On the July 14 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, guest host Norah O'Donnell interviewed right-wing pundit Ann Coulter. Based on a Media Matters for America review* of the Nexis database, this was at least the fifth time Coulter has been interviewed on MSNBC or its parent network, NBC, since the June 6 release of her book Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown Forum, June 2006). As she has in her book and in her previous television appearances, Coulter unleashed a stream of attacks on the widows of 9-11 victims.

During the interview, Coulter denied that her previous remarks disparaging the 9-11 widows were, in O'Donnell's words, “cruel.” Rather, she asserted that it is the 9-11 widows themselves who are “cruel,” citing the following purported actions by the widows, which she said “put a lot of other women at risk for becoming widows” due to terrorism:

• "[F]oisting a 9-11 Commission on the nation, making terrorist attacks more likely by turning it into a Clinton whitewash committee."
• "[E]ndorsing John Kerry for president in the middle of a war on terrorism, the guy who voted for funding the troops before voting against it."
• "[G]oing around claiming the president of the United States is responsible for these women's husbands' deaths."

Further, as she has done before, Coulter hid behind certain unnamed 9-11 widows to defend her accusation that liberals have used other 9-11 widows as “human shields” to blunt criticism of their views: "[T]here are a lot of 9-11 widows out there, Norah, and I'm hearing from a lot of them who think I wasn't harsh enough."

Coulter previously appeared on the following MSNBC and NBC programs:

• The June 6 broadcast of NBC's Today;
• The June 6 edition of MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson;
• The June 14 broadcast of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; and
• The June 26 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country.

From the July 14 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

O'DONNELL: Well, Ann, some would argue that your soulmate, Bill O'Reilly on Fox --

COULTER: OK, now you're just insulting me, Norah.

O'DONNELL: Oh. So you don't like Bill O'Reilly.

COULTER: I love Bill O'Reilly, but he's been viciously attacking me.

O'DONNELL: He has, and you know -- and so we -- we've got those made up into full-screens for you. He says what you said about the 9-11 widows was brutal, to say something like that, he says it sounds awful, and in order to say that to specific people you're going to have to prove it. And that's only --[Rep.] Peter King [R-NY]: Coulter's comments about the widows went beyond the pale of limits about decency --

COULTER: OK, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard it all. On -- on O'Reilly, he's just bitter because he kept saying “I end this issue. I did it. I did it first.” Well, OK. Congratulations to you.

O'DONNELL: But you -- Ann, you admit that it was cruel, and you don't want to be cruel.

COULTER: No, I don't. No, I don't at all. I don't think it's at all cruel. I think it's -- I think it's cruel to be --

O'DONNELL: Do you ever admit you're wrong?

COULTER: Yeah. When I'm wrong, I admit I'm wrong. I think it's cruel to be foisting a 9-11 Commission on the nation, making terrorist attacks more likely by turning it into a Clinton whitewash committee. I think it's cruel to be endorsing John Kerry for president in the middle of a war on terrorism, the guy who voted for funding the troops before voting against it. I think it's cruel to be going around claiming the president of the United States is responsible for these women's husbands' deaths. I think that's cruel because it's going to put a lot of other women at risk for becoming widows. And there are a lot of 9-11 widows out there, Norah, and I'm hearing from a lot of them who think I wasn't harsh enough.

*Search of Nexis MSNBC and NBC News transcript databases: ann coulter and allcaps (coulter) and date(geq (6/6/06) and leq (7/14/06))