Chris Matthews: SOTU Got ‘Very Ugly,’ ‘Saying Immigrants Are Basically Killers’

Tuesday following President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews reacted to the speech by saying it got “very ugly” when Trump discussed crime and immigration.

Matthews said, “It had a lot of particular things that weren’t rough and then it took a turn halfway through it. It almost got ugly. Very tough about saying immigrants are basically killers, MS-13, beginning a discussion about immigration in a country of immigrants with crime. And that was his way of opening up the discussion like ‘I’m protecting us from criminal elements.’ I thought that got very ugly about that point.”

He added, “But up until that time, I think it was brilliantly confected to reach the sort of center-right audience tonight. It wasn’t aimed at the Fox audience crowd at all. Not at all, there was none of that sort of raging right-wing theme that he usually sells.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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