Chris Matthews Suggests Joni Ernst ‘Has Talked About Killing Politicians She Doesn't Agree With’

Published: 10/24/2014 5:13 PM ET

News Analyst

During his MSNBC show on Thursday night, Chris Matthews discussed a soundbite of Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst stating her stance on the Second Amendment from two years ago and interpreted it as “pretty radical” to the point that “[s]he has talked about killing politicians she doesn't agree with.”

First, here is what Ernst actually said (which was uncovered in a Huffington Post story from Wednesday): “I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, nine millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere, but I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family, whether it's from an intruder, or whether it's from a government should they decide that my rights are no longer important.” [MP3 audio here; Video below]

The idea that Ernst would want to shoot her fellow elected officials simply because she disagrees with them on their policies borders on irresponsible and contributes next to nothing towards educating the public about where both she and her opponent, Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley, stand ahead of Election Day on November 4 in what’s shaping up to be one of the closest Senate races in the country.

Returning to the Hardball segment, Matthews attempted to sound non-partisan by declaring that what Ernst said was so objectionable that “[t]his has nothing to do with Democrat versus Republican.”

Instead, Matthews suggested that what Ernst said has everything to do with whether or not voters “want somebody in the U.S. Senate that talks about carrying a gun around with them, to use against government officials or government leaders all the way to the top, I guess, who challenge her perception of her rights.”

Matthews continued:

She's not talking about a gun for sport or self-protection against intruders. She’s talking about using it against governors, I mean government officials, Revenuers, they used to call them. Anybody that attacks her that she doesn’t like. What is she – does she think this is something you can say and still get elected to the government? She'll be in the government.

The Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman then followed Matthews, and went after Ernst, but not without directing some sudden respect toward the National Riffle Association (NRA), a group typically harshly criticized by the liberal media:

This feeds into the deepest part of the paranoid wing of gun rights advocates in the NRA. It’s not what most of the mainstream NRA was about, it’s not what the NRA, as an organization, is about, but she was trying to tap into that emotion. Bruce Braley is running against her, saying that Joni Ernst is, quote, “too extreme to be in the Senate.” I think this piece of video plays right into that.

The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews on October 23 are transcribed below.

MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews
October 23, 2014
7:16 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Coming up, 12 days before the midterm elections in this country, the U.S., things are getting hot. Did you hear the latest from Joni Ernst? She says she will use – this is very un-Canadian – she says she's going to use her gun to protect herself if she believes this government isn't respecting her rights. This is Second Amendment talk out of the prayer book of Sharon Angle. Is she actually talking about shooting politicians she doesn't agree with? Apparently so.

