Matthews said something like "So say someone like John Kerry fired his weapon and was injured by it, that would still be worth a Purple Heart because he was wounded while responding to enemy action, right?"
Trainor (sp?) was obviously feeling bad for the two Iraq War vets on the show and seemed a bit befuddled at what the heck this had to do with anything, and I was pleased that, though he gave a direct answer, he prefaced it by saying something like "Without getting into the whole Kerry thing..." that yes, Purple Hearts were awarded for injuries that came about in the course of enemy action.
His description was interesting: He said if someone were lifting a box and the explosion of enemy fire, while not hitting him, startled him so he dropped the box and he injured himself, that would constitute being injured due to enemy fire, while a hundred yards away, if another soldier simply dropped a similar box in the course of unloading it WITHOUT the enemy fire being heard by him that would NOT constitue and awardable injury.
So basically he was saying that Kerry earned the Purple Heart for injuring himself. Of course Matthews was ignoring the context of the charge, which was that that fact was left out by Kerry.