Politics

FLASHBACK: Chris Matthews in October: ‘Everybody knows it’s about the video’ [VIDEO]

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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In October, just before the presidential debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., Chris Matthews shouted down a supporter of then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, saying, “it was about the video. Read the newspaper. Thank you. Everybody knows it’s about the video. It’s all about the video.”

During his 7 p.m. edition of “Hardball” on MSNBC that day, Matthews had this exchange with the Romney supporter:

ROMNEY SUPPORTER: He doesn’t cover up scandals in the Middle East —
MATTHEWS: What was the scandal that was covered up?
ROMNEY SUPPORTER: Benghazi.
MATTHEWS: What was the scandal?
ROMNEY SUPPORTER: Well, I mean —
MATTHEWS: What was the scandal? Get to it, nail it, what was the scandal?
ROMNEY SUPPORTER: He said it was about the video. It was not about the video.
MATTHEWS: Yeah, it was about the video. Read the newspaper. Thank you. Everybody knows it’s about the video. It’s all about the video.

However, based on testimony from the then-second-in-command U.S. diplomat Gregory Hicks, who testified at Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the Benghazi terrorist attack, it wasn’t about the video.

“I was stunned. My jaw dropped. And I was embarrassed,” Hicks when asked to respond to Susan Rice’s television appearances blaming the YouTube video on the Sunday shows after that attack.

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