Former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock Calls Chris Matthews a Liar to His Face

NewsBusters.org ^ | September 22, 2012 | Noel Sheppard

[Kaslin]

Roger Hedgecock, the former San Diego mayor turned conservative talk radio host, called MSNBC's Chris Matthews a liar to his face Friday evening.

This resulted in quite a heated exchange between the two on HBO's Real Time (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former San Diego Mayor Calls Chris Matthews a Liar to His Face

CHRIS MATTHEWS: The big lie is that the people who make a lot of money were the only ones who worked hard. You go to D.C. – I say this a million times, I’m going to keep saying it to the people out there with a little racial problem - I say, “Look, go to D.C. at 6:30 in the morning and drive around the tough neighborhoods. Everybody is waiting in line to go to the bus." You know where they’re going? They’re not going to get a welfare check. They're going to work. They’re going to work at 6:30 in the morning. It’s packed with people filling the buses going to work. And the idea that somehow the people that don't have a lot of money are lazy, where do you get that from? There’s a lot of people like your crowd that inherited everything. They were born sliding into home, and they take credit for it. You know that Romney gets away with this stuff all the time.

HEDGECOCK: Chris, Chris, calm down, man. You're just, you’re lying. I mean, come on.

MATTHEWS: It’s tonal.

HEDGECOCK: You guys and all this slander.

MATTHEWS: No, because I think there's a gentleman's agreement out there about covering up this racial game that your side has been playing this whole campaign about welfare…

HEDGECOCK: Oh, we're racist and we’re…

MATTHEWS: No, the advertising campaign is.

HEDGECOCK: You're just outrageously wrong, okay?

MATTHEWS: Why do you run the ads then? Why do you talk about welfare? Why does Newt talks about a food stamp president? Why do you keep going back to this old stuff again, this old dog-whistle stuff? Why do you keep doing it?

HEDGECOCK: The concern we have is just what Rana said. There has to be more social mobility. I come from a very poor background. I worked my way up and a lot of people have and were proud of it, and we don't want to see that taken away by government and handed out to programs that create more dependency, because food stamps are 72 percent more than when he took office.

Listen to Matthews’ pathetic response:

MATTHEWS: Barack Obama is a poster child for what America stands for. He starts from a mixed family, he grows up, his father splits, he makes it, he goes to the best schools, becomes head of the Harvard Law Review, doesn’t go out and money grab, does everything right, cleanest record in the world, and you guys have a problem with this guy.

BILL MAHER: Wait, you said what a lot of Republicans say…

MATTHEWS: You know something? You don't like Obama.

HEDGECOCK: I don't like his policies.

MATTHEWS: No, you don’t like Obama.

HEDGECOCK: No, no, no, no, you're outrageously wrong.

MATTHEWS: Mitch McConnell was against him the first day he was in office.

HEDGECOCK: That’s wrong, it’s just wrong.

MATTHEWS: He said, “My number one goal is to get rid of this guy.”

Now watch something extraordinary as host Bill Maher - yeah, I said Bill Maher - plays the voice of reason:

MAHER: That's fake. You know what?

MATTHEWS: Fake? He's repeated it.

MAHER: I didn't want to get rid of Bush the first day?

MATTHEWS: Not from the first day, no matter what he did. No deals. No honeymoon. Nothing. Get rid of the bum.

MAHER: Yes because I knew he was a nincompoop from day one.

For a change, Maher was right - not about Bush being a nincompoop but with regard to the left's decision from day one to want to get the 43rd president out of office.

This is how politics works, and people like Matthews conveniently forget it the second a Democrat wins the White House.

As an aside, this exchange took place about ten minutes after Matthews falsely claimed "unemployment was well past ten percent" when Bush left office.

Talk about your delicious instant karma.

[Wings-n-Wind]

[G Larry]

Chris, Just because you’re losing the debate doesn’t mean we’re “racist”.

Just which of Obama’s policies do you think I’d support if he were white?

[SunkenCiv]

I wouldn’t know about this except for FR, because I don’t take satellite or cable TV — it just enriches jackholes like PC Maher and Pissy Matthews. Thanks Kaslin.

[smokingfrog]

If you’re going to go on national TV and mix it up with these 0bama apologists, you can’t mince words. They lie with impunity.

[M Kehoe]

Note to Chris Matthews: I don't care if 0bama is white, I don't care if he is black. I do care that 0bama is a marxist.

