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Howard Fineman Tells Chris Matthews President Obama Called Some Republicans ‘Ignorant’

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» 59 comments

On Monday night’s Hardball, Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman revealed to host Chris Matthews that President Obama had told him that he thought some “Republicans and conservatives who oppose him” were “ignorant.”

While it seems unkind, Matthews’ original question was whether the President thinks his opponents are “evil,” so the level of insult is somewhat relative.

“From having interviewed him a lot on this topic, and listened to him talk about the Republicans and conservatives who oppose him,” Fineman says, “he doesn’t think they’re evil, he thinks they’re, some of them are ignorant. That they don’t know enough, that they haven’t sufficiently been had the world explained to by somebody like him.”

Matthews then interjects, “That’s my church’s view on other religions.”

It sounds silly, but Matthews makes a good point. Most people who strongly believe something are probably equally convinced that those who disagree simply haven’t had things explained to them properly. He and guest Melinda Henneberger go on to call the President’s view condescending, but it’s worth noting that these are not direct quotes from Fineman, but rather, his own paraphrase.

Here’s the clip, from MSNBC:


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  • Seeing 2012 From My Window

    He also called them enemies and told his supporters to bring a gun to the fight. Yeah, it’s Beck and Palin that spread hate.

  • The Real Royal King

    Fineman is obviously shaken by all of this. His demeanor surprised me somewhat. He obviously is deeply troubled and saddened by how America has been bought so low by so few. I understand what he is saying.

  • The Real Royal King

    Seeing 2012 From My Window said:
    He also called them enemies and told his supporters to bring a gun to the fight. Yeah, it’s Beck and Palin that spread hate.

    Please, please, Michelle-in-Utah, calm yourself down. This is not good for you. You are as tense as a bride who won’t fit into her wedding gown.

  • Big Eddie

    And King Barry calls Republicans Slurpee drinking bad drivers . Does it really matter what this highly partisan , arrogant , union organizer thinks . Nope .

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Of course he says some Republicans are ignorant – some of them are. And to go a bit further – ALL Tea Partiers are ignorant – the Tea Party itself is ignorance that has become a political movement.

  • Big Eddie

    Bill Adkins said:
    Of course he says some Republicans are ignorant – some of them are. And to go a bit further – ALL Tea Partiers are ignorant – the Tea Party itself is ignorance that has become a political movement.

    Tell us again how much money you make , Billy .

  • tatboy

    Wow… I can’t believe Fineman let the truth out about his Gawd.

  • Seeing 2012 From My Window

    You’re right King, I am a little riled about. I think you would be to if people told lies about you day and day and expected you to just keep quiet and take it. You and your fabrications regarding things I NEVER said aren’t any better than Tingles and Krugman. You’ve made your bed and now you can lie in it.

  • PoliticalPAW

    if Laughner “had the world explained to by somebody like (Barack)”, they would DEFINITELY “BRING A GUN” http://tinyurl.com/2a9cjte

    @PoliticalPAW

  • tatboy

    The Real Royal King said:
    Fineman is obviously shaken by all of this. His demeanor surprised me somewhat. He obviously is deeply troubled and saddened by how America has been bought so low by so few. I understand what he is saying.

    All of have been shaken by this. My age group has had at last count 20 “Kennedy” moments. It needs to stop. I just don’t know what will make it stop. I do think the Sheriff was being a political opportunist… like Mike Nifong.

  • Seeing 2012 From My Window

    Hey King, Remember the time you accused me of wishing death on 2 children? Good times, huh?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Big Eddie said:
    Tell us again how much money you make , Billy .

    See? Along comes Eddie to prove my point.

  • The Real Royal King

    Seeing 2012 From My Window said:
    You’re right King, I am a little riled about. I think you would be to if people told lies about you day and day and expected you to just keep quiet and take it. You and your fabrications regarding things I NEVER said aren’t any better than Tingles and Krugman. You’ve made your bed and now you can lie in it.

