Reacting to a dramatic car chase in downtown Washington, DC Thursday, MSNBC host Chris Matthews jumped at the chance to blame the events on congressional Republicans.
The low-rated cable host began his coverage of the death of a woman believed to have suffered from depression with a characteristic passive-aggressive slam against conservatives.
“The death will no doubt become an iconic tragedy in this period of government shutdown driven by the hatred of the President’s Affordable Care Act and the compulsion of his critics on the hard Right to punish him politically,” Matthews declared at the top of his Hardball program.
“Whatever mix of causes drove the woman to this day, the event is now a vivid tragedy played out in the streets of the nation’s capital,” he continued.
Video and transcript below:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Violence in a stalled city. Let’s play “Hardball.”
Good evening, I’m Chris Matthews up in Boston. We’re going to get to the growing anger over the government shutdown in just a minute, the growing anger at Ted Cruz. The backroom Republican fight over whether to make this an even bigger battle on the debt ceiling. And the stunts that Republicans are pulling to make the gullible out there think that it’s the Democrats who closed down the government.
But let me start tonight with this, the government shutdown was shattered just hours ago by the death of a woman who just minutes before that had crashed her car into the [sic] White House gate.
A city already tensed up with a compound of unpaid salaries, required essential services, and an uncertain future was shaken by the crash at the White House gates. A televised car chase, the violent death of a woman driver, a young child in that vehicle witnessing the horrible end.
(video footage from the chase with police)
The death will no doubt become an iconic tragedy in this period of government shutdown driven by the hatred of the President’s Affordable Care Act and the compulsion of his critics on the hard right to punish him politically.
Whatever mix of causes drove the woman to this day, the event is now a vivid tragedy played out in the streets of the nation’s capital. We get the latest now from NBC News justice correspondent Pete Williams.
Hat tip: Twitchy.
