After repeatedly touting Giuliani as 9-11 hero, Matthews wonders why people think of him that way
SUMMARY: On Hardball, Chris Matthews asked, "So, why do people think [Rudy Giuliani] did serve well and perform well, as the leader of New York, during that crisis [9-11]? Why do people think that?" In fact, Matthews himself has repeatedly reinforced the notion of Giuliani's purported heroism on 9-11, calling him a "hero," "gutsy," and "tough."
Discussing former New York mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's performance on September 11, 2001, during the May 1 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, HBO host Bill Maher told host Chris Matthews that "the reason why [Giuliani] was on the streets that day is because his office was blown up" and said, "All of the experts told him to move the command-and-control center out of the World Trade Center. He put it in the World Trade Center." Maher added: "He's not a terrorism fighter. He has no credentials in this. In fact, he failed at the one time he had an opportunity, just like Bush." In response, Matthews asked, "So, why do people think he did serve well and perform well, as the leader of New York, during that crisis? Why do people think that?" In fact, as Media Matters for America has documented, Matthews himself has repeatedly contributed to the perception that Giuliani performed admirably on 9-11. Matthews has presented Giuliani as a "hero," "gutsy," "tough," and having "street cred":
- On the March 1 edition of Hardball, Matthews touted Giuliani as a "hero," saying that Southerners "can't spell his name necessarily, but they know Rudy was a hero." Matthews also praised Giuliani as "the one tough cop who was standing on the beat when we got hit last time and stood up and took it."
- On the February 7 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, Matthews heaped praise on Giuliani, calling him "the kind of gutsy, street-corner politician we all grew up with" who "stood on the corner during the fire and told us what was going on."
- On the February 5 edition of MSNBC Live, Matthews declared that Giuliani "has street cred" on the issue of "protect[ing] this country against the bad guys," citing "the image [Giuliani] conveys," and asserted, "voters like this guy because during 9-11, he was the one guy there on the street corner, answering questions, not hiding like all the other pols did."
- On the July 18, 2006, edition of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Matthews predicted that "the next president of the United States will be Rudy Giuliani." Matthews also suggested that Giuliani is someone who is "really good on the streets, who's very good on giving the information as they get it, just like in The Godfather."
- On the July 16, 2006, broadcast of NBC's syndicated Chris Matthews Show, Matthews compared Giuliani to President John F. Kennedy. Matthews suggested that both Kennedy and Giuliani "prove[d] themselves in moments that matter" -- Giuliani in responding to September 11, and "Kennedy before the Cuban missile crisis."
- On the June 14, 2006, edition of Hardball, discussing President Bush's performance at a press conference, Matthews asserted, "I think he spoke a lot like the best of Churchill today, in the beginning of that press conference: facts, bad information, complete information. Giuliani at his best at 9-11: facts on the ground immediately as it came in. I thought he was very effective in briefing us this morning in that press conference, which convinces me again that Giuliani is the guy -- with all his problems -- who may well be the perfect candidate to replace this guy."
Additionally, as Media Matters has documented, Matthews continues to tout then-Mayor Giuliani's purported elimination of the urine smell in New York City subways.
From the May 1 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:
MAHER: Well, he put the -- the Trade Center was attacked in 1993. All of the experts told him to move the command-and-control center out of the World Trade Center. He put it in the World Trade Center.
That's where his -- the reason why he was on the streets that day --
MAHER: --- is because his office was blown up, Chris. He's not a terrorism fighter. He has no credentials in this. In fact, he failed at the one time he had an opportunity, just like Bush.
MATTHEWS: So, why do people think he did serve well and perform well, as the leader of New York, during that crisis? Why do people think that?
MAHER: Well, he was a good rallier of what happened after the buildings fell down, yes. I'm not saying he's an incompetent. But he made a terrible decision. And just like Bush, he ignored terrorism when he should have been paying attention to it.
MATTHEWS: What do you make of his style as a New Yorker? I mean, this is classic big-city style, maybe New York uniquely, when he told Yasser Arafat of the PLO he couldn't go to Lincoln Center one night? He told that Saudi prince that he didn't want his $10 million.
Is that ethnic politics? Is that street-corner tough guy? Or is that smart diplomacy? What would you call it?
MAHER: I was a fan of both those moves. So, you know, that's the kind of Rudy Giuliani stuff I like.
He also busted up the mob pretty good before he got to be mayor, when he was the prosecutor. So, he can be a good, tough guy in certain situations. But, you know, he also is in a number of pictures wearing a dress.
I'm emailing him this article. He may just not realize what he's doing with his show.
I saw that interview, Maher had Matthews cracking up after referring to Fred Thompson as "Basset Hound Face." :-)
Matthews is playing both sides here .
