On the March 5 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Newsweek editor-at-large Evan Thomas said of Sen. Hillary Clinton: “I think that she's often hot and angry in a crisis, and I think she can be steely cold in a crisis -- and those can be useful. But I think the classic value that you look for in a middle-of-the-night crisis is somebody who's cool and detached.” Matthews responded: “Why don't you come over and sit in this chair and you can take the heat for the next three months, and I'll sit over there and disagree with you?”

From the March 5 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Suppose -- I always look at my daughter this way, who's 18. If I were in a car wreck and she came up to the car to help me out, get me -- put the things over my head, protect me from shock, deal with the first aid -- she could handle it. She can handle a crisis. Don't you think Hillary Clinton's like that?

ANDREA MITCHELL (NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent): Strange --

MATTHEWS: Doesn't she come across as somebody who's really good in a crisis? That could handle a situation like a car wreck?

THOMAS: No.

MATTHEWS: You don't?

THOMAS: I think that she's often hot and angry in a crisis, and I think she can be steely cold in a crisis -- and those can be useful. But I think the classic value that you look for in a middle-of-the-night crisis is somebody who's cool and detached. I just don't associate --

MATTHEWS: Why don't you come over and sit in this chair and you can take the heat for the next three months, and I'll sit over there and disagree with you?