Devin Nunes (Calif.) and Senator Ron Johnson (Wisc.) as part of a “group of munchkins” being “pushed around and led around” by their staffs and the White House in publishing the controversial intelligence memos and FBI texts.
“I don't think this guy Johnson looks like he’s that serious a person. I don't think Nunes is that serious a person. I look at these guys being pushed around and led around by their staff all looking for jobs at the White House. There's something screwy about these guys,” stated Matthews at the 7:07 p.m. Eastern mark.
Matthews added that Johnson and Nunes seem incapable of answering questions but instead “numb and you go wait a minute, if this guy's behind all this thing about writing up these memos and seems so intellectual, how come when you interview them on television, there's not much sort of a brain power there.” Therefore, in his book, the pair must be colluding with the White House to peddle misleading information.
Moments later, Matthews bemoaned to former presidential candidate Evan McMullin that he “smell[s] a lot of staff people, a whole bunch of them — not a big bunch but a small bunch of them all ganging around, trying to get big jobs with the Trump administration at NSC and places like that — all around the Eisenhower Executive Building.”
Alluding to Johnson and Nunes, he declared that they’re not elected officials or even aides but “operatives working for the Trump crowd” and thus don’t resemble “the regular Republican Party, Evan.”
The MSNBC pundit then dropped the juvenile insult:
I don't see a Republican Party. I hate to say it. They are quiet on the sidelines. Republicans are behaving like sideliners whereas this little group of people, the same group of munchkin running around back and forth with the EOB with paper saying I've got something. I've got this thing. This has been going on for two or three months now[.]
In this politically correct world, it’s not too much to go out on a limb and say that “munchkins” could be considered offensive to people with dwarfism or of short stature.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on February 7, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
February 7, 2018
7:07 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: What are the Republicans interested in finding out? What do they want to know they don't know the now? I don't think this guy Johnson looks like he’s that serious a person. I don't think Nunes is that serious a person. I look at these guys being pushed around and led around by their staff all looking for jobs at the White House. There's something screwy about these guys. When you ask them a question, they don't seem to know the answer, they don’t seem very clear-headed about it or even that interested. They seem a little numb and you go wait a minute, if this guy's behind all this thing about writing up these memos and seems so intellectual, how come when you interview them on television, there's not much sort of a brain power there. I don't get it. Somebody's pushing this thing for the White House. They're working together. It's fascinating to watch. I don't like it, but it’s going on. What do you see here, Maya? What’s going on here in terms of changing the focus of the public away from this investigation of the President and the Russians into this other space?
MAYA HARRIS: Well, I mean, it’s been — you are right, Chris. I wish like you that we actually had a serious investigation going on into what happened with Russia interfering in our elections.
(....)
MATTHEWS: But I smell a lot of staff people, a whole bunch of them — not a big bunch but a small bunch of them all ganging around, trying to get big jobs with the Trump administration at NSC and places like that — all around the Eisenhower Executive Building. They bring this guy down — Nunes — down there, give him material, send him back the next day to the West Wing, they’re using him like an operative. These congressmen and senators are acting — they're not even staffer and they're operatives working for the Trump crowd. This is not the regular Republican Party, Evan. I don't see a Republican Party. I hate to say it. They are quiet on the sidelines. Republicans are behaving like sideliners whereas this little group of people, the same group of munchkin running around back and forth with the EOB with paper saying I've got something. I've got this thing. This has been going on for two or three months now.