5.56mm

[Cinnamontea]

Hedgecock made a major mistake, and it's one conservatives make all the time: He was on defensive the entire time.

William F. Buckley said it a long time ago. If some says to you, "Are you a racist?" You immediately reply, "No, are you?" and then you take it to them, and that does not mean defending yourself against insane charges, that means going on offense.

[RandallFlagg]

Bookmarking

[Astronaut]

Nice to see someone from our side calling out the scum in the left wing media. Matthews and all of his left wing buddies are lying, traitorous sons of bitches that do everything they can to prop up Dear Leader. When our side wins the coming Civil War II, the left wing media needs to be put on trial for treason and dealt with accordingly.

[SunkenCiv]

At least the partisan media shill and flamer comes out of the closet on his party affiliation:

MATTHEWS: No, because I think there's a gentleman's agreement out there about covering up this racial game that your side has been playing this whole campaign about welfare...

Yeah, agreement to cover up, *and* a racial game about welfare, what a pair of ridiculous lies from a ridiculous liar.

[SunkenCiv]

At least the partisan media shill and flamer comes out of the closet on his party affiliation:

MATTHEWS: No, because I think there's a gentleman's agreement out there about covering up this racial game that your side has been playing this whole campaign about welfare...

Yeah, agreement to cover up, *and* a racial game about welfare, what a pair of ridiculous lies from a ridiculous liar.

[SunkenCiv]

The fact is, Chrissy went ad hominem immediately, because that’s most of what he’s about.

If the Demwits (or their useful idiots) ever get around to starting the next civil war, I’m looking forward to seeing that demagogue’s head on a pole.

[Political Junkie Too]

MAHER: I didn't want to get rid of Bush the first day?

MATTHEWS: Not from the first day, no matter what he did. No deals. No honeymoon. Nothing. Get rid of the bum.

Matthews is so wrong on this.

They wanted Bush out BEFORE the first day!

Doesn't Matthews remember that Bill Clinton held up Bush's transition funds for as long as possible while Al Gore unprecedentedly challenged the election in the courts?

Doesn't Matthews remember how Democrats in the Senate were dragging their feet on holding confirmation hearings for Bush's second and third tier department heads for months and months, until 9/11 happened eight months into Bush's presidency?

-PJ

[Fightin Whitey]

And accordingly Chrissie Matthews is a huge fan and supporter of Clarence Thomas and Allen West, wouldn’t that be right?

I agree with Cinnamon that smart guys like Hedgecock have to go into these situations ON THE ATTACK and hit punks like Matthews where it hurts. Ask him about the American hero Allen West, ask him about Justice Thomas-—what can Matthews do but claim that he doesn’t view them as “real” black men?

When you are a conservative being rescued by Bill Maher, you know you’ve misread something about the situation.

[Paine in the Neck]

MATTHEWS: You know something? You don't like Obama.

HEDGECOCK: I don't like his policies.

MATTHEWS: No, you don’t like Obama.

HEDGECOCK: No, no, no, no, you're outrageously wrong. [Hedgecock blew it here. The correct response should have been 'So what?']

[austingirl]

Why do conservatives even bother to go on the shows? They aren’t allowed to speak without being interrupted or talked over by the useful idiots.

[jerod]

Relax,,, There is absolutely nobody watching him or his show. His total viewership wouldn’t amount to the population of a small town in Alaska and the only time anybody even knows that there is a show called ‘Hardball’ is when somebody is laughing at, or ridiculing Chris Matthews and a blurb appears on the Drudge Report.

Other than that, you wouldn’t know that the guy or his lame program are still on TV.

[Karliner]

Thank God I blew up my TV last year.

[workerbee]

Wish it had gone like this:

MATTHEWS: You know something? You don't like Obama.

HEDGECOCK: That's right, because I don't like his socialist policies.

MATTHEWS: No, you don’t like Obama.

HEDGECOCK: Weren't you listening? I just said that.

MATTHEWS: Mitch McConnell was against him the first day he was in office.

HEDGECOCK: If he dislikes socialist policies, I hope he did.

[workerbee]

Exactly. If they’re going on any of these State Run Media programs, they need to be better prepared for the tedious accusations. For example, Matthews accusing Hedgecock of disliking Dear Leader. Hedgecock should’ve countered with “You didn’t like Bush. Is it a criminal offense to dislike a president?”