Chris Matthews joked about drugging Hillary Clinton before an interview.

[Pyro]

Wouldn't expect much else of Chris. He should have been booted from prime-time long ago, imo.

[Cory]

Do you also defend President Trump when he jokes?

To be fair the whole "sh**thole" thing is getting way to much play in the media.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Do you also defend President Trump when he jokes?

To be fair the whole "sh**thole" thing is getting way to much play in the media.

Drop the red avatar and the Clinton/Kaine sig, You aren't fooling anyone.

[henster]

Has nobody heard of dark humor?

[libertpaulian]

Has nobody heard of dark humor?

[Kingpoleon]

Has nobody heard of dark humor?

Not on Atlas. We're lucky if they have heard of any humor.

[BlueSwan]

You guys this is just a petty joke Jesus chill out.

We're going to far with this whole "do anything wrong whatsoever even if it's just a minor comment or gag and your fired and your life is over" thing.

Cut it out. People make jokes. Sometimes in poor taste. It happens. I can't believe I'm literally having to defend someone for an off the cuff joke.

Christ.

Totally agree.

[Koharu]

Has nobody heard of dark humor?

Sure have.

As a woman, the fact that I should just shut up and deal with it because it's funny is exhausting.

Sure, it was a "joke." That doesn't make it okay. It's /not/ funny and it's not okay. Culture has covered for this kind of stuff for too long with "it's just a joke ahaha" and "can't you relax?!" for way too long.

Imagine this: Every day while you're at work or school or whatever, someone comes up behind you and pokes you in the shoulder. Not hard enough to hurt or even really bother you the first time. But this person does it every time they walk by. So, you know, 3-4 times a day. Whatever. The first day, you can shrug it off. The next day, they do it again. So you tell them to stop. "I'm just messing with you man, can't you take a joke?" So you put up with it for the rest of the week.

You come back from the weekend, feeling ready to tackle the week, refreshed, yeah! And then, just as you sit down to really do something amazing, p-o-k-e. You jump up from your chair and smack the person's hand. "Stop TOUCHING me." "DUUUUDE It's just a joke. I wasn't even hurting you. Chill out!" Likely, your coworkers only saw this one poke, so now it also looks like you're overreacting to this one interaction, even though your reaction is, in truth, appropriate.

Now, the person poking you probably lays off for the rest of the day, and maybe even the next day. Maybe you even tell your coworkers that this person has been doing this, and ask them to keep an eye out. Of course, they're busy, and the poker stays away for a little bit. But on Wednesday, he pokes you again. Maybe some people notice, maybe they don't. It still doesn't look like that big of a deal. Like, they're not even really touching you. And it was only that one poke for the whoole day. That's not that big of a deal, right?

But then on Thursday it's back up two or three pokes. And by Friday, every time they go by. You do your best to ignore it, but now you're feeling defensive. Your work is interrupted and distracted because you're keeping an eye out for this person. You're tensed up, waiting for that annoyance and also trying to self-talk yourself into ignoring it, because if everyone else says it's no big deal, then why are you so uptight about it? Maybe you were overreacting and you should just get over it?

So, you go home over the weekend and think about it. Everyone said you were overreacting, so you figure you might as well just deal with it. Some of your coworkers did notice on Friday. Maybe some of them even told the poker to chill out. But they're not the ones being poked, so their request was pretty low-key and they didn't follow up.

This goes on for months. In some ways, you get used to it. It's just part of life. Most days you can almost always ignore it. Sometimes the poker pokes a bit more, just to get your attention. Sometimes they walk by more often. Sometimes there's days where they're out of the office, and those days are a blessed relief. You get so much more done, even though you're to the point where you're not actively thinking about it. Maybe the poker even goes on vacation and you have the most productive week you've ever had.

And then... then they come back from vacation. And you enjoyed that time off you had. Or maybe you're just having a really bad day. Maybe you're stressed out about something at home. Maybe you have a really big project. Or maybe you're just absolutely tired of this person constantly poking you. But there they come... and they poke you again, this time a little bit harder than they normally do, and there's a smirk on their face. You take it to your boss. They investigate, but seriously? It's just a gentle little poke. Can't you take a joke? They do ask the poker to stop, because they can see how it would be distracting. Likely the poker stops for a while again.

