This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features a regular, MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews getting in on the left’s rant about former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s charge that President Obama doesn’t love America.
It came at the end of his Thursday show.
“Let me finish tonight with this tough, unnecessary and wrong attack by Rudy Giuliani on our president. All of us have different temperaments. Look, I can remember when Sen. Barack Obama was 20 points behind Sen. Hillary Clinton in the early run for president. I kept getting anxious and frustrated, and, OK, angry because he didn’t seem as angry, frustrated, and angry as I was by his position so far behind. Rudy Giuliani says that Obama doesn’t love his country, like he does, like others he knows do.
“Well, I can understand what I’m getting at, this coolness the president gives off. He’s not a hothead like Rudy or me sometimes. He just isn’t. I remember when he got hammered in that first debate with Mitt Romney. He didn’t know he was being humiliated. Didn’t he know he was letting that man’s sense of personal superiority beat him up on national television. That was another time when I went hot and Obama went cool.
“But like all the other times, Obama did what he had to do. He and his team defeated the undefeatable Hillary Clinton and her team. He came back to beat Mitt Romney twice in debates, clearing the way for his convincing re-election as president.
“So, I can see why a guy like Rudy would think Obama’s too cool for school. But Mr. Mayor, you should never, ever go after someone’s love of his country. It breaks the rules we live by. It divides us when we should be united. I urge you to take it back and quickly, because it really does no good at all, except score political points with those who hate.”
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Matthews certainly knows about questioning the patriotism of those he sees as political enemies. In 2009, he sneered: ‘Does Rush Limbaugh hate this country?’ And in 2011, he questioned the patriotism of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, wondering if he was a ‘real American’ or had ‘become a citizen just like somebody marries somebody to get into the country because they want a job.’ ”
Rating: Four out of four screams.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
