MSNBC’s Chris Matthews came to the defense of Hillary Clinton Tuesday afternoon, and argued that a “vast right-wing conspiracy” is working hard to undermine her dreams of winning the White House.
The moment occurred as the cable news host complained that a participant in Monday’s CNN town hall told Clinton to her face that many young voters don’t see her as an honest person. Several recent polls show that voters have grave misgivings about Clinton’s ability to tell the truth, and the ongoing federal investigation into her private State Department email server continues to dog her campaign every step of the way.
Matthews first stated that the town hall participant should’ve shown Clinton, “a major figure in public life,” more respect, and then added that the question is par for the course for a candidate who has had to fend off a shadowy GOP-led conspiracy to take shatter her political ambitions.
“Talk about bad manners,” he said. “That’s pretty nervy for a young person to say that to a major figure in American life like that kid did. Hillary, what’s she going to say? I’m not dishonest?”
“She has to back to the motives of those who have raised the questions about her honesty, which is unfortunately for her, very much like when she said back during the Monica days, when she said there’s a vast right-wing conspiracy out to get me. But in fact, there is,” he added. “This is the weirdness about politics. It can be that you can also have a problem, but your enemies are going to blow it up out of proportion. That’s for sure.”
He then made an appeal to kindness, and said that people need to remember that politicians have “souls.”
The phrase “vast right-wing conspiracy” is a holdover from the late 1990s, when Clinton defended her husband, former President Bill Clinton, from allegations of sexual misconduct in the White House.
“I do believe that this is a battle,” she said in a 1998 interview with NBC News’ Matt Lauer. “The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president.”
Bill Clinton later admitted to having an extramarital affair with an intern, Monica Lewinsky, and confessed that he had purposely withheld that information when he was questioned under oath.