Nothing spells American hero like climbing atop 3000 dead bodies and waving a bloody shirt for popularity
America's mayor my behind
just the latest in Tweety man crushes
Maybe the latest man-crush, bur Rudy's chin ain't that impressive.
LOL...not my man crush that's for sure
I picture a dreaming Tweety seeing himself in pink gown atop high castle tower watching raptly as Mitt and Rudy attempt to slay the evil liberals and set him free...yup, he's a weird one
Rudy will never go chin to chin with Mitt, but he might have him beat by a nose.
I know this is going to be a very controversial statement, but I think that Rudy's having rid New York of "the pee smell" might cancel out his lesser lower jaw.
the people who go on his show should remind him of what he has said in the past. david brock plese go on his show
And then Matthews can remind David Brock that he called Anita Hill, an African-American woman, "a little bit nutty, a little bit sl*tty."
(I have to use an asterisk since MMFA considers the actual word too offensive for its web site.)
If Brock hadn't admitted, repudiated and apologized, that might be - would be relevant. Not that you care.
Kevin
You posted this before. We get you don't like Brock or this site. Since that's the case, DONT'T POST HERE
Dittobot Kevin is just doing his job...distracting us from the absolute corruption and incompetence of the Bush toadies by cutting and pasting irrelevant items from the 90s.
Doesn't anybody get Chris Mathews after all these years? He's playing devil's advocate when he asks questions like that; duh, it's his job. He's always had this kind of approach. He's stirring up the pot, getting people to give answers to questions he thinks his audience wants to hear. Sigh.
He's always had this kind of approach
I do agree with you on that. It's Matthews style, always has been.
However what can't be denied is his excessive [almost giddy] fascination with Rudy & his utter disdain for Hillary.
Of course before Giuliani he was slobbering over McCain, and I have a hunch if Fred Thompson enters the race, Matthews might shift his fawning in that direction.
I like Matthews & Hardball. But I wish he'd be a tad less obvious about his cheerleading or his contempt.
Rudy Giuliani has never fought a terrorist in his life--or headed an organization that fought terrorism.
He didn't prepare after the previous WTC attack (and had plenty of time to do so--he lied to everybody about the air quality at Ground Zero--and his job was cleaning up after the attacks, rather than doing anything about them. If he requested the position of director of FEMA, his 'anti-terrorist experience' might qualify him for the job.
But foreign policy? What on earth does that have to do with foreign policy?
...oh right. I forgot. He's good at standing there with his feet planted wide apart, raisisng his fist and shouting,
"By Grabthar's hammer, by the sons of Worvan, you shall be avenged!"
Duh yourself..its well documented that Tweety plays softball with the Right and hardball with the Left
Sometimes he does lead with questions but its not often he plays plain dumb, in other words if YOU call someone America's mayor YOURSELF then YOU look silly asking why others do the same
"Duh yourself..its well documented that Tweety plays softball with the Right and hardball with the Left."
Right you are. He's also said in reference to Rudy, that Americans "like a touch of Fascism." He said that approvingly! Now let's face it, this is a very dangerous time, and to say something like that, even (I hope) facetiously, is flirting with fire.
Let's not forget that Rudy also wanted to postpone the mayoral election of 2001, which is a fascist technique, and is something that has never happened in this country, no matter what the emergency. He then tried to repeal the two-term limit so he could run again. By this time the City was so sick of him there was bipartisan revulsion at the idea.
Of course, the fact that we New Yorkers would be overwhelmingly opposed to his candidacy would probably be a net plus for him in many states.
AMEN!
And don't forget that he was wiling to fight all the way to the Supreme Court for his right to remove advertisements on buses that said he wanted to control things. No lover of freedom, democracy or the constitution is he.
Rudy will carry not only NYC but he will also carry NY State in the presidential election on his way to victory in Nov 2008. Get used it. It is a done deal. Your childish name calling will not change it.
and again, if you listen real well, you can hear the media chanting in unison but just under their collective breath....Rudy Rudy Rudy
Does anybody have a link, chapter and verse, to the various assaults G made on the first amendment etc? Seems that I remember something about a museum...
Try this Salon article.
Giuliani is by far the most dangerous of the Republican candidates, which is saying something. He's a mean ba*tard with a vicious temper, who relishes in using the power of his office to harass and destroy his personal enemies. His idea of the Presidency is, in a word, dictatorship.
Adding to the threat is that he, alone among the Repub candidates, can pose as a moderate, and so appeal to independents and even some Democrats. The Repubs know their only chance with the general public in '08 is to run someone who isn't seen as a right-wing extremist. They might turn to Rudy as the man to lead them out of the wilderness.
Fortunately people seem to be already tearing down his "hero of 9/11" image (especially Keith Olbermann's excellent special comment), pointing out that he has no record on counterterrorism and no foreign policy experience to speak of--in fact, no real qualifications to be president at all.
Try this remarkable juxtaposition on the same Salon article.
