While running through his usual litany of attacks on anti-Obama conservatives, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday included the National Rifle Association as part of the "crazy far-right" who "hate" Barack Obama.
Matthews began by wondering, "What is it about Obama that inspires this kind of weird, zealous hatred?" He later added, "Well, here's something, another strain of the crazy, far- right." After referencing birthers and other groups, the Hardball anchor played a clip of NRA President Wayne LaPierre deriding the President's stated support of the Second Amendment as a "big, fat lie."
Talking to Republican strategist Ron Christie, Matthews bizarrely responded to LaPierre's comments: "Ron, this- the language, 'lie,' 'conspiracy,' it's almost like, I don't know, Lincoln talking about what was going on in the Civil War below the Mason-Dixon line. I mean, this is Civil War talk about a president of the United States."
Matthews' anger at the NRA for suggesting that Obama is no friend of the Second Amendment is odd. After all, Barack Obama has appointed two United States Supreme Court justices who have supported gun control.
A partial transcript of the September 27 segment, which aired at 5:05pm EDT, follows:
5:01 tease
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Mayor Brown, we're going to go through a long list of these crazy accusations against the President here in the beginning of the program tonight because they are unique. It's not just calling him the anti-Christ. There's people who go said he was born in some other country. We're going to get to accusations that just go across the board. What is it about Obama that inspires this kind of weird, zealous hatred?
WILLIE BROWN: Well, I think you would have to start with the fact that he is unusual in that he is an African-American. That is an unusual thing for this country. We've been looking forward, as African-Americans, to this for a very long time, but we know that there is a residual amount of racism in this country. It's there. It's going to be there for a long time, and it expresses itself in many, many ways.
...
5:05
MATTHEWS: Well, here's something, another strain of the crazy, far right. Here's the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre, and I've known this guy a long time. I'm astounded by this new accusation that the President is leading some conspiracy. Anyway, here he is, Wayne LaPierre, head of the national- not National Public Radio- National Rifle Association, at the conservative conference if Florida last week. Let's listen to Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association.
WAYNE LAPIERRE: The President will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he's actually been good for the Second Amendment. But it's a big, fat, stinking lie. It's all part, it's all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in our country. Before the President was even sworn into office, they met and they hatched a conspiracy of public deception to try to guarantee his re-election in 2012.
MATTHEWS: You know, I got to tell you, again, Ron, this- the language, "lie," "conspiracy," it's almost like, I don't know, Lincoln talking about what was going on in the Civil War below the Mason-Dixon line. I mean, this is Civil War talk about a president of the United States.
— Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [1] to follow him on Twitter.