Chris Matthews Busts Out Laughing When Scarborough Asks if Kevin McCarthy Has Pelosi’s ‘Finesse’

Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews dropped by Morning Joe on Wednesday to talk about the midterms and Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign announcement, and had a good laugh at Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy‘s expense while he was there.

Host Joe Scarborough asked Matthews about the job ahead for McCarthy, who is the GOP’s pick for Speaker of the House, which drew a comparison to current second-time Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Yeah, he may have won the caucus, but doesn’t look like he’s anywhere close to 218 votes,” said Scarborough. “How does that turn out for McCarthy?”

“Well, you know, he’ll have to deal with what Pelosi did all these years and that’s work with The Squad,” said Matthews. “She had people on her fringe, on the left, and she had to keep them in line.”

Matthews said that he’s watched Pelosi for a long time, and praised her ability to work with groups within her own caucus.

“There’s a real quality of finesse there, where she would give them a break, let them hold up the infrastructure bill for a while so that they could get consideration of their bill, the Build Back Better bill. When that elapsed, the chances of that passing, they were happy enough with that to let the infrastructure bill pass,” he said.

“Maybe it’s about a mother of having five kids. Maybe it’s about having a lot of brothers,” Matthews added. “But she has had a, she has an amazing ability to finesse, to work one group, to keep them happy and at the same time not give away the store.”

Scarborough asked, “Have you seen any hint that Kevin McCarthy possesses that level of political finesse?

That got a big laugh from Matthews and others in the studio as well.

“What, what a great question,” he chuckled. “Not at all. Not at all. I mean, he seems shaken by events all the time.”

“Right,” agreed Scarborough.

“And you know, I just don’t think he has that quality of calmness that she has,” said Matthews. “You know it’s amazing. I think Pelosi’s an amazing person. When you’re with her, sometimes with her family, you feel like she’s a grandmother, a regular person living a civilian life. And yet here she is at the age of 80 or something, running the legislative branch effectively and only losing, what, a few seats now? A few, few seats. I mean, what an effective campaign it was from midyear for her.”

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.