Hillary Clinton is by far the most dangerous of the Democrat candidates, which is saying something. She's a mean b*tch with a vicious temper, who relishes in using the power of her office to harass and destroy her personal enemies. Her idea of the Presidency is, in a word, dictatorship.
Adding to the threat is that she, alone among the Democrat candidates, can pose as a moderate, and so appeal to independents and even some Republicans. The Democrats know their only chance with the general public in '08 is to run someone who isn't seen as a left-wing moonbat. They might turn to Hillary as the man to lead them out of the wilderness.
Fortunately people seem to be already tearing down her "I will end this war" image, pointing out that she has no record on counterterrorism and no foreign policy experience to speak of--in fact, no real qualifications to be president at all.
Scary, isn't it?
No scarier than the last 6 years!
Heck I was reading the "left behind" series when junior took office and I stopped because he reminded me of the Antichrist.
There is no such thing as a Democrat candidate. Only DemocratIC candidates. I am no fan of Hillary but she is better than any ReNAMBLAcan running.
Hey, c'mon. Be fair. Not ALL Republicans are child predators.
Actually, she's no better than any NOSE that's running! And she is a democrat. She is a presidential candidate. A democrat candidate.
To say that she is a democratIC candidate is a farce because that would make the assumption that she shows concern for the will of the majority, and she is NOT at all interested in the will of the majority.
Its not my fault you apparantly dont know the rules of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE. She is a democrat therefore a democratIC candidate. As opposed to a ReNAMBLAcan candidate. YOUR biased take on her does NOT define reality. Your delusional fantasies mean basically nothing.
Wow! It's like looking in a mirror! Except without those, you know, facts to back it up! And you were so clever! You took my original work, and simply replaced "Rudy" with "Hillary" and "Republican" with "Democrat"! A retort on the exalted level of, "I know you are. But what am I?" I applaud your wit, sir!
I've no love for Hillary, but she's no sociopath. Unfortunately the same can't be said of Hizzoner, nor, frankly, for a large chunk of the Republican leadership. It's hard to be a member of a party that worships the use of naked force against the defenseless and screwing over the poor and needy if you have, like, a shred of empathy for other human beings.
TYVM Steve - the Salon article was exactly what I was looking for. We have our own problems here in Texas and I haven't paid that much attention to G until recently.
I am so sick of this rightist propagandist - considered liberal because he worked for a Democrat more than 25 years ago and occasionally makes liberal noises - having the kind of forum he has. Wouldn't bother me at all if actual progressives had anything like the amount of airtime these righties do - but the horrible thing is that most of the media is so far right that Matthews actually does look liberal by comparison. This wouldn't be so disturbing if it weren't that his "balanced," "moderate" image lends credibility and a casual, moderate viewer can easily be mislead by the sometimes breathtaking falshoods he utters as incontrovertable fact. With O'Lielie, you know what you're getting and he's preaching to the choir for the most part.
Matthews is far more dangerous and damaging.
While I am no fan of Chris Matthews, I would note that he was not expressing HIS opinion of Giuliani, he was just trying to get Maher to repeat things that Maher had said on his show last Friday night. I think that's probably the most annoying thing about Matthews -- he doesn't really tackle any new ground with virtually ANY interview he does -- he just finds a person he's interested in or agrees with, and has them repeat things that they have already said in a different forum.
I do think he has a weird fetish with McCain, and an equally weird hatred of Hillary.
Giuliani was vaulted into "greatness" by accident. The fact that he didn't panic and run away during 9/11 just made him look good when compared to Puddinhead George and Darth Cheney.
Last night, on the Matthews show, Giuliani's campaign manager actually said that Rudy would "save us from terrorism". Looks like we now know who Karl Rove is writing for these days.
Mighty Zog is right. Courage is relative. Bush and Cheney burrowed. Rudy stood before the rubble and told us pretty lies, that we'd all be all right. Understand that he told us pretty lies because that's what we want to hear, now and forever. Rudy might have been wrong and he might have been right. It's too soon to say. A nuclear blast might flatten NYC someday. But because most people can't bear the uncertainty of living, we elect leaders who will lie to us. Rudy and other leaders might want to tell the truth, but we won't let them.
The fact that we are governed by manipulations of image is truly disturbing. Many who are skeptical of 911 official account point to the collapse of Guiliani's headquarters as the most suspicious of all the events. Even FEMA admitted there was no good explanation for the way this building collapsed. On the one hand Guiliani did nothing positive that we should not expect of most officials. On the other hand there are real reasons to at least nominally suspect him. Not the least of which is the alacrity with which he has opportunistically used 911.
Guiliani's authoritrian bent is by far the most disturbing thing about him as far as I am concerned. I don't doubt that he can "make the trains run on time," I'm just dubious that our democracy would survive his presidency - if it survives the current regime.