Did Chris Matthews lie about Rice's Testimony on Hardball?

MSNBC ^ | 4/9/04

[TomB]

The blog Professor Bainbridge pointed out that Chris Matthews, while "interviewing one of the ubiquitous anti-Bush 9-11 widows, "misrepresented" what was said. Referring to this exchange:

BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." Now, the...

BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.

RICE: No, Mr. Ben-Veniste...

BEN-VENISTE: I will get into the...

RICE: I would like to finish my point here.

BEN-VENISTE: I didn't know there was a point.

RICE: Given that -- you asked me whether or not it warned of attacks.

BEN-VENISTE: I asked you what the title was.

It is clear Ben-Veniste tried to sneak in that "warn", and Condi wouldn't let him get away with it. However, in the Hardball transcript, Matthews says this:

MATTHEWS: Let me start with what I think was the best testimony today. It was the forced testimony at the hands of Richard Ben-Veniste, who is a professional prosecutor. And, by the way, I think a lot of people who were watching this didn’t understand what was going on.

He was insisting on the rules of the courtroom: "Answer the question; you’re the witness here." And he treated her a little rough because he wanted those answers, and she, at each case, wanted to give an essay answer and a discourse and a distraction at some point, and even a digression. And he says, 'No, I want specific answers to specific questions.'

Let me ask you about what your reactions were in hearing them. Were you surprised to hear that the document given to the president in briefing on August 6, a month before, was entitled “bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States”?

He didn’t say warn. He asked what the title was. The direct question – she didn’t want to give a direct answer. How did that hit you?

[TomB]

That's pretty sleasy even for Chrissy.

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[Integrityrocks]

Desperation in action. God is watching. People will have to answer eventually... I'd sure rather not be Chrissy cause he's got some "splainin" to do.

[Frank_Discussion]

He's right, though, in that BentPeniste is a professional prosecutor, and was acting like one. That's why I was all steamed about his method of questioning - knowing the title of the briefing doesn't TELL very much at all about the why and how of 9-11, but it sure can get politically spun. The commission is not supposed to be a PROSECUTION, and the SOB should be looking for answers, instead of attempting to try a court case.

Condi was perfectly right to ignore his assumption of authority and talk past his BS - her duty is to illuminate the history for the citizens of this country, not respond dully and sheepishly to bogus questions.

[Rokurota]

[sarcasm]Matthews lie? No. No way. He would never do that.[/sarcasm]

It took every ounce of energy I had not to puke while watching his program yesterday. I think that case of malaria fried his brains a few years back.

I also noted while he was talking to Gorelick (is her name actually (Al)Gore Lick?) he slipped in she could soon be the next attorney general.

[kevkrom]

BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

Ben-Veniste asked Dr. Rice two questions -- she should have been allowed to answer both.

[Dolphy]

And, by the way, I think a lot of people who were watching this didn’t understand what was going on.

So if he robbed Condi at knife point would we just call it a robbery and move on? This is not an investigation or a trial. Ben-Veniste can be thanked for adding to the cynicism that surrounds our government and all they do and he can be particularly thanked for polluting this commission and making any report suspect.

[Lady Jag]

Get him
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[BooBoo1000]

I wonder why no Repub, didn't come to her defense. They could have stopped these Gestapo tactics. Or they could have all gotten up and left the hearing. No guts.

[Eva]

First of all court room tactics were not appropriate because their was no defense attorney to represent Dr. Rice. Matthews is a partisan hack.

[cyncooper]

Many of us watched MSNBC, and in particular Chris Matthews, in horror yesterday as he conducted a travesty of "reporting".

This is but a smidgen of why an MSNBC boycott for those who wish to partake as been started.

Yes, I watched this and even though I believe he did play the clip in its entirety, he ignored the part you point to or just didn't hear it.

He went beyond the pale in many ways yesterday, and this is but one example of a shameful and disgraceful performance.

[BushisTheMan]

My note to hardball@msnbc.com following the information you provided that I also (only your text without any personal content) included in my note.

---

First, I think Chris Matthews owes the American people an apology for "misleading" us.

Second, couldn't he find, without all his supposed research skills, 2 people who are not paid by the Heinz Tides Foundation money to spout anti-Bush rhetoric. In fact, had he had on the mayor whose family member was also killed, it might have been a more representative segment.

Third, I'm sick and tired of his long-winded, interrupting speeches where he does nothing but spout his own viewpoint...which is hardly unbiased.

Frankly, I only watch his during Fox News ommercials ... but I won't even do that anymore because these four professional whining widows are starting to get on my nerves, as is Chris Matthews.

