On Tuesday's Hardball, while praising President Obama's handling of the
killing of Osama bin Laden, MSNBC's Chris Matthews excoriated Dick
Cheney as a "sadist."
Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman contrasted the Bush/Cheney
administration's dropping of bombs in Iraq with Obama's actions.
Matthews responded by mocking, "There's a difference between being cold blooded - I think presidents have to be cold blooded - and being a sadist." [MP3 audio here.]
As if his point wasn't clear, the liberal anchor interrupted Fineman to add, "I was referring to Cheney, of course."
Earlier, Matthews mocked Republicans, proclaiming that if Bush had
killed bin Laden, conservatives would be calling for "secular
canonization." The host dismissed, "The guy would be on Mount Rushmore
if W. had done this. They'd be carving the stone tonight, right?"
A transcript of the May 3 exchanges, which began at 5:17pm EDT, follow:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: The President's personal approval, however, has gone way
up in this poll. He is up at plus 18 points now, and was at minus three
last month. Other polls out today show a smaller bump. See him there at
56 percent approval. But, while the country is positive on the handling
of terrorism, his handling of Afghanistan. Still just 40 percent
approve his handling of the economy. Duh. It has something to do with
reality. Will killing Osama bin Laden prove to be a defining moment for
this President? And Would Republican attitudes be different if this had
happened while George W Bush was still- well, you don't have to ask that
one. Howard Fineman is the editorial director [sic] for the Huffington
Post and MSNBC political analyst and Todd Purdham is the national
editor for Vanity Fair. Gentlemen, do I have to ask what Republicans-
secular canonization. The guy would be on Mount Rushmore if W. had done
this. They'd be carving the stone tonight, right?
HOWARD FINEMAN: Oh, there's no question.
MATTHEWS: They'd be dancing. The spiking of the football would be unbelievable.
...
5:20
TODD PURDHAM: I think it resonates with the notion that we are not
going to mess around. And the White House was quite successful, I
thought, in putting out those speeches from 2007 and 2008 in which at
the time you'll recall people sort of mocked him. "Oh, yeah, if you saw
bin Laden you'd take him out." And "you shouldn't say that out loud
because it will hurt our relationship with Pakistan. It's not how it's
done."
FINEMAN: By the way, he's put a lot more- he did put a lot more troops
in Afghanistan, okay? He didn't put as many as some of the conservatives
wanted.
PURDHAM: Stepped up the Predator attacks.
FINEMAN: Stepped up the present attacks with the drones. And here are
the differences between President Bush and Dick Cheney almost literally
pushing the 500 pound daisy cutter bombs down onto Iraq and not getting
what they were targeting. And the President getting the person that he
was targeting.
MATTHEWS: There's a difference between being cold blooded- I think presidents have to be cold blooded- and being a sadist.
FINEMAN: Yeah, but all the debate now-
MATTHEWS: I was referring to Cheney, of course.
FINEMAN: All the debate about whether Osama bin Laden was defending
himself, whether he had a weapon or didn't have a weapon, let's face it,
I mean, based on what we're thinking Obama- the President's orders were
to shoot and kill.
- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