(....)
7:20 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Midterm Madness]
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to Hardball. 12 days to the midterms. Do you believe? The big campaigns have been at it, actually, for a year now. Media markets have been saturated. If you watch television, the ads are relentless, yet this is the remarkable fact: Hardly a race in the country from New Hampshire to Kentucky to Georgia to Kansas to Florida, they're all closer now than they ever were. There’s not one that’s above a point or two apart. Take a look at Iowa, where the castrator Joni Ernst has a two-point lead there against Democrat Bruce Braley, the margin of error there is three, so they're tied, but now comes word that Ernst pulled something of a Sharon Angle two years ago. She has talked about killing politicians she doesn't agree with. Just how radical is that? Pretty radical.
(....)
Robert Costa is national political reporter with The Washington Post and Howard Fineman is editorial director of the Huff Post, Huffington Post Media Group. Today, as I said, the Huffington Post itself, the Huff Post, dug up video of Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst at an NRA event two years ago talking about shooting members of her own government if she thinks they're up to hurting her rights. Let's watch.
REPUBLICAN IOWA SENATE CANDIDATE JONI ERNST: I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, nine millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere, but I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family, whether it's from an intruder, or whether it's from a government should they decide that my rights are no longer important.
MATTHEWS: This is the same radical talk, Howard, I'm glad you it.
HOWARD FINEMAN: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Congratulations on this scoop..
FINEMAN: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: This has nothing to do with Democrat versus Republican. Do you want somebody in the U.S. Senate that talks about carrying a gun around with them, to use against government officials or government leaders all the way to the top, I guess, who challenge her perception of her rights. This is radical talk, it’s what cost Sharon Angle that race against Harry Reid, talking about her Second Amendment rights and anybody listen out there that thinks there's something confusing here, watch that tape again. Listen to her. She's not talking about a gun for sport or self-protection against intruders. She’s talking about using it against governors, I mean government officials, Revenuers, they used to call them. Anybody that attacks her that she doesn’t like. What is she – does she think this is something you can say and still get elected to the government? She'll be in the government.
FINEMAN: Well, Chris, one significant thing, this video was sent to us by a reader. We have a standing request out to all of our readers and commenters to send in things they know about the candidates, any interesting audio, video, comments, data. Anything. This was sent in, our great young reporter Samuel Levine, wrote it up and what's interesting about this in Iowa, Chris, and I know Iowa very well having spend tons of time there, they like their guns, they like to hunt, they like the Second Amendment, but these are not crazy people in Iowa and the talk, the sort of Cliven Bundy talk about, you know, the government conspiracy to take away your rights, which at an NRA convention means, to, quote, “take up your guns.” The government somehow is secretly plotting to take up the guns. This feeds into the deepest part of the paranoid wing of gun rights advocates in the NRA. It’s not what most of the mainstream NRA was about, it’s not what the NRA, as an organization, is about, but she was trying to tap into that emotion. Bruce Braley is running against her, saying that Joni Ernst is, quote, “too extreme to be in the Senate.” I think this piece of video plays right into that.
MATTHEWS: Well, Robert, how is this different than posse comitatus and the survivalists, the people who say, it's going to come down to a showdown between me and the black helicopters? She says she's got her gun ready.
ROBERT COSTA: Well –
MATTHEWS: I know it's a little gun –
COSTA: Right.
MATTHEWS: – but her principle is the same as Sharon Engel's was a couple years ago. By the way, lets, before you start, let's watch Sharon Angle to see the rest of this back, as I mentioned, in 2010. Republican Senate candidate out in Nevada talked about her Second Amendment remedies to take out her then opponent, well, or anybody in the government that gets in the way. Let's watch.
SHARRON ANGLE: You know, our founding fathers, they put that second amendment in there for a good reason, and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government, and said, you know, Thomas Jefferson said it's good for our country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that’s not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying, my goodness, what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you, the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.
MATTHEWS: We’re looking towards the Second Amendment remedies to deal with this Congress. I don't think there's any translation required here.
COSTA: You got to ask, how did this happen? How does Joni Ernst in a competitive senate race make these kind of comments? I look at –
MATTHEWS: Who cleaned her up so she looks less crazy?
COSTA: Well, her chief consultants Todd Harris or Frieda –
MATTHEWS: Somebody did something.
FINEMAN: That was two years ago.
COSTA: No no no, let’s get back to –
FINEMAN: She said it two years ago.
MATTHEWS: Well, well, wait, Howard, I meant, how did she go from that radical to this person –
COSTA: Wait, wait, wait –
MATTHEWS: – that she was talking about castrating pigs?
COSTA: But, look, she was, she has moderated her image since she won the Republican primary and Howard’s right. This video –
MATTHEWS: How?
COSTA: I’ll tell you how. Two years ago, she was running in a Republican primary in Iowa. I was out there, covering that primary. These primaries in Iowa – these red states, they pull candidates like Ernst far to the right and they have to move all the way back center for the general.
MATTHEWS: And what did they do to her to her change her?
COSTA: Well, look, they had a squealing pig ad in the primary and have you seen her general election ads? It’s straight to camera, her sitting ram-rod straight, talking in a moderate way to voters. That’s how you –
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Howard. How far out does this take her politically? You’re an expert, you said, on Iowa. You said too. You said they're for gun rights, sportsmen rights, general second amendments but they're not the posse comitatus people that live out in Idaho and plan for the ultimate stand-off, you know?
FINEMAN: That's right. Iowa's not the Idaho panhandle, I agree with you, Chris and., you know, Robert knows Iowa too, and I think he would agree with me that, yes, they're conservative out there, and yes, there's a conservative wing of the Republican Party, but I don't know that Joni Ernst, even when she was playing to the right, to lock in the Republican nomination, needed to talk about having her gun to use against the government if necessary. You know, that was the kind of thing that was – was – was aiming at the emotional gut of the deep right wing of the right wing. I don't know that she had to do it, she did it. Somebody who was there thought it was relevant, and that's how we got a hold of it. What it means in the campaign, I think it plays right into Bruce Braley's strategy. Now, he's not ahead, he hasn't won yet in part and he’s behind, in part, because Robert says, Joni Ernst has performed well in the debates and come across at much more moderate in the general election. This – if they make an ad out of this thing, it takes her back two years, and we'll see what happens in the last 12 days.