Salon.com > Hardball

Chris Matthews to end “The Chris Matthews Show”

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:15:00 +0000

Chris Matthews is leaving "The Chris Matthews Show," his nationally syndicated politics talk show on NBC, whose last episode will air July 21, reports TVNewser.

The departure is part of the host's new long-term contract with MSNBC, where he will continue to host "Hardball." Matthews says that with his extra time, he will work "on writing books like the one I’m committed to now on the relationship between Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan, that and producing documentaries on history and politics."

Matthews' full statement, below:

Dick Armey apologizes to me

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:09:00 +0000

Oh, Facebook. Even founder Mark Zuckerberg's sister Randi learned the hard way that we don't always know who has access to our photos and profiles. I was as befuddled as Zuckerberg on Christmas when late Thursday afternoon, someone purporting to be Dick Armey sent me a private message that seemed to be an odd apology for saying he was "so damn glad" he couldn't be married to me, on "Hardball" almost four years ago. (We're not even Facebook "friends!")

Here's how it began:

What I said to you on Chris Matthews' show was the meanest and very likely the dumbest thing I ever said on TV. I was wrong to have said it and I deserve all the bunk I get for it.

But then he complained about the previous day's "Hardball" segment, in which I attacked his attempted takeover of FreedomWorks, backed by an aide with a gun.

Certainly you know that spin about guns at FW was BS. I'm sorry you reduced yourself to expanding on it. Hit me with your best shot not your cheap shot. Dick Armey

Republicans just don’t get it

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:07:00 +0000

On Wednesday I finished my piece on Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens boasting that President Obama "only" won the votes of Americans who earn less than $50,000 – that's most people, by the way – and rushed to MSNBC's "Hardball" to discuss the GOP's diversity problems with supposedly moderate former Congressman Tom Davis of Virginia.

It was a calm, respectful conversation, until Davis volunteered that Romney lost because of Obama's voter turnout operation – specifically, his ability to turnout "underclass minorities" and "particularly those who orient toward the city" who were "pulled out of the apartments." Since we had been talking about the GOP's problems with women and people of color, I respectfully offered Davis some "free advice" – that it might be time to retire the term "underclass." It got worse.

Davis mumbled about the term not being "politically correct," and when I referenced Stevens's slur against people who make less than $50,000 a year, many of whom are actually middle class, Davis jumped in: "That's not where the voter turnout came, if you know your voter stats, it was really people who were making even less than that, pulled out of the apartments…groups that traditionally haven't voted." (Yes, I caught the condescending "if you know your voter stats.")

Tom Davis says “underclass minorities” helped Obama

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:26:00 +0000

Former Virginia congressman Tom Davis today attributed President Obama's reelection, in part, to the voter turnout of "underclass minorities."

Salon's Joan Walsh pointed out that the term "underclass" is out-of-touch and "that's not who we're talking about here," she said.

"Hardball" host Chris Matthews awkwardly defended Davis, saying, "He's a good guy, he's a good guy, Susan -- I mean Joan. Thank you, Joan Walsh, I'm just trying to help him out a little bit here, he came on the show, he's nice enough to do that -- you're always going to be here."

Alan Simpson: I hope Grover Norquist drowns in the bathtub

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:45:00 +0000

So this just happened on "Hardball" -- former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, of the Simpson-Bowles commission, essentially called for anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist to slip and fall in the tub.

Norquist has said he wants a government small enough that it can drown in the bathtub.

Said Simpson:

"So how do you deal with someone who comes to stop government? ... Grover wandering the earth in his white robe saying he wants to drown government in the bathtub. I hope he slips in there with it."

Chris Matthews, in a new record, was left speechless for several moments.

And that wasn't even the strangest thing Simpson said in the interview. In a discussion of taxes and how the middle-class would end up on the short end, Simpson posed this question: "Who gets diddled the most?"

UPDATE: BuzzFeed now has the video.