    My wife makes the bed. And cleans the bathrooms. And does the laundry. And irons. Yes, we still iron. I do the floors, cook, clean the kitchen, do the shopping and routine maintenace. So, you might say I bent the taco, but you’d have to talk to my wife about bed-making. And, she doesn’t want to talk to you. I asked here nicely, and I even threatened to withhold favours, but she said she’d sooner get scoop up a squashed possum from the middle of the road. Sorry.

  • The Real Royal King

    tatboy said:
    All of have been shaken by this. My age group has had at last count 20 “Kennedy” moments. It needs to stop. I just don’t know what will make it stop. I do think the Sheriff was being a political opportunist… like Mike Nifong.

    I tend to hold the sheriff in higher regard, and I think his remarks were correct in substance. The timing and the context could have been better. I agree with you about the assasinations and the mass murders. From President Kennedy through the events of Saturday last, I’m weary of it all, and I am not sure we have the will or the wisdom to do anything about it.

  • Big Eddie

    The Real Royal King said:
    squashed possum from the middle of the road

    Hey ! Sunday dinner at Bill Adkins’ house in Ky . After a tough week as the highest paid carnival geek in Ky . , the taste of fresh possum is welcome .

    A carnival geek bites the head off live chickens for the amusement of his fellow liberals attending the carnival . Adkins is the ace in his field at this .

  • Seeing 2012 From My Window

    No worries King, I don’t have any use for someone who would willingly spend time with you.

  • murf

    Bill Adkins said:
    Of course he says some Republicans are ignorant – some of them are. And to go a bit further – ALL Tea Partiers are ignorant – the Tea Party itself is ignorance that has become a political movement.

    You couldn’t even get elected to city council , Bill .. LMAO

  • SmartAlec

    The Real Royal King said:
    maintenace

    What is maintenace? Do you mean maintenance, Real Royal Spelling Cop?

  • SmartAlec

    The Real Royal King said:
    I asked here nicely

    here should be her

    The Real Royal King said:
    but she said she’d sooner get scoop up a squashed possum

    grammar alert

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Big Eddie said:
    Hey ! Sunday dinner at Bill Adkins’ house in Ky . After a tough week as the highest paid carnival geek in Ky . , the taste of fresh possum is welcome . A carnival geek bites the head off live chickens for the amusement of his fellow liberals attending the carnival . Adkins is the ace in his field at this .

    Can’t polish a turd – that’s why you could never hold a shine, Eddie. Eddie is the kind of a man that you would use as a blueprint to build an idiot.

  • Seeing 2012 From My Window

    What is maintenace? Do you mean maintenance, Real Royal Spelling Cop?

    HAHA, the self-appointed Royal Spelling and Grammar CZAR got owned!! Man I hate it when that happens!

  • Victor Cornelius

    The Real Royal King said:
    I tend to hold the sheriff in higher regard, and I think his remarks were correct in substance. The timing and the context could have been better. I agree with you about the assasinations and the mass murders. From President Kennedy through the events of Saturday last, I’m weary of it all, and I am not sure we have the will or the wisdom to do anything about it.

    There is no substance, only words without truth, just a shot across the bow against those that he disagrees with politically. In a broader context maybe, but he was clearly projecting against a single group of people without a shred of knowledge or proof that his words pertained to the events of that day. By this insane logic that so many liberals continue to adhere to, we must find a political link to the VT massacre and the vitriol towards Bush back in 2007, or perhaps it was just nut with a fixation.

  • Big Eddie

    Bill Adkins said:
    Can’t polish a turd – that’s why you could never hold a shine, Eddie. Eddie is the kind of a man that you would use as a blueprint to build an idiot.

    Billy . Just no fun to eat when everything tastes like chicken , right , you boob ? Try brushing your remaining tooth real good and gargling with 1/2 jar of your good old Kentucky shine .