With Chris Matthews numbers being in the toilet for his show, you would think that, as a company MSNBC would replace him if only for financial reasons -- you would think that MSNBC would want to make a profit.

Viewers are being turned off by his tirades.

[ampat]

benveniste is just another prostitute-lawyer who will do anythng for money. He's not interested in truth or justice, just like many trial lawyers. He's only interested in winning so he can keep getting big bucks.

[Rokurota]

Matthews is a partisan hack.

He's gone beyond partisan hack to complete imbecile. I think he just loves to hear himself rage against the Bush administraiton. "Damn any facts. I have to vent."

[BushisTheMan]

From Newsmax:

Thursday, Apr. 08, 2004 10:44 PM EDT
The Book on Ben-Veniste

9/11 Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, who grilled Condoleezza Rice on Thursday as if she were a criminal suspect, is usually identified in press reports as merely a former Watergate prosecutor.

But as the leading finger-pointer in the 9/11 probe, a few other details in Ben-Veniste's background might be deemed relevant.

The Washington super-lawyer's last high-profile roll came in 1995-96, when he served as lead Democratic counsel for the Senate Whitewater hearings. His chief mission: Defending Bill and Hillary Clinton for all he was worth.

A review of press reports from the period shows that he'd been auditioning for the job since at least 1993, when he stepped up to the plate to assure reporters that there was nothing untoward about the Clintons dispatching White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum and other top aides to rifle Whitewater lawyer Vince Foster's office on the night of his death.

"Novelists aside and skeptical Washington journalists aside, I don't hear anything involved in this tragedy that leads me to suspect either Bernie Nussbaum, who himself has an impeccable reputation, or anybody else associated with the White House has done anything that is not on the up-and-up," Ben-Veniste told the Associated Press at the time.

The next year, when Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed to look into Whitewater, Dr. Rice's griller was troubled, telling CBS News that the move would "inevitably . . . create an impression that this decision was in part politically motivated."

Of course, Nussbaum, Ben-Veniste and Hillary Clinton were by then already old friends, having worked shoulder-to-shoulder on the Watergate committee two decades earlier.

When the Clintons' fundraiser extraordinaire Terry McAuliffe got into legal hot water in the campaign finance scandal of 1997, Ben-Veniste was readly to take his case.

Speaking of the allegations that swirled around his client at the time, Ben-Veniste told the Legal Times that McAuliffe "has been advised that he is not a target of any investigation. And on the basis of what I know about the matter . . . the conclusion will be that there's nothing there."

The Clinton Justice Department decided that Ben-Veniste was right and McAuliffe was off the hook. Three years later, the Clintons installed Ben-Veniste's client as head of the DNC.

The Democratic legal ace's most unusual case by far, however, didn't take place in Washington - but instead in Arkansas.

Ben-Veniste's client, a flamboyant pilot named Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal, was said to have flown guns out of Arkansas' Mena airport at the CIA's direction. On the return trip his plane was allegedly loaded with cocaine.

Still, the high powered lawyering didn't do much to protect Seal. Ben-Veniste's client was assassinated in 1986 after he began cooperating with a federal probe into the Mena drug ring that flourished while Bill Clinton was governor of the state.

[cyncooper]

Ben-Veniste asked Dr. Rice two questions -- she should have been allowed to answer both.

Don't worry. She DID answer both.

Four commissioners in particular--Ben Veniste, Gorelick, Kerrey and Roemer--tried to talk over her and direct her answers. Not once did they prevail and each and every time she gave a full reply putting their partisan "question" in context.

[4integrity]

...polluting the Commission and making any report suspect..

Agree. The Commission turned into a forum for political hacks to sow their seeds. And, Mr.Kean allowed it to happen and contributed to the media circus by telling the media the entire Committee believes Condi should testify in public and under oath. None of the Commission members should be speaking to the media at this time. I am sickened that the people on this Committee conducted themselves as Democrats or Republicans rather than Americans. We should be finding ways to protect our great country and its citizens from terrorists who want to kill us. But, the Commission would rather point fingers.....especially at the Bush Adm. I emailed and called the 9-11 Commission to let them know how this American feels......not that they care...

[BushisTheMan]

oops...corrected my tirade typos before sending.

[af_vet_1981]

Did Chris Matthews lie about Rice's Testimony on Hardball?

Is there water in the Pacific Ocean ?

He is a Democrat.

That is what they do.

That is all they do (some exceptions granted courtesy of Sen. Zell Miller).

[PRO 1]

Matthews has consistently played the part of the chameleon, attempting to benefit from his supposed image as independent
and "unbiased", yet all along and repetitiously sneaking in with with his blood soaked dagger, stained by his former victims, to strike in the back of his next victim.