On Wednesday, MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews stated of the unrest outside presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally in New Mexico, “I don’t think they’re that violent.”
Matthews said, while talking to Albuquerque Police Officer Tanner Tixier “I don’t see violence yet. I did see that police car with the windshield smashed. I’ve heard about other incidents of violence — low-key violence so far.”
After Tixier responded, “I’m not sure what you mean by low-key violence, Chris.” Matthews stated, “Well, I don’t see anybody with a face bloodied yet, or I don’t see any danger to anybody yet.”
Tixier continued that people threw rocks, bottles, and shirts that had been lit on fire at officers, and that at that point it looked as though “it’s just a mass riot from people who aren’t necessarily, but just looking to cause some problems.”
After coming back from a commercial break, Matthews said of the protests, “I don’t think they’re that violent.” And asked, “How do we assess to which Trump is igniting these kinds of things by the locations he’s selecting?”
Matthews further asked whether Trump campaigning to the Southwest is “taunting, encouraging. I mean, this happened in Chicago, when they went to an urban school with a large minority population, a large campus population of minorities. Trump chose to have a rally there. He eventually had to shut it down. Is that intentional?”
Washington Post National Political Reporter Robert Costa answered, “This is Trump. It’s intentional and it’s from the candidate himself.”
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