MSNBC host Chris Matthews mixed up Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Democratic opponent and the South Carolina Republican’s colleague Sen. Tim Scott, both of whom are black.
As the network was covering President Trump’s Friday rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, Matthews mistook a live shot of Scott for Graham’s Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, whom he was interviewing on the air.
“Jaime, I see you standing next to the guy you’re going to beat right there, maybe? Maybe. Maybe,” Matthews said, referring to the rally shot of Scott, as the network panned to Harrison in a separate studio.
Matthews’s panel then attempted to correct the host, with one person saying, “That’s Tim Scott.”
“Who’s that?” Matthews responded before another panelist said, “That’s Tim Scott.”
“I’m sorry,” the host said in confusion. “Oh, it’s the other senator, Tim Scott. What am I saying? Big mistake. Mistaken identity, sir, sorry.”
Matthews then asked Harrison, who laughed off the error, how he plans to beat incumbent Graham.
“Everybody knows Lindsey, but everybody doesn’t like Lindsey Graham, and that’s how I’m going to beat him, Chris,” Harrison said, adding that his opponent lacks a “moral compass” and is focused on “Washington, D.C., games.”
Matthews has been in the spotlight of media attention in recent weeks, primarily for his opposition to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee for president. On Monday, he apologized to Sanders for comparing the socialist’s decisive victory in the Nevada caucuses to the 1940 Nazi invasion of France.
The host also faced calls for his resignation earlier this week after he grilled Sen. Elizabeth Warren on why she believes a woman who accused fellow 2020 Democrat Michael Bloomberg of discrimination rather than the former New York City mayor, who has denied the allegation, himself.
