Matthews revisited Yankees comments to claim Clinton "tried hard to prove she was a Noo Yawker"
SUMMARY: The Chris Matthews Show aired footage of a 1999 interview on NBC's Today in which Sen. Hillary Clinton said that she has "always been" a fan of the New York Yankees as evidence that Clinton, according to Matthews, "tried hard to prove she was a Noo Yawker." Following the clip, Matthews said: "I just love the way Katie Couric went at her there. 'Come on, how many hats you wearing, babe?' I just think that was great." But evidence supports the claim that Clinton has, in fact, been a longtime Yankees fan.
On the September 23 broadcast of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, host Chris Matthews claimed that when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) first ran for the Senate "she tried hard to prove she was a Noo Yawker," and aired footage of a June 10, 1999, interview with Katie Couric, then co-anchor of NBC's Today, in which Clinton said that she has "always been" a fan of the New York Yankees. Following the clip, Matthews said: "I just love the way Katie Couric went at her there. 'Come on, how many hats you wearing, babe?' I just think that was great." As Media Matters for America noted, however, Clinton's 2003 autobiography Living History (Simon & Schuster) contains a photograph of Clinton wearing a Yankees cap in 1992 -- eight years before she ran for the Senate. Also, The Washington Post reported on September 12, 1994, that "Mrs. Clinton ... as a kid was a 'big-time' fan of the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees and 'understudied' Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle."
As Bob Somerby of The Daily Howler noted on September 24, neither Matthews nor any of his guests -- blogger Andrew Sullivan, columnist Kathleen Parker, MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell, and New York magazine columnist John Heilemann -- noted that the Clinton/Yankees story is bogus. Following the clip, Sullivan said: "She's a Midwesterner, she's a New Yorker, she's from Arkansas, she has California -- she's anything she needs to be," to which Heilemann added: "She contains multitudes."
As Media Matters has noted (here and here), several conservatives and media figures have falsely claimed that Clinton proclaimed herself a Yankee fan only after she decided to run for the Senate in New York, and have used Clinton's statements regarding the Yankees to question her "authenticity." Indeed, conservative activist Thomas D. Kuiper based an entire book -- which he admitted was "culled from disputed sources or unverifiable private conversations" -- around the false premise that Clinton had lied about being a Yankee fan.
From the September 23 broadcast of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show:
MATTHEWS: Well, just how New York would the face-off really be? When Hillary ran for the Senate, she tried hard to prove she was a Noo Yawker.
[begin video clip]
COURIC: Are you a Yankees fan, too?
CLINTON: Well, now, the fact is, I've always been a Yankees fan.
COURIC: I thought you were a Cubs fan.
CLINTON: I am.
COURIC: Mm.
CLINTON: I am a Cubs fan, but I needed an American League team. Because when you're from Chicago, you cannot root for both the Cubs and the [White] Sox. I mean that's -- you know, there's a dividing line which you can't cross there. So as a young girl, I became very interested and enamored of the Yankees.
[end video clip]
PARKER*: Oh, my god.
MATTHEWS: I just love the way Katie Couric went at her there. "Come on, how many hats you wearing, babe?" I just think that was great.
SULLIVAN: She's a Midwesterner, she's a New Yorker, she's from Arkansas, she has California -- she's anything she needs to be.
HEILEMANN: She contains multitudes.
The summary to this item states "evidence supports the claim that Clinton has, in fact, been a longtime Yankees fan"...
And there's a reference to a photograph, of Mrs. Clinton wearing a Yankees cap, as evidence of her being a fan.
Not good enough. I want more evidence.
I want to see saved ticket-stubs to Yankees games (Why the heck would we save those things? I don't know, but most of us do)
I want to see baseball cards, of Yankees players of course (But they don't have to be signed, because who wants to stand in such a long line)
I'll forego all of that evidence though, and be thoroughly convinced that Mrs. Clinton is a Yankees fan, if she'll produce a Bobble-Head Doll!
Just one Bobble-Head, that's all!
Show me that Mrs. Clinton has a Bobble-Head Doll of Derek Jeter, or Jason Giambi, or Johnny Damon, and I'm convinced!
SHOW ME THE BOBBLE-HEAD!
I'll need corroboration from Jeter2.
BTW, anyone who didn't see the first few minutes of The Daily Show last night, "Ahmedinajad's ultimate insult to NY" is worth catching a rerun. Especially you, Jeter2.
I think Tweety has to come clean and tell everyone who he roots for.
I mean besides rooting for Rudy, Fred, Mitt, Victory and Freedom.
I'm thinking by the looks of him in this picture, he must still be a Phillies fan.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
Well Beach I figure Hillary [and most politicians for that matter] will say just about anything if they think it'll be beneficial. Now, Hillary may very well be a Yanks fan, & if she is I applaud her good taste. But quite frankly it doesn't matter one way or the other to me personally.
She's a Midwesterner, she's a New Yorker, she's from Arkansas, she has California -- she's anything she needs to be.[Andrew Sullivan]
That's probably closer to the truth.
The very picture of a major modern candidate.
You should see that daily show HB mentioned. Sense the Mariners went down I feel a need the spread the pain arround.;-)
I just checked out the clip from the Daily Show. Ha! Too funny! Leave it to Jon. Hey I think the little guy looked good in the Red Sox cap ;-)
My husband just said that if she is a Yankee fan he is going to have second thoughts about voting for her LOL. He likes the Mets.
The disgusting thing is how Matthews stops at nothing to smear her. He has to bring up baseball now and something that happened in 1999 and is not even valid.
Does Matthews even know the difference between the American League and the National League? I mean, the Cubs and the Yankees didn't play each other for about 95% of Hilary's life (until interleague play began a few years ago) so there's no conflict of interest there.
Chris Matthews needs to grow a pair and start watching some baseball!
24/7We must not forget that MSNBC, CNN, and Fox news are the official Republican media. You can bet for the next year, or until the 2008 election, the Republicans, courtesy of their media lap dogs, will try to erase the Democratic advantage over the outdated Republican crap. Actually, the lead is so huge the Republicans will have to all out steal the election. That being said they need only make us think it is a close race to put the "move" on the masses. Many feel they have done this before.Hillary Clinton is one of their favorite Democrats to pick on. Chris Matthews has a "hard on" for her that becomes evident after watching 5 minutes of his show. Do not look to CSPAN's Washington Journal for a "fair and balanced" perspective you will not get it. In fact, the structure is set up to give the impression half the population is for Bush and the other half is for the Democrats in congress. Their guess ratio favors the Republicans by 2 to 1. The only break the Democrats are going to get is from the internet. Yes, they will have to make a way to deliver the truth. Joseph
Where do I go to join a boycott of Chris Matthews? Mr. Hardball is far too sick to be televised. He is a dangerous and foolish person.