Chris Matthews: I Was Wrong to Link Clinton’s Career to Husband’s Infidelity
With protests rumbling, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said Thursday that he was wrong to say last week that the reason Hillary Clinton is a senator and a candidate for president “is that her husband messed around.”
Matthews discussed those remarks at the opening of his show “Hardball” Thursday, the same day feminist leader Gloria Steinem and the heads of four prominent women’s groups complained in a letter to his boss that Matthews had shown a pattern of sexism.
“Was it fair to imply that Hillary’s whole career depended on being a victim of an unfaithful husband? No,” Matthews said. “That’s what it sounded like I was saying and it hurt people I’d like to think normally like what I say (and), in fact, like me.”
He said that while he has not always taken the time to say things right or be appropriate, “I will try to be clearer, smarter, more obviously in support of the right of women, of all people, to full equality of respect and ambition.”
Matthews made the remarks about Clinton on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program Jan. 9, the day after the New Hampshire primary. Clinton’s surprise victory in the primary was ascribed, in small part, on women angry that the press corps seemed to write her off after losing in Iowa.
On the program, Matthews said: “Let’s not forget, and I’ll be brutal, the reason she’s a U.S. senator, the reason she’s a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner, is that her husband messed around.”
He explained in a later interview with The Associated Press that it was a reference to New York Democrats asking her to run for Senate when she showed dignity in the face of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He called it an “unexceptional statement.”
But now, Matthews said Thursday, “I get it.”
“If I’d said that the only reason John McCain has come so far is that he got shot down over North Vietnam and captured by the enemy, I’d be brutally ignoring the courage and guts he showed in bearing up under his captivity,” he said. “Saying Sen. Clinton got where she’s got simply because her husband did what he did to her is just as callous and, I can see now, came across just as nasty, worse yet just as dismissive.”
Besides Steinem, the letter to NBC News President Steve Capus was signed by Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women; Lulu Flores, president of the National Women’s Political Caucus; Carol Jenkins, president of the Women’s Media Center; and Eleanor Smeal, president of Feminist Majority.
Last week’s Clinton comment was the trigger for their protest, but they said Matthews’ comments over the years “demonstrate a larger pattern of overt sexism when discussing women.”
Capus wasn’t immediately available on Thursday, and a spokeswoman said NBC had not yet seen the letter.
Matthews was also in the crosshairs of the liberal media watchdog Media Matters, which wrote to Capus on Wednesday to express concerns about the fast-talking political analyst.
David Brock, president and CEO of Media Matters, called Matthews’ statement on Thursday a step in the right direction.
“Matthews said going forward he will try to be more supportive of the right of women to full equality and respect for their ambitions,” Brock said. “That is a pledge MSNBC has a responsibility to hold him to in the weeks and months ahead. Media Matters certainly will.”
Chris Matthews, I observed that you have been attacking Senator Clinton. I hope you could be more objective. You memorialized that “infedility” and turned it against Senator Hillary Clinton who had nothing to do with it. She is brilliant, caring for the American people, with bright issues that could lead America to the right direction. She is the true child of the US ancestors who served America well from generations to generations.
I really think you belong to the far-far left, that is why you support Barack Obama, and I think you are not a fair journalist. Is that your professional ethics?
sorry chris mattews an apology a little to little to late.
this was such a self serving apology……..at one time i liked chris matthews. i do not like him anymore…..his remarks were insulting and offensive……….his face during the coverage of the new hampshire results was so obvious….he was so upset that hillary was winning, it showed all over his face, it was awful i changed the channel……….it is so important for women to unite and elect a women president. I think she is the change we need, and men like chris matthews will have to live with that. and i will tell you now, i will never see hardball again i would rather she a completely different station.
UNIDOS CON HILLARY
Chris spoke the truth: Bill didn’t just “do” Monica–there have been a long list of women in Bill’s life and Hillary repeatedly chose to look the other way. Why? Because she can ride Bill’s coattails.
Every time Bill messes up, he gives Mommy/Hillary a prize. Atty General of AK, healthcare reform (which she botched), US Senate,…now the White House. See the pattern, women? We don’t need another 4 years of the psychodrama that nearly brought the country to its knees the first round.
Consider what America got with the first Clinton co-Presidency:
• Abuse of the powers of the office of the President
• Granting Presidential pardons to buy Hillary’s election to the Senate. As a woman who made it on my own, Hillary’s need to ride Bill’s coattails and her sense of entitlement (as in “it’s my turn and Obama should wait his turn”) makes me doubt her capabilities.
• Hillary’s long-suffering marriage to Bill, enabling a lifetime of sexual trysts and trying to contain the Bimbo eruptions, gives me a President without the backbone to stand up to a man. Hillary claims to be tough enough to play with the boys when, in fact, she is unable to leave a cheating husband. How will she stand up to other male leaders who see this in “Mrs.” Clinton and walk all over her?
• Being married to a former President does not make one qualified to be President.
Hillary has less experience in elected office than Barack. She’s held elected office for one Senate term plus one year and has introduced no major legislation during that time. Is this the kind of experience we want in the Oval Office?
I am not a “Hillary hater;” I am an America lover. Please consider very carefully which candidate the Democratic Party puts on the ballot. The future of this country absolutely depends on it.
If shes willing to turn her back on her husbands unfaithfulness then what else is she willing to turn her back on or overlook? Thats one thnig we dont need is a pres. in the white house to turn there back She would let our enemies walk all over us if she would let bill do it.