  • ChrisNH

    Obama has lived his whole life being backslapped by adoring leftist radicals inside and outside the media. That’s his entire world view; the people who breast-feed and backslap him. I don’t blame Obama for believing in his ‘manufactured-by-other-people’ greatness. I feel sorry for him. Thankfully, less than two years to go before we put his sorry chapter in our rear-view mirror.

  • ChrisNH

    The Real Royal King said:
    I tend to hold the sheriff in higher regard

    Uhh…that’s ‘sheriff’ using finger-quotes.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Big Eddie said:
    Billy . Just no fun to eat when everything tastes like chicken , right , you boob ? Try brushing your remaining tooth real good and gargling with 1/2 jar of your good old Kentucky shine .

    Anyone who told you to be yourself couldn’t have given you worse advice. Are your parents siblings?

  • Gasket

    Seeing 2012 From My Window said:
    He also called them enemies and told his supporters to bring a gun to the fight. Yeah, it’s Beck and Palin that spread hate.

    That’s right. lets see what the RIGHT has called Obama in just the past 2 years:.
    Socialist.
    Communist.
    Fascist.
    Boy.
    Stalin.
    Hitler.
    Suicide bomber in chief.
    Imam Obama.
    Arab
    Witchdoctor.
    Colonial African
    Anti-American.
    Enemy (ie. he’s at war with America, Obama destroying country)
    Vacationer in chief
    Affirmative-action President
    Illegal alien.
    Muslim.
    Community organizer (of course as a pejorative)
    Black panther
    The Joker
    Shyster lawyer
    Girl lawyer
    Thug
    Magic Negro.
    Hoodlum
    New Mao (Maobama)
    Osama (“sic” Obama)
    Barack HUSSEIN Obama (link his middle name to Islam or Islamic tyrants like Saddam, then feign innocence)
    Baby dictator
    Democrat rat
    Kenyan

    I could go on! Let me know if you need specific citations! LOL!

    So, Obama calling Republicans “ignorant” is quite generous. To be fair, there are ignorant Democrats as well who called Bush stupid names as well.

  • ROCKSTEADY

    Seeing 2012 From My Window said:
    Yeah, it’s Beck and Palin that spread hate.

    No not just them,but they do plenty.Rush is right behind.

  • murf

    Gasket said:
    That’s right. lets see what the RIGHT has called Obama in just the past 2 years:.
    Socialist.
    Communist.
    Fascist.
    Boy.
    Stalin.
    Hitler.
    Suicide bomber in chief.
    Imam Obama.
    Arab
    Witchdoctor.
    Colonial African
    Anti-American.
    Enemy (ie. he’s at war with America, Obama destroying country)
    Vacationer in chief
    Affirmative-action President
    Illegal alien.
    Muslim.
    Community organizer (of course as a pejorative)
    Black panther
    The Joker
    Shyster lawyer
    Girl lawyer
    Thug
    Magic Negro.
    Hoodlum
    New Mao (Maobama)
    Osama (“sic” Obama)
    Barack HUSSEIN Obama (link his middle name to Islam or Islamic tyrants like Saddam, then feign innocence)
    Baby dictator
    Democrat rat
    Kenyan

    I could go on! Let me know if you need specific citations! LOL!

    So, Obama calling Republicans “ignorant” is quite generous. To be fair, there are ignorant Democrats as well who called Bush stupid names as well.

    Were you asleep during the 8 years of Bush???

  • Obeezy

    Obama calling Republicans ignorant is like Al Sharpton calling people racist… Obama has never held a job, or had to make any tough decisions, lived amongst his rich friends his whole life and been molly coddled by the left…Probably the most ignorant president we have ever had

  • ROCKSTEADY

    Seeing 2012 From My Window said:
    You’ve made your bed and now you can lie in it.

    So has Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and all the others.

  • Grammie

    Gasket said:

    I could go on! Let me know if you need specific citations! LOL!

