Chris Matthews Crumbles

For John, BLUF:  Two questions.  Are we now banning all history involving National Socialists?  If National Socialism is banned, why not 20th Century Communism?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Chris Matthews Issues On-Air Apology to Bernie Sanders:  ‘I Was Wrong’

From Mediaite, by Reporter Josh Feldman, 24 February 2020.

Here is the lede plus four:

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews opened his show Monday night with an apology to Bernie Sanders.

Over the weekend, Matthews compared Sanders’ ascendancy in the Democratic race for the presidency to when the Nazis took France:

“I was reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940, and the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over.’  And Churchill says ‘How can it be?  You’ve got the greatest army in Europe.  How can it be over?’  He said, ‘It’s over.’”

Tonight Matthews addressed those comments and apologized:

“As I watched the one-sided results of Saturday’s Democratic caucus in Nevada, I reached for a historical analogy and used a bad one.  I was wrong to refer to an event from… the first days of World War II.  Senator Sanders, I’m sorry for comparing anything from that tragic error in which so many suffered, especially the Jewish people, to an electoral result in which you were the well-deserved winner.  This is going to be a hard-fought heated campaign of ideas.  In the days and weeks and months ahead, I will strive to do a better job myself of elevating the political discussion.”

This is a corrupt case.  Reporter Matthews didn't compare anyone to Nazis.  This was not an insult to the memory of Senator Sanders' relatives who were consumed in the Holocaust.

This was about conveying surprising bad news.  I like the historic example.  The reaction of MSNBC shows a sensitivity to appearance over an understanding of history.♠

I am sad for Mr Matthews.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The German Army success in France in 1940 owed little to the ideology of National Socialism and a lot to do with the German Army going to school after The Great War, and the French not.