Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews and guests Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post, Michelle Bernard of The Bernard Center and Liz Mair, a Republican strategist, went after Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee for recent comments.
While discussing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comments that it is easier for Islamic women to wear a burka, because it means they don’t have to put on makeup the panel criticized Trump as sexist with Capehart calling him “old school sexist,” to which Matthews agreed.
Capehart said, “This is sort of in keeping, you know, Donald Trump and what he has said about women over the last six months or so, he’s been running for president. Given what he’s said about Rosie O’Donnell, Megyn Kelly, Carly Florina. He’s sort of old school sexist in that a woman is only as good as she looks … I just think it all goes back to, what does she look like, and that determines her value and her worth.”
Matthews said, “Well that’s pretty clear.”
While discussing Dr. Ben Carson calling for the Department of Education to crack down on political bias in colleges, Matthews called the plan “appropriate example,” in which to use a “Nazi reference.”
Matthews said, “We’ve never had a political science teacher who doesn’t have a point of view. And you see the kid down there tweeting around because you’re afraid you just said something that might be considered a point of view. What a world. We talk about Nazi references, this might actually be appropriate. This might be an appropriate example.”
Discussing Mike Huckabee commenting on Hillary Clinton’s relationship with Sidney Blumenthal, Matthews said while he was not the “anti-semitic police,” he wondered why “Sidney Blumenthal has become this name of evil.”
Matthews said, “You know what, guys? I am not the anti-semitic police, but I want to try this by all three of you. If this guy was Joe McGee or Jimmy Brown or any kind of regular guy, or seemed to be Jewish, would we be hearing these names thrown around? The other day, I heard Saul Alinsky thrown in with Lenin and Marx. What is it about these names that the Republicans, especially the hicks, love to use and throw around? It’s a tricky question, but I’ve heard it from too many friends of mine who are Jewish who are sick of this. Why Sidney Blumenthal has become this name of evil. Your thoughts, Michelle?”
Guest Michelle Bernard said, “You know, I don’t really want to say what I actually, actually believe, but, I mean, Sidney Blumenthal—we keep hearing it over and over and over again. And when you think about the farthest, most right, most extreme people that make up the base of the Republican party, they are anti-women, anti-black, anti-many things, including on some occasions, anti-Jewish, and maybe that is why Mike Huckabee is saying what he’s saying. He needs something to grab attention, to get people to talk.”
Matthews interjected, “Yeah.”
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