    Your list is puny compared to the list that could be compiled for what KO and his guests called Bush and Cheney.

    I could also throw together a few zingers directed at and about the Bush girls and Mrs GWH Bush.

    So????????

  • Big Eddie

    Bill Adkins said:
    Anyone who told you to be yourself couldn’t have given you worse advice. Are your parents siblings?

    Billy . Don’t try to think of no comeback , young’un . Best lay out some clean overalls for tomorry . Ye got two geekin’ performances over to Lenoxburg , and that be a fur hitchhike .

  • timzank

    Bill Adkins said:
    Of course he says some Republicans are ignorant – some of them are. And to go a bit further – ALL Tea Partiers are ignorant – the Tea Party itself is ignorance that has become a political movement.

    That just stomped the living shit out of the dems on Nov 2 in historic proportions. The vast majority of the populace (as evidenced by that landslide election) thinks they are right and your full of shit. Interesting eh?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Big Eddie said:
    Billy . Don’t try to think of no comeback , young’un . Best lay out some clean overalls for tomorry . Ye got two geekin’ performances over to Lenoxburg , and that be a fur hitchhike .

    •Do you still love nature, despite what it did to you?

  • Seeing 2012 From My Window

    Box of Rox says:

    So has Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and all the others.

    The only people blaming them are the 20% of the country that are loony libs. The other 80% are sitting back disgusted that you are trying to use the tragedy for political gain.

  • timzank

    Seeing 2012 From My Window said:
    Box of Rox says: So has Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and all the others. The only people blaming them are the 20% of the country that are loony libs. The other 80% are sitting back disgusted that you are trying to use the tragedy for political gain, AND DECIDING WHICH REPUBLICANS TO VOTE FOR IN 2012

    Sorry, FIFY!

  • ROCKSTEADY

    Seeing 2012 From My Window said:
    the tragedy for political gain.

    How is anyone Gaining anything from this besides seeing the hate and discourse.Its finally come to a head at the expence of a child and many people.You keep your hate alive tho.

  • Gasket

    murf said:
    Were you asleep during the 8 years of Bush???

    Strawman.

    Note: Read my last sentence in that quote of mine.

    Grammie said:
    Your list is puny compared to the list that could be compiled for what KO and his guests called Bush and Cheney.

    I could also throw together a few zingers directed at and about the Bush girls and Mrs GWH Bush.

    So????????

    Please do and we can compare.

    Soooooooo? My post was about Obama and Republicans. I didn’t even include the invective directed at his wife. Plenty of those documented on Fox Nation.

  • KarenT

    Sarah Palin: “Don’t Retreat…..Reload!” and Maps of “liberal” districts with rifle crosshairs targeting opposing candidates.

    Sharon Angle: “if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies.”

    Michelle Bachman: She wants the residents of her state “armed and dangerous.”

    Ann Coulter: “My only regret with Tim McVeigh is that he did not go to the New York Times building”

    Glen Beck: “Hang on, let me just tell you what I’m thinking. I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could.”

    Glen Beck: Portrays Obama, Democrats as vampires, suggests “driving a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers.”

    Glenn Beck: Acts out scene in which he poisons Nancy Pelosi.

    Glenn Beck: “When do we ever run those who are bankrupting our country and literally stealing our children’s future out of town? Grab a torch.”

    Rush Limbaugh: “I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus–living fossils–so we we’ll never forget what these people stood for.”

    Michael Savage: “I say round liberals up and hang em’ high. When I hear someone’s in the civil rights business, I oil up my AR-25.”

    Signs seen at Tea Party Rallies:
    “We didn’t bring our guns….this time”
    “If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can”

    No, the incitement of violence from the right can’t POSSIBLY bear any responsibility for the climate in which violence takes place.

