Chris Matthews Predicts Warren Will Trounce Sanders in Key States: ‘She’ll Blow Out Bernie Pretty Early On’

Outside the confines of his own show, MSBNC’s Chris Matthews threw out a bold 2020 political prediction on CBS’s Late Show, telling host Stephen Colbert that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “will blow out Bernie pretty early on.”

Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are seen as the chief rivals for the more progressive, left-wing bloc in the 2020 Democratic primary. Matthews said the demographics of the first three primary states could give Warren a big advantage very quickly.

“I think Elizabeth Warren can win Iowa, because she’s very aggressive, very progressive, activists show up. We know how it works. The more moderate people don’t show up. She goes to New Hampshire, home court. Goes to Nevada, a big labor state; she could win three in a row,” Matthews told Colbert.

“She’s the one who could start really fast. I think she’ll blow out Bernie pretty early on. Bernie will lose his votes to her.”

In 2016, Sanders lost by a razor-thin margin to Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucus, then scored a resounding primary victory in New Hampshire, which neighbors his own home state, as it does Warren’s. He then lost a close race to Clinton in the Nevada caucus.

Even if Warren removes Sanders as a threat by winning several early contests, Matthews thinks former Vice President Joe Biden still has a pathway to the nomination.

“Biden’s trick will be can he hang in there and basically do rope-a-dope for four or five contests and still be in the race when he’s lost three or four up front,” Matthews said. “He’ll appeal to the more moderate, southern kind of voters, more conservative Democrats. He can hang in there.”

Watch the video above, via CBS.