MSNBC IN DAMAGE CONTROL
MSNBC’s Matthews, Corn Meltdown, Claim Susan Rice ‘Unmasking’ Controversy Is Racist and Sexist
>On Tuesday’s edition ofHardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews and MSNBC political analyst/Mother JonesD.C. bureau chief David Corn were unglued over the Susan Rice“unmasking”controversy, suggesting that it was racist and sexist for these accusations to be leveled at the former National Security Adviser because she’s never done anything wrong.
>“Why is he going after Susan Rice? It’s like he pulls out — he’s like an old deejay. He pulls out the old records from 20 years ago and plays them again,”Matthews later wondered to Corn and fellow panelist Simon Marks (who unsuccessfully tried to argue that Rice has done herself no favors in giving contradictory statements).
>After a series of clips from Republican Senators Rand Paul (Ky.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), and Tom Cotton (Ark.), Matthews quipped,“okay, Bates Motel.”He then read a Mike Huckabee tweet about Rice being in an orange jumpsuit, and it was at this point that the three panelists lost their minds:
>DAVID CORN: Oh god!
>MATTHEWS: I mean, Huckabee has no shame. These guys are trooping along, like camp followers of Trump.
>MARKS: They’re looking for a pinata? They found one in Susan Rice. I do think —
>MATTHEWS: Notice it's always a female? Just a thought.
>MARKS: — well, that’s true. That's also true. But I do think she slightly played into her hand — into their hands.
>MATTHEWS: Typhoid Mary?
>MARKS: No. Clearly not. But the best things Susan Rice could do is not —
>MATTHEWS: Susan Rice's job is to watch national security. As she told Andrea today, our colleague, she made it very clear what she was doing was when she saw an American name show up in a surveillance of a foreign perhaps agent, she wanted to know who that was. What's wrong with that?
