MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews on Thursday continued to obsess over his
favorite issue, the birthers. He excoriated the Republican Party,
smearing that the "haters" now "have a party to call all their own, the GOP."
Painting with a broad brush, Matthews mocked, "How did the right-wing
fringe manage to take over the Republican Party?" He later repeated the
talking point, wondering, "Coming up, the party with the fringe on top?
How did the right-wing fringe get control of a major political party?" [MP3 audio here .]
Of course, a 2006 Scripps Howard poll found that 50.8
percent of Democrats believed it was "somewhat" or "very" likely that
George W. Bush knew in advance of the plot to murder 3000 Americans on
9/11. Such a number would seem to indicate that there are a significant number of
"haters" in the Democratic Party.
The host also mentioned just one Republican who, in the last day, has
condemned birtherism: Mitt Romney. In fact, many, including House
Speaker John Boehner and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince
Priebus have done the same.
Matthews interviewed former Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter and linked
the belief that Barack Obama wasn't born in America to the whole of the
GOP. He speculated, "I'm going to get very ethnic here. Is this because
of '64? I think it is. LBJ...Once Lyndon Johnson, a man of the south and
the southwest, once they pass the civil rights bill, you can forget the
white south in the Democratic Party."
The liberal anchor teased the segment by talking about Wednesday's
release of Obama's birth certificate. He lectured, " Yesterday the
doubters got cut off from the haters. Let's face it, the skeptics in the
middle, politically, now got the old, original birth certificate and
are satisfied. The haters on the other hand, are still out there and
they have a party to call all their own, the GOP."
A transcript of the teases and part of Matthews' segment with Alter, which aired on April 28, can be found below:
5:01pm EDT
CHRIS
MATTHEWS: Leading off tonight, you can't handle the truth. That's what
we learned yesterday about some people when President Obama released his
long form birth certificate. They don't want the facts. They want to
deny the facts. The President went out and practically hand delivered
just what they spent months saying they wanted. They wanted it. They got
it. They kept on yelling. Now, they're scrambling. Questioning the
birth certificate itself, asking for more documents, more paper. This
can't be true. Staring wildly into the headlights of the 21 century. They
just don't like the reality of who's in the White House, lets face it.
Yesterday, the doubters got cut off from the haters. Let's face it, the
skeptics in the middle, politically, now got the old, original birth
certificate and are satisfied. The haters on the other hand, are still
out there and they have a party to call all their own, the GOP. Plus,
party with a fringe on top. How did the right-wing fringe manage to take
over the Republican Party? Well, the Democrats hope to cook the
Republicans in this birther stew. Can the GOP stop the weirdness on
their part? Does it want to?
5:13
MATTHEWS: Coming up, the party with the fringe on top? How did
the right-wing fringe get control of a major political party? Now, this
is amazing. How did it happen? It wasn't like this when I was growing
up. They were sort of a middle of the road to right party. How did they
go- I think Civil Rights Act 1964. Just guessing. Is it too late for the
mainstream Republicans to stop the zanies?
5:20
MATTHEWS: I'm going to get very ethnic here. Is this because of '64? I
think it is. LBJ, we were talking about him in the break, once Lyndon
Johnson, a man of the south and the southwest, once they pass the civil
rights bill, you can forget the white south in the Democratic Party.
JONATHAN ALTER: He said for a generation but it's really going to be
several generations. Look, there's always been a looney tunes element.
Same on the Democratic side. You had the John Birch Society folks that
were an irritant to the Republican Party of the '50s.
MATTHEWS: Okay. Who are the Democratic Party's loony tunes? Come on. Fess up.
ALTER: They have had plenty of 'em over the years. You know, those conventions that go to 3:00 in the morning.
MATTHEWS: Okay, the truthers, maybe, if you want to go all the way over.
ALTER: Nowadays they're a more moderate party. But, they've had their
innings. My point is that you're right that a lot of this is about race.
And this is something that has given the Republican Party a foothold in
the south but a lot of this is fear of the other. There is a racial
subtext here. Like when they talk about a guy who is obviously terrific
on his feet, gives more spontaneous interviews than anybody else and
talk about him as somebody that depends on the Teleprompter, why are
they saying that? They're basically saying he is a black man and he's
not that smart. He needs a tell prompter. And the birthers think-
MATTHEWS: Donald Trump is now questioning the application to Harvard.
ALTER: Of course.
MATTHEWS: Harvard law and Columbia and he didn't deserve to get in. He
would never say that about a white person right off the street he
wouldn't say it.
ALTER: This is race, Chris.
MATTHEWS: I don't know why you would say it!
ALTER: That's where the 1964 point is critical. The Republican party
decided that it was going to- after being the party of Lincoln and
Jackie Robinson in the '50s decided it was going to go for-
MATTHEWS: Jackie Robinson was for Nixon.
- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
