Gosh, these people are coming unglued. During Thursday’s edition of Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews declared that “Fox News nation” (aka Trump supporters) are not interested in the American people “get[ting] along with each other” but instead “hat[ing] each other.”
Matthews upped the craziness by arguing that Republican Senators would still support the President if he actually did shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and, on the NFL’s new national anthem policy, “[t]elling the football players we watch on Sunday to behave as they are told is something we expect of apartheid regime, not a democratic one.”
The vicious smear against Fox News and their viewers came during the “Hardball Roundtable” segment when the host turned to The Root’s Jason Johnson. Do your best in trying to follow Matthews’s drivel:
Jason, is this Fox News nation? Is it basically taking the 40 some percent that have voted him and back him still and say, let's remember what side we're on? Don't look at evidence, don't think about black/white relations in this country, don’t think about we could cut deals and how we can get along with each other, think about how much we hate each other. Let's fight. That’s what it seems like with them.
And tell me again how the President is eroding our civil discourse?
Johnson obviously agreed, telling viewers that “this is dictator in training 101” where “[e]verybody hates you and I'm the one who loves you” with “everyone” representing “the media,” “the Department of Justice,” and “those black people.”
“[T]his has been Trump's campaign all along from the white nationals he’s brought into his administration to everything else,” he lamented.
Fastforwarding to his “Trump Watch” commentary that concluded the show, Matthews took a page from the CNN playbook of hyperbole (click “expand” to read more):
Until watching him on the White House lawn yesterday, I wasn't sure how far Donald Trump would go in destroying this country's most precious assets in order to protect himself from justice. Well now we know. His willing to use the Oval Office, the historic pulpit of the American presidency to trash the very institutions that have made this an exceptional country. A government of, by and for the people, a history of open and reasonable and generally respectful political debate, a free press. His personal assaults on a former FBI director and his raging nonsense about a spy ring are fresh proof of his readiness to destroy any faith in government integrity in order to save some reasonable doubt among some about his own integrity.
Connecting this to the NFL policy, he complained that, through the NFL owners, Trump “revert[ed] again to the division that haunted this country since its origins: race, racism and the lingering cause of white supremacy” because “[t]elling the football players we watch on Sunday to behave as they are told is something we expect of apartheid regime, not a democratic one.”
Matthews then rehashed an argument from earlier in the show with former 9/11 truther Donte Stallworth about how the First Amendment “is not to defend popular speech, but what many, even a majority of the country doesn't want to hear.”
Fortunately, MSNBC’s computer scheduling must have had enough as Matthews was cut off moments later so All In with Chris Hayes could start. How ironic.
As for that bizarre thought about Republican members of Congress, here’s how that unfolded (with a smug comment courtesy of Mother Jones’s David Corn):
MATTHEWS: I wish some reporters would go out and go door-to-door of the United States Senators and ask all the senators if Donald Trump or any president shot someone on Fifth Avenue [DAVID CORN LAUGHS], point blank in broad daylight, would you vote to remove him from office or not? And I'm telling you, you're going to have a hard time getting dozens of those Republicans to say even then would they ever move to take this guy out of office.
HEIDI PRZYBYLA: No comment.
MATTHEWS: Cause they're all scared to death. They're all scared to death.
CORN: They would just send their thoughts and prayers, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Thank you, sir.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on May 24, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
May 24, 2018
7:16 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I wish some reporters would go out and go door-to-door of the United States Senators and ask all the senators if Donald Trump or any president shot someone on Fifth Avenue [DAVID CORN LAUGHS], point blank in broad daylight, would you vote to remove him from office or not? And I'm telling you, you're going to have a hard time getting dozens of those Republicans to say even then would they ever move to take this guy out of office.
HEIDI PRZYBYLA: No comment.
MATTHEWS: Cause they're all scared to death. They're all scared to death.
DAVID CORN: They would just send their thoughts and prayers, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Thank you, sir.
(....)
7:47 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Jason, is this Fox News nation? Is it basically taking the 40 some percent that have voted him and back him still and say, let's remember what side we're on? Don't look at evidence, don't think about black/white relations in this country, don’t think about we could cut deals and how we can get along with each other, think about how much we hate each other. Let's fight. That’s what it seems like with them.
JASON JOHNSON: That's exactly what it is, Chris. I mean, this is — this is dictator in training 101. Everybody hates you and I'm the one who loves you, right? The media hates you and the Department of Justice is out to get you and those black people are out to get you. They're terrible and so, you know, this is — this has been Trump's campaign all along from the white nationals he’s brought into his administration to everything else. But I will say this, Chris, in support, and remember a lot of these openers agree with Trump. They didn't have to do this out of fear. You look at the owner of the Carolina Panthers, you look at some of the comments from the owner of the Houston Texans, these guys were just and angry and hostile towards their black working staff as Trump is from the White House.
(....)
7:58 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Trump Watch. Thursday, May 24, 2018. Let me underline, tonight, the words I spoke in ending Wednesday's program. Until watching him on the White House lawn yesterday, I wasn't sure how far Donald Trump would go in destroying this country's most precious assets in order to protect himself from justice. Well now we know. His willing to use the Oval Office, the historic pulpit of the American presidency to trash the very institutions that have made this an exceptional country. A government of, by and for the people, a history of open and reasonable and generally respectful political debate, a free press. His personal assaults on a former FBI director and his raging nonsense about a spy ring are fresh proof of his readiness to destroy any faith in government integrity in order to save some reasonable doubt among some about his own integrity. And now he reverts again to the division that haunted this country since its origins: race, racism and the lingering cause of white supremacy. Yes, white supremacy. Telling the football players we watch on Sunday to behave as they are told is something we expect of apartheid regime, not a democratic one. Our rights to free speech fought for all this country's life is not to defend popular speech, but what many, even a majority of the country doesn't want to hear. You don't need rights to say what is popular. But again, it's been clear from his entrance into the political arena that Trump is willing to state what he knows is not the truth in order to divide this country. He did that early on with his sick claim that Barack Obama was a illegal immigrant ineligible to be listed among our presidents and up through today, he badgers our institutions of press freedom and democratic government while dredging up the worst of our history in the order to advance himself. If you believe that the ends, his political survival, justifies such means — [FEED ENDS]
