Thu, Sep 23, 2004 12:18pm ET

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Matthews repeated false claim on Barnes

MSNBC host Chris Matthews twice repeated the false claim that former Texas Lieutenant Governor and former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes's recent statements on CBS's 60 Minutes contradict sworn testimony from 1999, in which Barnes stated that he had not acted at the behest of the Bush family in recommending President George W. Bush for the National Guard.

On the September 20 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Matthews said: "Let me get it straight. Ben Barnes had said something different before. He now says that he helped the guy [George W. Bush] get in the champagne unit. That's the issue." The next day on Hardball, Matthews referenced "Ben Barnes, who says now that he helped put together that sweet billet for the president back in the Guard back all those years ago, having said the opposite before."

Matthews's erroneous claim followed those of cable and radio hosts who repeated the GOP spin on Barnes immediately following Barnes's 60 Minutes interview.

But as Media Matters for America has noted, Barnes said the same thing in 1999 as he said on 60 Minutes: that he called Brigadier General James Rose to recommend George W. Bush for Guard duty at the behest of Houston oilman Sidney A. Adger, a Bush family friend who is now dead.

—A.S.

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