  • Seeing 2012 From My Window

    A Tale of Two Matthews: How MSNBC’s Host Handled Tucson Shooting vs. Ft. Hood Shooting

    http://www.breitbart.tv/a-tale-of-two-matthews-how-msnbcs-host-handled-tucson-shooting-vs-ft-hood-shooting/

    Ultimate Hypocrisy: ‘Taliban Dan’ Alan Grayson Blasts Palin, Bachmann & Right’s Violent Speech

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ultimate-hypocrisy-talaban-dan-alan-grayson-blasts-palin-bachmann-and-rights-violent-speech/

  • Just_MC

    Bill Adkins said:
    Of course he says some Republicans are ignorant – some of them are. And to go a bit further – ALL Tea Partiers are ignorant – the Tea Party itself is ignorance that has become a political movement.

    Do “ALL” black people look alike to you? “ALL” white people? ALL anything?

    The Tea Party movement is a complex amalgam of MANY things, the common theme being dissastisfaction with reckless government overreach and spending. Plenty of Tea Partiers (in fact the core that started the modern Tea Party movement) are true libertarians. Anti-neverending war, anti-disastrous-drug-prohibition, anti-restrictions on gay marriage, anti-Patriot-Act abuses that allow warrantless wiretaps AND even Presidentially-sanctioned-assassinations of U.S. citizens (without due process, no less), as well as being anti Obamacare, anti-Bush-Prescription Drugs, anti-second-amendment restrictions, etc. Etc.

    Understand the complex, be more precise,or be rightly perceived as a simpleton.

  • OxyCon

    Aren’t we all just meaningless props in Obama’s world?

    Also, the left’s hateful, despicable usage of a massacre for political gain has officially backfired on them.

    I wonder how many millions of people are hearing Obama’s dangerous usage of violent rhetoric for the first time and shaking their heads wondering why the mainstream media never bothered to inform them about it.

    Because of the concerted pushback against the media meme smearing Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, millions of Americans are hearing Obama’s violent rhetoric for the first time.

  • rocky road

    Do you think Fineman wears a ponytail on the weekends? What is it with his hair. He needs a haircut.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Westover/1496648721 Tony Westover

    Whoop-dee-do! Obama called political opponents ignorant. How shocking.

    Maybe he needs to change his message… yet again.

  • Dem4Ever

    Gasket said:
    That’s right. lets see what the RIGHT has called Obama in just the past 2 years:.
    Socialist.
    Communist.
    Fascist.
    Boy.
    Stalin.
    Hitler.
    Suicide bomber in chief.
    Imam Obama.
    Arab
    Witchdoctor.
    Colonial African
    Anti-American.
    Enemy (ie. he’s at war with America, Obama destroying country)
    Vacationer in chief
    Affirmative-action President
    Illegal alien.
    Muslim.
    Community organizer (of course as a pejorative)
    Black panther
    The Joker
    Shyster lawyer
    Girl lawyer
    Thug
    Magic Negro.
    Hoodlum
    New Mao (Maobama)
    Osama (“sic” Obama)
    Barack HUSSEIN Obama (link his middle name to Islam or Islamic tyrants like Saddam, then feign innocence)
    Baby dictator
    Democrat rat
    Kenyan

    Thanks for great list.  I never heard most of them and can’t wait to pass them along.  You got anymore?

  • ProObamaAgenda

    Obeezy said:
    Obama calling Republicans ignorant is like Al Sharpton calling people racist… Obama has never held a job, or had to make any tough decisions, lived amongst his rich friends his whole life and been molly coddled by the left…Probably the most ignorant president we have ever had

    you sound like a fool with that bullshit….obama grew up in a modest home…got the education that you didnt, spent years working at the university of chicago and has the most important job in the world right now….what do you have???? dumbass

  • ProObamaAgenda

    Obeezy said:
    Obama calling Republicans ignorant is like Al Sharpton calling people racist… Obama has never held a job, or had to make any tough decisions, lived amongst his rich friends his whole life and been molly coddled by the left…Probably the most ignorant president we have ever had

    obeezy…..hmmm i bet you have pink toes …..teabagging assholes like you frequent these websides with fake ass pics and names like yours……..get a life

  • DoremusJessup20

    not direct quotes from Fineman, but rather, his own paraphrase.

