Chris Matthews says 'country is moving toward Trump' as he rejects polls showing POTUS 'not doing well'

WASHINGTON, DC: Former MSNBC bulldog Chris Matthews, who once gushed that Barack Obama sent a “thrill up [his] leg,” is now talking about Donald Trump like he’s the second coming of Teddy Roosevelt with a dash of Nostradamus.

The same man who spent years lobbing grenades at the right from his perch on "Hardball" raised eyebrows with his latest comments about the president during a sit-down with Charlie Rose.

Chris Matthews credits Donald Trump’s spontaneity and cultural awareness

Journalist Jason Cohen shared clips from the Chris Matthews- Charlie Rose conversation on X. At one point, Matthews flat-out dismissed the steady stream of anti-Trump polling data. “To be honest with you, the country is moving towards Trump,” Matthews declared. “These polls, they come out and show him not doing well, I don’t buy that.”

“He is a stronger public figure than the Democratic people. Obama still has tremendous charisma, but Trump has strength,” he said, before adding, “[Voters] want a president who is a strong figure. And he’s got it. It’s just there. And half the country buys it.”

In another clip from the same interview, Matthews sounded like he was aboard the Trump train. “We have never had a president so instantly spontaneous that he knows this minute, at 4:00 this afternoon, he will say, ‘You know, that’s not really true anymore,’” Matthews said.

“He will know the mood of the country,” he continued. “He’s very good at knowing your condition, your worries, your insecurities. He’s really good at the moment. He’s out there watching television and keeping up. And ‘Is this the right thing to do? What are we going to do right now?’”

Matthews didn’t stop there. He took direct shots at former President Joe Biden and even former Vice President Walter Mondale. “Biden couldn’t do that in a million years … Mondale couldn’t do that,” he said. “They don’t have the connection to the electricity of what’s going on in the country culturally. And he knows what works.” 

Chris Matthews praised Donald Trump’s moves on Harvard

Back in April, during a 'Morning Joe' appearance, the longtime liberal host raised eyebrows when he praised the Donald Trump administration’s hardline stance against elite universities like Harvard over campus antisemitism. “I have to say that the administration sometimes sets its targets in the right direction,” he said.

Matthews was referring to Trump’s move to freeze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts after Harvard President Alan M Garber refused to comply with demands to address antisemitism on campus, especially after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

“The elite universities in this country are not exactly covered in roses right now in the way that they handled these demonstrations,” Matthews said. “I think everybody, whether you’re a Jewish student or not, I think you want to have a right to go to a class when you’re paying $90,000 a year in tuition,” he continued. “You have a right to go to the class and be taught by your professors and to enjoy the rights of a better university, a good university.”

“The fact that they had to be told to do this, they had to be told to let students go to school, which is what this is about, that they had to be told to do, that they had a problem in their own heads,” he added. “So I think the elite universities are taking a beating right now. It’s probably a smart move."

Matthews wrapped it up with yet another defense of Trump. “It’s Trump going after the elites. He knows what he’s doing, politically, it’s not going to hurt him,” he said.

The veteran newscaster was not worried about the fallout for Harvard and company. “I think these universities have enough money to cover their legacies. They’ve got a lot of money to handle it. So they’re going to be able to take care of themselves,” he added. “I don’t want to be loose about this, but I think Trump targeting these universities is probably not the worst move he ever made."

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