On the February 4 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Chicago Tribune correspondent Jill Zuckman asserted, “Senator [John] McCain [R-AZ] watched the Super Bowl in the bar of his hotel last night in Boston,” adding, "[A]nybody could come up and talk to him." Host Chris Matthews replied, “Now, we don't ask if that's fake, do we? We ask if Hillary's crying for real. But we don't say, 'Hey, wait a minute. He went in the bar? Wasn't he a little tired? Wouldn't he have rather gone to bed?' ” Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson added, “Yeah. Is he really a Patriots fan?”

The exchange followed a segment in which the panel pondered the reasons Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) “tear[ed] up” at an event the Associated Press described as “an emotional reunion Monday with a colleague from the early days of her legal career as a child advocate.” During that segment, Matthews said of Clinton's “tear[ing] up”: “You know, I wonder what we're focusing more on this than we would if it were a male candidate.” He continued, “But, that said, [1972 Democratic presidential candidate] Ed Muskie, an old pal of mine -- I really looked up to him; I worked for him -- was blown away in a presidential campaign because he -- David Broder of your paper [The Washington Post] reported once that he had cried and then later said he may have gotten that wrong. It was an interesting bit of revisionism.”

From the February 4 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: You know, I wonder what we're focusing more on this than we would if it were a male candidate. But, that said, Ed Muskie, an old pal of mine -- I really looked up to him; I worked for him -- was blown away in a presidential campaign because he -- David Broder of your paper reported once that he had cried and then later said he may have gotten that wrong. It was an interesting bit of revisionism.

[...]

ZUCKMAN: I think that's always the way it is in a presidential campaign. People want someone they're comfortable with. I mean, you go back to that old adage about wanting to be able to have a beer with the president.

MATTHEWS: Well, that ain't gonna happen.

ZUCKMAN: It might happen with John McCain.

MATTHEWS: Has anyone ever had a beer with the president?

ZUCKMAN: Senator McCain watched the Super Bowl in the bar of his hotel last night in Boston.

MATTHEWS: Really?

ZUCKMAN: Sat out there with every -- anybody could come up and talk to him.

ROBINSON: But, you know, the other thing --

MATTHEWS: Now, we don't ask if that's fake, do we? We ask if Hillary's crying for real.

ZUCKMAN: He stayed there the whole time.

MATTHEWS: But we don't say, “Hey, wait a minute. He went in the bar? Wasn't he a little tired? Wouldn't he have rather gone to bed?”

ROBINSON: Yeah. Is he really a Patriots fan?