MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Says Trump Is ‘Taking Us Back’ to Zimbabwe Level: ‘Everything Is Tribal’

“I was reading about Zimbabwe today, and I’ve been to Zimbabwe,” Matthews says on “Hardball”

MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews said Tuesday that President Trump is taking America back to a “tribal” form of politics resembling Zimbabwe, a country that he told guests he had recently been reading about.

“[Trump] is taking us back to where they are, where all the opposition does is say that people who win elections are crooked, that everything’s rigged, everything — nothing’s on the level, there’s no such thing as objective truth, everything is tribal, our side is always right, your side’s always wrong,” said Matthews. “That’s my judgement.”

“I was reading about Zimbabwe today, and I’ve been to Zimbabwe,” he added. “I know it’s a young country with all kinds of problems.”

While President Trump’s politics have often been called tribal, it is less common to hear cable news anchors compare U.S political tribalism to specific African nations.

A rep for Matthews at MSNBC did not immediately respond to request for comment or inquiries about what Matthews had been reading regarding Zimbabwe.

Matthews has long been one of MSNBC’s most colorful anti-Trump talking heads and regularly rails against the president on his show “Hardball.” But his occasionally ill-considered language has also also made headlines and headaches for his employers in the past.

In January, footage emerged of Matthews joking off air about how he wished he had a “Bill Cosby pill” before an interview with Hillary Clinton went very viral. The network also confirmed last year at the height of the #MeToo movement that they had paid off a female employee who had accused Matthews of sexual harassment as part of a “separation agreement.”

Comments