    See, there’s the problem right there. Tea Party people don’t know what the word “paraphrase” means.

  • DoremusJessup20

    OxyCon says:
    Also, the left’s hateful, despicable usage of a massacre for political gain has officially backfired on them.

    Talk about tone deaf. You do know that a 9 year old little girl was killed. The Westboro Baptist Church crew are headed to Arizona to pump up the hate speech even higher. What happened to all that personal responsibility that you guys always talk about.

  • http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

    @Tommy: The clip is nice, but the premise of the post is wrong.

    Fineman never says that the President has told him this or that he’s used those words, Fineman just says that it’s his interpretation of the President’s attitude. Now you do wrap the piece by pointing out that it’s not a direct quote, but Fineman’s paraphrase, but it looks to me that it’s really just an interpretation by an armchair psychologist or amateur mindreader.

  • http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

    Hell, flip your clipped quote around…

    “From having interviewed him a lot on this topic, and listened to him talk about the Republicans and conservatives who oppose him,” Fineman says, “he doesn’t think they’re evil, he thinks they’re, some of them are ignorant. That they don’t know enough, that they haven’t sufficiently been had the world explained to by somebody like him.”

    Using Matthews’ religion thing, Fineman could easily be giving his interpretation of a tolerant preacher’s attitude or he could be expressing what he believes, an older conservative feels toward the young.

    By itself, Fineman’s interpretation is pretty benign, but mostly at no point despite your headline, second paragraph or misuse of “paraphrase”, Fineman never claims that the President has said anything along these lines, it’s just what that one dude thinks about how another dude might feel.

  • http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

    One more for now…

    @Tommy: Most of your Olbermann posts receive a comment or two calling you a fanboy, someone desperate for Keith’s attention or a “hatchet man”. Whenever you put up a post about something from Sarah Palin, you always get comments counting the number of Palin posts and accusing both you and Mediaite of being obsessed.

    Any and all of those are as valid as what Fineman believes Obama might feel in his heart of hearts. And often when a commenter tosses one of the above toward you, you’ll reply that it’s not what you said, they’re misinterpreting your words or reading between the lines.

    Obama could say the same.

  • skyfet

    Duh!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Just_MC said:
    Do “ALL” black people look alike to you? “ALL” white people? ALL anything? The Tea Party movement is a complex amalgam of MANY things, the common theme being dissastisfaction with reckless government overreach and spending. Plenty of Tea Partiers (in fact the core that started the modern Tea Party movement) are true libertarians. Anti-neverending war, anti-disastrous-drug-prohibition, anti-restrictions on gay marriage, anti-Patriot-Act abuses that allow warrantless wiretaps AND even Presidentially-sanctioned-assassinations of U.S. citizens (without due process, no less), as well as being anti Obamacare, anti-Bush-Prescription Drugs, anti-second-amendment restrictions, etc. Etc. Understand the complex, be more precise,or be rightly perceived as a simpleton.

    The Tea Party movement brings the crazies together under one too tight tin foil tricorner hat.

  • beamangrow
  • notsofast

    This, from another lib shill.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Elaine-Jesmer/614756658 Elaine Jesmer

    What, like that’s a surprise?

  • Nachi

    Obama is indeed correct. Too many GOPsters represent a bastion of insularity & provincialism. Ignorant, bigoted clods & country bumpkins. Unwilling/unable to grow or deepen. There is a deep distortion of reality contained within the myopic passion of their minds. They never seem to float – if even for a moment – upon a stream of decency. For such people who live unexamined lives which become self-sustaing, truth & reality are seldom welcome visitors. Obama knows well that old fact of life & history.

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