But then... it starts again. You can't take it anymore. You flip out. You curse this person out, shove them away from you. You end up looking like a crazy person for such a reaction. You ask that the poker be moved to a different department, or something. Why couldn't you just take a joke? This isn't that big of a deal, is it?

Imagine that. For years. Every day of your life. From multiple people. You get good at ignoring it and not saying anything about it, and maybe even covering for the people who do it. "Oh, I don't mind." "It's just office banter." "I mean, that's what happens at work." "Oh, I know they're just kidding."

It's. Exhausting.

So, yeah. It's just a joke. Hahaha. This isn't his first joke like this, and we are all exhausted. I don't care what they do to him. I'm just glad he's getting called on it. It's disgusting and it's time we acknowledge that. I'd like to see him fired, because Hillary has had to put up with really disgusting stuff for way too long, and that was completely unnecessary.

So, yeah, no. It's not just a joke and it's not funny.

[IceSpear]

The list of all the men that interviewed Hillary during the campaign that have been fired for sexual assault, accused, or made sexist remarks just keeps adding up.

[IceSpear]

Tweety saying something bad about Hillary? Color me surprised! Those of us from 2008 remember how blatantly nasty he was towards her:

"More than six years ago, long before Hillary Clinton began running for president, the Philadelphia Inquirer magazine reported that, according to an MSNBC colleague, Matthews had said of Clinton: "I hate her. I hate her. All that she stands for."

Even before that, Matthews told the January 20, 2000, Hardball audience, "Hillary Clinton bugs a lot of guys, I mean, really bugs people like maybe me on occasion. I'm not going to take a firm position here, because the election is not coming up yet. But let me just say this, she drives some of us absolutely nuts."

Matthews has referred to Clinton as "She devil." He has repeatedly likened Clinton to "Nurse Ratched," referring to the "scheming, manipulative" character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest who "asserts arbitrary control simply because she can." He has called her "Madame Defarge." And he has described male politicians who have endorsed Clinton as "castratos in the eunuch chorus."

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2009/10/21/clinton-hating-liberal-bashing-misogynist-chris/155984

Tweety is the jfern of MSNBC and just another deplorable in the basket who should have been fired a long time ago.

Don't forget when he was forced to apologize.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702828.html

[Cory]

Drop the red avatar and the Clinton/Kaine sig, You aren't fooling anyone.

You aren't the gatekeeper of who gets to be liberal or not.

Apparently as far as you're concerned supporting unions, universal healthcare, a living wage, LGBT rights, abolishing private prisons, tuition-free college, strong public k-12 education, ect. aren't "good enough". I don't "get" to be a progressive because I'm not incensed over this one thing this guy said that he shouldn't have.

Give me a ing break.

[Celebi]

There were times when left used to defend free speech. Now the choice has become between politically correct censorship of the left and religious-based censorship of the right.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

To the people who commented above: I don't care how dark the humor is, it is never funny to joke about date rape.

[Hindsight was 2020]

It's not funny but he shouldn't be fired over it.

[Cold War Liberal]

There were times when left used to defend free speech. Now the choice has become between politically correct censorship of the left and religious-based censorship of the right.

Chris Matthews joked about raping Hillary Clinton. How is objecting to that "censorship?"

Chris Matthews is a disgusting man.

[DrScholl]

If the joke had been about anyone else but Hillary Clinton no one here would have thought it was funny or ok. Matthews is only getting a pass because of who he made the joke about.

[Landslide Lyndon]

I never understood why Matthews's show is so popular. I can't stand the guy hollering, bullying and constantly interrupting his guests. The blatant sexism is just the icing on a very foul-tasting cake.

[Santander]

I never understood why Matthews's show is so popular. I can't stand the guy hollering, bullying and constantly interrupting his guests. The blatant sexism is just the icing on a very foul-tasting cake.

That's why we love it.

[Ye We Can]

Has nobody heard of dark humor?

Sure have.

As a woman, the fact that I should just shut up and deal with it because it's funny is exhausting.

