Although the Republicans' Florida convention is on hold due to weather, the debates are moving forward starting with MSNBC host Chris Matthews and the chair of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus. The pair got into it Monday morning on the set of Morning Joe, which is broadcasting live from Tampa.
Matthews accused the Romney campaign of taking a "cheap shot" and "playing the race card" with Mitt Romney's comment last week that no one has ever asked to see his birth certificate. The campaign has defended it as a harmless joke, not directed at the president, but simply an acknowledgement of where Mitt and his wife Ann were born.
Matthews, to Preibus:
I have to call you on this Mr. Chairman. You’ve been suggesting that somehow Obama has been running a negative campaign and your guy is running a positive campaign, but that’s not accurate. They’ve both been negative. That cheap shot about 'I don’t have a problem with my birth certificate [from Romney] was awful. It is an embarrassment to your party to play that card. This part about getting rid of the work requirement for welfare is dishonest. You are playing that ethnic card there.
You can play your games and giggle about it, but the fact is your side is playing that card. When you start talking about work requirements, you know what game you’re playing, and everybody knows what game you’re playing. It’s the race card. Yeah, if your name is Romney, yeah you were well-born, you went to prep school. Yeah, brag about it. Yeah, this guy [Obama] has an African name and he has to live with it.
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough asked Matthews to clarify. "You think Mitt Romney’s playing the race card?"
"There’s no doubt he did on the birth certificate," Matthews said. "Why would he bring it up?...And I think the work requirement fits right into it."
Priebus disputed Matthews' accusation.
"You got your monologue in, so congratulations," Priebus said. "The fact of the matter is he’s from Michigan, he was born in Michigan. He’s making the point that 'I was born in Michigan.' We’ve gotten to a place in politics where any moment of levity is totally frowned upon by guys like you just so you can push your brand. It’s a moment of levity. Everybody gets it."
"What's the joke?" Matthews asked. "I don't get it."
Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinksi suggested it was an ill-timed, ill-written joke on the Republican candidate's part. "He misfired badly on the joke," said Scarborough.
"Mitt Romney has continuously said the president was born in this country. It's a non-starter, it's a dumb issue, it's a distraction," Priebus added.
They continued like this for a while.
"Garbage, garbage," Priebus said, shaking his head.
"It's your garbage," Matthews fired back.
"We went from a tropical storm to Hurricane 3," joked guest Tom Brokaw.
Cue commercial break.
Watch the clip above.
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Chris Mathews and the dumbocrats are always trying to play hardball. Then when the ball is thrown back at them they cry "foul"..and throw out the old it must be a racist comment... Not everything is about race...Funny, didn't hear too much out of Chris Mathews mouth after Joe Biden stuck his foot in it with the "they are gonna sent you all back in chains" comment...and that long drawn out draaaaawl he used wasn't at all condescending.
It just amazes me that a group of people who want to be known for their embracing of all persons get so "butt hurt" over any comment made by a Republican, while their own people walk around with one foot stuck in their mouths on a daily basis, and that most assuredly includes Mr. Mathews. It is no wonder that the "dumbocrats" have a jackass as their mascot.
Mister Romney's birther joke
Mister Romney either has made calculated comment, or he committed what is referred to in classical psychoanalysis as a parapraxis. A parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of some unconscious ("dynamically repressed"), subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought. Often Freudian slips are expressed as a spontaneous joke. Therefore, unconscious driven or not Mister Romney is not off the hook.
If his remark is calculated, he is engaging in divisive politics and joins the likes of Donald Trump and Orly Taitz, the dentist-lawyer who keeps filing all of that birther nonsense litigation, all of which keep getting thrown out of court and are commonly viewed as racially motivated. If his comment is a parapraxis it may be reflecting that he believes all of those racially motivated conspiracy theories.
Finally, if Mister Romney's comment was a Freudian slip it does not say much about his character and I'd be worried about him representing America on the world stage or at home where a large percentage of Americans are encompassed and offended by the birther slurs.
For what it's worth, I'm a registered Independent.
@drpaultyler you sound really desperate like you don't believe what you are saying yourself. First we all know that the republicans made a stupid calculation when they decided to go against any and everything that the president and the democrats put fourth , they made up their minds the day that the president won the election. As I said they can't believe that a black man won the election , it racism pure and simple, what white president has ever been attacked in the way that President Obama has? None and in reality we don't know what this man can do because he has been denied a fair opportunity because of his skin color. It's the uppity n...a syndrome , how dare he, who does he think he is , this nation is so racially bias . Those who quote statistics like drpaultyler believe the lies and look to run this man down , but everyone who is voting in this election is not blind to the facts, or motivated by racism , we don't want to capitalize on these things , to just turn the country over to the rich fat cats. You only need to check the polls to know Mitt Romney will never lie and deceive his way into winning the White House , women voters ,well the smart ones , voting for Obama , Latinos ,well the smart ones , voting for Obama , young people, well the smart ones , voting for Obama , and Black people, all of us are voting for Obama. You can try the Jim crow tricks, you can try to rally your base , you can do all the bull you want, but we will win again Barack Obama 2 terms...
Right on William C Turner!
In spite of all of their lies, crooked Republican tricks (i.e., voter suppression laws and unethical Supreme Court Republicans), and hundreds of millions of dollars from corrupt corporations and CEOs they will still lose in November.
Ordinary Americans with honest hearts and clear minds will never vote for Romney or Ryan.