MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Wednesday responded angrily to President Obama’s post-midterm election press briefing, accusing the president of missing the real takeaway from the Nov. 4 GOP wave and instead acting on the advice of adoring sycophants.
The president, Matthews said, has yet to figure out that he will have to make certain concessions with Republicans, who now control both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, if he wants to govern the country effectively.
“Dammit, you cannot run a government on common ground!” Matthews cried. “He misses the point of politics, which is to be a politician and to trade.”
Fellow MSNBC panelist Bill Burton disagreed.
“We’re in a different world than the one you’re living in,” the former White House deputy press secretary and advisor to Priorities USA, told Matthews. “Because to listen to you talk about this [immigration] bill and the president’s not selling it — blah, blah, blah — the problem is that the bill has been passed by the United States Senate and they will not move on it in the House. Period! That’s it!”
Priorities USA was the group behind the infamous “Mitt Romney killed my wife with cancer” campaign ad during the 2012 election.
“This isn’t about the policy,” Burton added, explaining that it’s the Tea Party, not President Obama, that’s responsible for gridlock in the nation’s capital. “[T]hey don’t want President Obama to get a major accomplishment.”
Matthews was unimpressed with Burton placing the blame for widespread voter discontent squarely on the shoulders of the Tea Party.
Obama has too many “sycophants around him, telling him, ‘All you have to keep doing is what you’re doing,’ ” Matthews said.
