Did Liberal MSNBC Host Chris Matthews Endorse Donald Trump?
MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews seems to be playing hardball with both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In an edited clip from his video election diary circulating on social media, the Hardball anchor sounds like he is endorsing Donald Trump for president.
The longtime Democrat was a former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and chief of staff to House Speaker Tip O’Neill before going into journalism. In context (see video embedded below), the fast-talking Matthews, 70, was scolding Donald Trump (whom he does not support for president) for getting sidetracked on petty issues/feuds and thereby practicing politics “pathetically.”
But the bulk of his remarks appears to many as if it is or could be an endorsement of the New York real estate mogul’s candidacy.
“Why isn’t [Trump] spending every hour asking voters again and again, do you like the way things are the way they are headed in this country. Do you like to continue the destruction of our manufacturing base, and the jobs that went with it. Do you like the uncontrollable immigration, if you like the string of stupid wars from Iraq to Libya to Syria. If you want to say yes to all of that, if you want to keep this all the way it is, fine, then vote for Hillary Clinton. If you don’t like the way things are headed, you got a chance to really shake the system the system at its roots. If you wake up on Election Day and it’s the same as it is today, if it’s the same four or five or eight years from now, remember you had a chance really change it, but you were to dainty to do it. If Trump were to win this election, those would be the reasons…”
"I can't stand politics being practiced so pathetically." — @HardballChris https://t.co/ruoCyQMhof
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) October 28, 2016
Many will recall that Matthews, who has a history of erratic on-air statements, admitted on TV that Barack Obama’s speechmaking gave him a thrill up his leg.
Matthews’ oration is being compared to the portion of a speech by Trump foe and Hillary fan Michael Moore that also sounds like an endorsement of the Republican presidential nominee.
“Just as we saw happen with Michael Moore when Trump supporters flipped the narrative of his anti-Trump movie to make it appear the rotund filmmaker supports Trump, the liberal MSNBC host saw the same thing happen to him,” BizPacReview noted.
Back in May, Matthews claimed on live TV that the New York and Washington-centric news media doesn’t represent America, particularly when it comes to individual gun ownership under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, otherwise known as the right to keep and bear arms.
During a recent Hardball broadcast, he criticized Hillary Clinton over the controversial Clinton Foundation, the Federalist Papers Project detailed.
“I’ll make a judgment. Every time I watch a politician engage in a certain pattern of behavior before they go to the White House, they continue to engage in that pattern afterwards. People don’t change because we swear them into the White House. They become that person big-time. And the Clintons were raising money like this hand over hand, hand over fist, back in 1996, using—-we called it Motel 6. They were hoarding them in, pulling them in by train loads of contributors and then letting them sit in the Lincoln bedroom for a while and charging them by the hour. You can still vote for Hillary Clinton, but remember, you’re getting this as part of the package, because that’s been their pattern.”
In another recent segment, he asked a New York Times reporter if any of her colleagues were pro-life (she dodged) and also compared Donald Trump to Frank Sinatra.
[Featured Image by Matt Rourke/AP Images]
