Matthews Nails Obama For Not Defending Democratic Values, Begs Biden To Focus On Philosophy
MSNBC host Chris Matthews joined Tamron Hall on MSNBC on Thursday where he reiterated his case against President Barack Obama’s first debate performance and offered his view of how his vice president could make up for lost ground. Matthews went after the president for not defending his personal views, which he claimed serve as the basis for legislation the president pursued over his first term – like health care reform and the auto industry bailout. Matthews implored Vice President Joe Biden to focus on his philosophical differences with GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) over substantive differences on various individual policies.
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After introducing Matthews and calling his reaction to Obama’ lackluster debate performance “legendary,” Hall asked what Matthews felt should be the goal for Biden in tonight’s vice presidential debate.
“What bothers me is the Democratic side in this case – the president and the vice president – they have not fought the big fight,” said Matthews. “There are real, drastic differences between these two parties on the big issues.”
The president supports health care. He enacted it into law against all kinds of Republican opposition. The position of the challenger, of Mitt Romney as of this day, is to throw them in the emergency room. Put them in the emergency room. Let them wait. Take them out of their apartments, as he puts it. He assumes all people without health insurance live in apartments.
Mathews went on to define positions that Obama holds which he failed to defend in the first debate.
“When it comes to issues like the auto industry – his position was bankruptcy, Obama was rescue,” said Matthews. “These are drastic differences.”
“People on Medicare and Social Security – the Romney position is these people don’t want to take personal responsibility for their lives. The president says let’s support health care,” Matthews went on.
Matthews said Ryan has similar personal values he believe are not shared by the bulk of the American people. “This character, Paul Ryan, he supports personhood,” said Matthews. “He wants to give the fertilized egg a second after conception property rights — property rights — which would probably create a criminalization situation for the mother.”
Matthews urged Biden to avoid talking about the nuts and bolts of legislation, like who removed $716 billion from Medicare and for what reason, because it “bores the hell” out of American debate viewers. He urged the vice president to focus on philosophical differences between Democrats and Republicans.
“It should be a good debate,” Matthews concluded. “It shouldn’t be about going into the weeds.”
Watch the clip below via MSNBC:
