Matthews on Steele Dossier Funding: Why Did Democrats and Hillary Clinton ‘Hide This?’

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” anchor Chris Matthews argued that Hillary Clinton and Democrats hid their role in the funding of the research that eventually turned into the Steele dossier.

Matthews asked Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) if Democrats should have “come clean during this massive investigation, with all the focus on the Russian connection of Donald Trump, why wouldn’t the Democrats come out and say, ‘Okay, we paid for it.’ Instead of letting it leak out now, when it now brings into question the whole effort? Why weren’t they clean? Why did they hide this? Why did Hillary Clinton hide this?”

Speier answered, “Well, I don’t know that Hillary Clinton hid it, or was it just her attorney who was –.”

Matthews interjected, “She paid for it!”

Speier countered, “Well, maybe she thought of it — or her attorney thought of it as a client — attorney-client privilege.”

Matthews then stated, “No, no, the result, the product. You mean, oh, it was a privilege to keep secret that Democrats paid for oppo…for their opponent in the campaign. They want to keep that secret, even after this investigation began, they sat on it. I don’t think it’s in her book. How come everybody’s — this is how you get in trouble in politics. You know Jackie, I know you’re a good Democrat, but can’t you come out and say, this is one time that Democrats blew it. They should have come out months ago and said, ‘We paid for that damn document, but it’s true.’ Just say it like that. ‘We paid for it, but it’s true.’ Instead of now saying, ‘blah, blah, blah?’ Did you hear in the paper today, the Hillary Clinton campaign won’t even respond to questions? That makes them look really honest, doesn’t it?”

Speier responded, “Well, I would just say, that it would have been great to have them come forward with it. But it’s not the basis on which the Intelligence Committee is looking into the issue of whether or not there was coordination by the Trump campaign with the Russians. It really is a separate, and really not a very specific area that we’re looking at.”

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