Matthews on “older women” who “get really angry at me”: "[T]hey usually have a hard time figuring out what the fact I was wrong on, but that's OK"

Written by Andrew Walzer

Published

On Morning Joe, Chris Matthews stated: “If you talk to people, older women, and I don't mean older than me, but maybe my age and older, and you talk to them, and they get really angry at me, of course. ... They usually have a hard time figuring out what the fact I was wrong on, but that's OK.” But Media Matters for America has documented numerous “fact[s] [he] was wrong on.”

During the May 13 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, guest host Chris Matthews, also host of MSNBC's Hardball, stated: “If you talk to people, older women, and I don't mean older than me, but maybe my age and older, and you talk to them, and they get really angry at me, of course. They get -- we have nice arguments, and I try to be respectful and say, 'Well, you know, that's a point of view,' and I say, 'If I ever get anything wrong on the air, let me know, on a fact.' And they usually have a hard time figuring out what the fact I was wrong on, but that's OK.” Notwithstanding his claim that “older women” “usually have a hard time figuring out what the fact [he] was wrong on,” Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented false statements made by Matthews during his appearances on NBC-affiliated networks.

In addition, Media Matters has extensively documented Matthews' history of sexist and degrading comments about women, including frequent comments on the physical appearance of his female guests and other women discussed on his program.

From the May 13 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

MATTHEWS: There's a real problem here from your party's point of view, and I know you're a Democrat as well as a Clinton person.

TERRY McAULIFFE (Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman): Yeah. Yeah.

MATTHEWS: If you talk to people, older women, and I don't mean older than me --

McAULIFFE: Yeah.

MATTHEWS: -- but maybe my age and older, and you talk to them, and they get really angry at me, of course. They get -- we have nice arguments, and I try to be respectful and say, “Well, you know, that's a point of view,” and I say, “If I ever get anything wrong on the air, let me know, on a fact.” And they usually have a hard time figuring out what the fact I was wrong on, but that's OK. How do you get those older women -- I think that's the strongest constituency for Hillary, the “Scranton woman.”

McAULIFFE: Right.

MATTHEWS: The woman who maybe works hard, maybe was a hardworking woman, maybe her marriage wasn't the greatest thing in the world, in terms of economics, in terms of -- her life wasn't that great. And they look at Hillary as their champion, that's going to save them and pull them out of this rut they've been in for 30 or 50 years, or 60 years.

McAULIFFE: Right.