Ahead of coming to Philadelphia for the DNC, Matthews sat down to discuss the presidential election, the candidates, and the media.
July 21, 2016
By Chris Brennan
Chris Matthews looks, at first, drained of the frenetic energy that sparks so much friction on his MSNBC show, Hardball.
Slouching on a small couch in a tiny office at NBC’s New York headquarters, his striped tie pulled down from the collar of his blue Oxford shirt, Matthews looks like a 70-year-old Catholic schoolboy, bored with class until his favorite topic comes up.
For Matthews – a Philadelphia native, 1974 candidate for a local U.S. House seat (he lost the primary election), and grandson of a Democratic committeeman – that topic is politics. The more Matthews talks, the more energy clambers into his hoarse voice until he finally rips one of his well-worn guffaws, a barking “Hah! “
Matthews will have just attended his 19th political convention, in Cleveland for the Republicans, and he comes home Monday for his 20th with the Democrats.
He first attended four Democratic National Conventions from 1972 to 1984 as a political aide, having worked for President Jimmy Carter and U.S. House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill.
He has also covered all seven Republican and Democratic conventions from 1988 to 2012.
Matthews sat down with the Inquirer to discuss this presidential election, the candidates, and how the media are trying to make sense of it all.
As a former speechwriter for Carter, how are Trump and Clinton doing?
Trump listens with his tongue, which is really powerful. If you watch him give speeches, he’s like a stand-up guy. He’s always trying stuff out.
Hillary Clinton has given some very good speeches. I thought the one two or three weeks ago supposedly on foreign policy but it was one that was really knocking Trump was really first-rate.
But she’s yet to find the ability to translate her personal warmth onto the stage. I don’t know the problem, but it’s there. In person – everybody says this because everybody has been through it – you walk into the back room with Hillary Clinton, she hugs and laughs. I can’t say the other way of laughing, because you’re not supposed to say it, but she’s funny and she’s girlish about it and she enjoys your company.
What do you think of Trump attributing some of his more outlandish claims to things he said he “read somewhere” or “heard from somebody. “
Look, I just decided how I’m going to handle this election. I’m not going to be conclusive. My job is to ask the questions. It’s the people’s job as voters to discover and I can help them discover. That’s my job, not to give the verdict of the guy. Everybody knows how to do a verdict on Trump . I don’t think it’s my job. I think my job is to ask the toughest questions and raise the issues and let people decide.
President Obama appears eager to assist Clinton’s campaign by making fun of Trump .
The tricky thing is doing that, but the dangerous thing in politics is attacking down. You attack down and the guy can pull you down. It’s easier to attack up because then you get pulled up, which is great. What happens when a president is pulled down off his pedestal down to fighting in the dirt with this guy? At some point, I’m sure Trump will try to reach up and pull him into the soot with him.
Obama, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, also teased the media for giving Trump so much airtime. What did you make of that?
I don’t think Obama watches us. I’ll tell you one thing, I think Trump benefits from watching us. He keeps up.
I’m telling you, one of the things I’ve learned over the years is if you’re not in the conversation, shut up. When you jump into it, it doesn’t work. That’s why Bill Clinton hasn’t done well. It’s not a part-time job, politics. You can’t enter the conversation occasionally, you’ve got to be in it.
Do you think the media has given equal and due measure to the positive and negative aspects of the Trump and Clinton campaigns?
I think people have a very good sense of who these people are. There’s no wall that we know something about these guys we don’t tell people or there’s something we’ve kept from them. There is nothing. Everybody knows Trump and everybody knows Hillary and Bill.
They come on Saturday Night Live, their characters, and the joke is already there. The people already know what this is about. These are kids, millennials who may not read a newspaper, but they somehow skim the essential aspect of who these people are and that’s how the humor works, the satire works. They know the main proof about them.
Are we headed toward a time when the media becomes obsolete and the candidates seize control of the delivery?
Look, [Trump] has obviously circumvented the media with Twitter but, in the end, he’s been smart at using free media across the board.
Trump has figured out this thing where you can show up, say some wild stuff, people will come to it, he can magnetize people to come to it and he can make the news the next day and he can get into this national conversation and he can keep in this national conversation for months by just jumping, by staying with it.
Hillary doesn’t hold press conferences. She’s chosen not to engage in this level of intensity, but it’s helped him.