Minutes after President Donald Trump wrapped up his State of the Union address, MSNBC host Chris Matthews praised the president for giving a speech that “regular people” would like, adding that it was full of “good stuff.”
With the hour-plus speech featuring made-for-TV feel-good moments such as the president offering a single mother a scholarship for her child and surprising a soldier’s wife with her returning husband, Matthews insisted that “the people where I came from will like the speech.”
“I think people will like the speech tonight,” Matthews added. “I think regular people, they'll see the schmaltz, the corniness, they'll see it—but they’ll like it! It’s all good stuff, whatever purpose it had."
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Matthews, who was once chief-of-staff to former House Speaker Tip O’Neill, went on to assess current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s performance, specifically commending her for standing and applauding when Trump introduced Juan Guaidó, whom the president referred to as “the true president of Venezuela.”
Pelosi ripping up her copy of the speech at the end of Trump’s address, however, didn’t come up in Matthews' analysis. Nor did Trump snubbing her handshake at the beginning.
At the same time, the MSNBC host took the opportunity to contrast Trump with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, whom Matthews has repeatedly criticized in recent weeks.
“I’m telling you, Trump set up the fight and he laid down the gauntlet tonight about him and Bernie,” the veteran MSNBC personality declared. “It’s as if he was following Bernie won the popular vote in Iowa yesterday.”
“There he is going after Guaidó, going after socialism, tying all socialism to the kind we really don’t like, the tyrannical socialism of the Latin Americans like Castro,” he continued. “I thought that was interesting. Pelosi stood up and applauded that. She knew where this country stands. We don’t like those leaders. And Bernie does. And that’s a problem for him.”