Sure, it was a "joke." That doesn't make it okay. It's /not/ funny and it's not okay. Culture has covered for this kind of stuff for too long with "it's just a joke ahaha" and "can't you relax?!" for way too long.

Imagine this: Every day while you're at work or school or whatever, someone comes up behind you and pokes you in the shoulder. Not hard enough to hurt or even really bother you the first time. But this person does it every time they walk by. So, you know, 3-4 times a day. Whatever. The first day, you can shrug it off. The next day, they do it again. So you tell them to stop. "I'm just messing with you man, can't you take a joke?" So you put up with it for the rest of the week.

You come back from the weekend, feeling ready to tackle the week, refreshed, yeah! And then, just as you sit down to really do something amazing, p-o-k-e. You jump up from your chair and smack the person's hand. "Stop TOUCHING me." "DUUUUDE It's just a joke. I wasn't even hurting you. Chill out!" Likely, your coworkers only saw this one poke, so now it also looks like you're overreacting to this one interaction, even though your reaction is, in truth, appropriate.

Now, the person poking you probably lays off for the rest of the day, and maybe even the next day. Maybe you even tell your coworkers that this person has been doing this, and ask them to keep an eye out. Of course, they're busy, and the poker stays away for a little bit. But on Wednesday, he pokes you again. Maybe some people notice, maybe they don't. It still doesn't look like that big of a deal. Like, they're not even really touching you. And it was only that one poke for the whoole day. That's not that big of a deal, right?

But then on Thursday it's back up two or three pokes. And by Friday, every time they go by. You do your best to ignore it, but now you're feeling defensive. Your work is interrupted and distracted because you're keeping an eye out for this person. You're tensed up, waiting for that annoyance and also trying to self-talk yourself into ignoring it, because if everyone else says it's no big deal, then why are you so uptight about it? Maybe you were overreacting and you should just get over it?

So, you go home over the weekend and think about it. Everyone said you were overreacting, so you figure you might as well just deal with it. Some of your coworkers did notice on Friday. Maybe some of them even told the poker to chill out. But they're not the ones being poked, so their request was pretty low-key and they didn't follow up.

This goes on for months. In some ways, you get used to it. It's just part of life. Most days you can almost always ignore it. Sometimes the poker pokes a bit more, just to get your attention. Sometimes they walk by more often. Sometimes there's days where they're out of the office, and those days are a blessed relief. You get so much more done, even though you're to the point where you're not actively thinking about it. Maybe the poker even goes on vacation and you have the most productive week you've ever had.

And then... then they come back from vacation. And you enjoyed that time off you had. Or maybe you're just having a really bad day. Maybe you're stressed out about something at home. Maybe you have a really big project. Or maybe you're just absolutely tired of this person constantly poking you. But there they come... and they poke you again, this time a little bit harder than they normally do, and there's a smirk on their face. You take it to your boss. They investigate, but seriously? It's just a gentle little poke. Can't you take a joke? They do ask the poker to stop, because they can see how it would be distracting. Likely the poker stops for a while again.

But then... it starts again. You can't take it anymore. You flip out. You curse this person out, shove them away from you. You end up looking like a crazy person for such a reaction. You ask that the poker be moved to a different department, or something. Why couldn't you just take a joke? This isn't that big of a deal, is it?

Imagine that. For years. Every day of your life. From multiple people. You get good at ignoring it and not saying anything about it, and maybe even covering for the people who do it. "Oh, I don't mind." "It's just office banter." "I mean, that's what happens at work." "Oh, I know they're just kidding."

It's. Exhausting.

So, yeah. It's just a joke. Hahaha. This isn't his first joke like this, and we are all exhausted. I don't care what they do to him. I'm just glad he's getting called on it. It's disgusting and it's time we acknowledge that. I'd like to see him fired, because Hillary has had to put up with really disgusting stuff for way too long, and that was completely unnecessary.

So, yeah, no. It's not just a joke and it's not funny.

 You know I read the Aziz Ansari thing and thought "wow this person can't be serious" and then i read this which made that look like a serious case of violence against women by comparison.

Anyway the joke is tasteless (and not even funny, i mean where's the hook) but you people really wanna go down the whole "ruin lives for off the cuff remarks" road? We gonna start jailing people for dirty jokes and ill-timed statements?