MSNBC host Chris Matthews described George Washington as an “elite” and a slaveowner in order to strengthen his criticism of Mitt Romney for campaigning on his successful business record.
“Let me try the class warfare the other way,” Matthews said, prefacing an argument that Romney is engaging in class warfare when he argues that “‘you benefit from having a guy as successful as me’ — that was his word, ‘successful.'”
Newt Gingrich, Matthews guest at the time, countered that “that’s what George Washington would have said,” at which point Matthews went on offense.
“They were elites!” he said of Washington and Founders like him. “Well, just remember Washington had a couple hundred slaves, and there was a different kind of politics [then].”
Washington is generally revered for leading the Americans both in battle and politics during the Revolutionary War. When Washington promised to resign his commission as general rather than use the army to seize power through a military coup, King George III of England said that “if he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
Gingrich argued that both Washington and Romney believe “in ending poverty by leveling up, not leveling down.”
