MSNBC’s Chris Matthews scored the first one-on-one interview of 2016 with Hillary Clinton, but he used his time to shower the Democratic presidential candidate in praise rather than press her on the particulars of her campaign platform.
The cable news host also spent a large portion of the interview Tuesday evening attacking Clinton’s Republican rivals, including GOP front-runner Donald Trump, and helping the former secretary walk through her prepared campaign talking points.
At one point, Matthews claimed that the GOP 2016 primary candidates are not as interested in battling Islamic terrorism as they are in discriminating against Muslims.
“It’s ethnic with them!” he shouted as Clinton gravely nodded.
Matthews then launched into an almost endless stream of praise and cheers for Clinton.
He praised her for showing “a lot of guts” in supposedly taking on the National Rifle Association; he praised her for getting “back into the fight” working on behalf of women everywhere; he praised her for being a “student of history” just like himself; he also sympathized with her over how hard it must be running as a woman against such apparent sexists.
The closest that Matthews came Tuesday to getting Clinton off her prepared campaign talking points was when he asked her to explain the difference between a Democrat and a socialist.
Clinton’s chief Democratic primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., identifies as a socialist.
The former secretary of state dodged the question, and a somewhat disappointed-looking Matthews moved on to the next compliment.
