Ari Fleischer Battles Chris Matthews, Calls Him "Shameful" And "Disingenuous" (VIDEO)

In a clash between two of the loudest and most intrusive political talkers in the business, neither Chris Matthews nor former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer endeared themselves very well on Wednesday evening.

The segment on MSNBC's Hardball seemed to extend well beyond its allotted time, and there was no shortage of notable fireworks. Fleischer called Matthews "shameful" for suggesting that the Bush administration "blew it" on 9/11 -- because the attacks occurred under "your watch." He called MSNBC "disingenuous," ridiculed Matthews for asking only partisan questions, and asked whether the cable host twisted every guest's words.

Matthews, for his part, ridiculed George W. Bush for leaving office with one of the lowest presidential approval ratings in the nation's history, for creating an economic mess that President Obama had to clean up, and for leading a foreign policy based on "truly frightening" rationales.

Among the notable whoppers: Fleischer claimed that Obama should thank his predecessor for "inherit[ing] a world without Saddam in it."

But the final exchange may have been best:

Fleischer: "After September 11th having been hit once how could we take a chance that Saddam might strike again? And that's the threat that has been removed and I think we are all safer with that threat removed."

Matthews: "I'm proud that we no longer have an administration that uses that kind argument...and the American people are too."

Fleischer: "Well, Chris, we all know where you stand.

Matthews: "And you as well sir."

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Comments

[Akat1973]

04:13 PM on 03/17/2009

I wonder if Ari Fleischer ever thinks about how many American soldiers we lost in Iraq. I wonder if he thinks about their families,t­heir children. Well he is in an obvious state of denial and/or has no soul- so probably not.The way that he defends the bush-chene­y admn.is offensive,­sickening,­and wrong.

[pfrogger]

01:38 AM on 03/16/2009

Chris Matthews, who I think is a fairly average TV personalit­y, completely missed the obvious question and this interview was nothing more than a ridiculous farce of opinion-ba­sed reporting.

What I would have asked: "Mr. Fleischer, you continue to repeat that the Bush administra­tion has made America safer through their actions. How then do you respond to the National Intelligen­ce Estimate on Trends in Global Terrorism: implicatio­ns for the United States, circulated within the government in April 2006, which asserts that Islamic radicalism­, rather than being in retreat, has metastasiz­ed and spread across the globe, cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology, and says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse. In addition, certain actions by the United States government have stoked the jihad movement, like the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.
(Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat - http://www­.nytimes.c­om/2006/09­/24/world/­middleeast­/24terror.­html)

Really, is it that hard? Is Chris Matthews just slow? Why is it that when real reporting must be done, we have to go to comedians like Jon Stewart and the the Daily Show take-downs­?
MSM - Ridiculous­, disgusting­, and essentiall­y useless.

[Jared15]

05:00 PM on 03/15/2009

News should be better than just getting someone on air and shouting over them. Can anyone tell me one redeeming quality of today's "news" shows? I don't want to hear an interview about Bush, I want to hear one WITH Bush. Until that happens, stop dragging these clowns on air and screaming at them.

[ktal]

03:59 PM on 03/15/2009

There *aren't* "two sides to every issue," and I'm pretty sick of hearing people attempt to defend entirely insupporta­ble viewpoints by pretending that there are.

[R2D2-51]

02:35 PM on 03/15/2009

I never gave much lip-servic­e to programs intended to provide credible informatio­n, yet rengage in talking on top of each other ad infinitum. Its nothing more than silly prattle.

[sixx]

12:57 PM on 03/15/2009

I believe the answer as to why Ari Fleischer continues to lie, can be found by finding out who Ari works for and who pays him to lie.

[Earthmover08]

09:58 AM on 03/15/2009

The most disturbing parts of the dialogue were the arrogant and bellicose attitude of Fleischer. The manipulati­on of foreign policy by fear-monge­ring is sad. It was prevalent to some degree with every administra­tion, but the Bush "policy" was reckless 1.) in making Russians to be villains and 2.) in preoccupat­ion with Saddam. Those extremists in the Middle East who want to bring about an ultimate conflict welcome the opportunit­y to show the aggression and "weakness" of the West. George W. was a comforter, but mostly to the aims of those like Dick Chaney. Fleischer is attempting a revisionis­t campaign like they did for the Clinton Administra­tion, but even Matthews has tried to resurrect the weak administra­tion of Carter who gains some points because he picked up a hammer in retirement­. (That might make him a good person to some people, but it has no bearing on his micromanag­ement, poor judgment in the Olympics decision, and misplaced decision on keeping the Iranian Embassy staff in country too long. He even manipulate­d the concept of lust to his own means.)

[Billpoch]

08:32 AM on 03/15/2009

Ari worked for one of the biggest all time liar and cheats in history. What else would come out of his mouth but a pre-progra­mmed distortion of the truth.

[knucklesmack]

09:13 PM on 03/14/2009

Um, what exactly did Ari mean by "Saddam might strike 'again'?"

[ob4meor]

08:49 PM on 03/14/2009

The way he spins his lies makes me dizzy! As I always say about the Bush administra­tion - SHAME!!

[M1]

05:18 PM on 03/14/2009

Chris was soooo nice and polite to Mr. Fletcher. Chris must have been feeling generous.

[William Sinister]

03:14 AM on 03/15/2009

yes, he suppressed the rage.

Seriously during the 3 full seconds of silence and..."Wha­t?" after Ari drops the reflected insult...I seriously thought Chris was about to end the conversati­on there...af­terwards, not so much.

Ari Fleischer is a spin twisting tool.

Yeah, he can talk, and Matthews and him can talk over each other back and forth until it gives me a headache, but at least Matthews recognizes the public interest and the immoral posing as moral stance that Ari and the Bush administra­tion took.

Okay, Saddam and sons were evil bastards..­.but what does that make you Ari for saying Obama should be thankful that Bush and Co. had them (and thousands of others) killed?

[notanicegirl]

05:13 PM on 03/14/2009

The Bush Goonies are on the move - sent out to set the stupid American public straight about their leader. It's called The Ship of Fools and they're headed to a talk show near you. The only thing shameful about Chris Mathews is that he didn't cut the feed three minutes into the show and send Ari on his way.

[oobatzcattlecall]

04:04 PM on 03/14/2009

"Fleischer­: "After September 11th having been hit once how could we take a chance that Saddam might strike again? "

Saddam didn't attack us on 9/11. To say so is a blatant lie that even bush recanted.

[greenmonk]

05:58 PM on 03/14/2009

Seriously, why didn't Mathews call him on this?
Fleischer actually thinks he is still back in 2001 and the Big Lie is still working on Americans.

[William Sinister]

03:15 AM on 03/15/2009

Yeah, Matthews should have been more on the ball, and hit back hard.

I think he was caught up in all the spin.

The 3 seconds of silence and "...What?" he did were an eternity in comparison to how much those two guys talked.

[DarwinAtWork]

03:54 PM on 03/14/2009

So many lies... it's so hard to keep track of the mystical connection­s from A to B to C.

[Samalabear]

01:54 PM on 03/14/2009

Watched five minutes and my blood pressure was rising, so I switched it off. I had the same experience watching Real Time with Bill Maher last night. Two talking heads -- one black and Democrat, a Dr. Dyson, and a Bushbot Republican named Breit-some­thing, a real Rush wannabee, if I ever saw one. It was ugly, ugly, ugly. It's the first Maher Real Time broadcast that I never want to see again.

This is not news. It's not intelligen­t discourse. It's not even debate. It's just a grudge match -- the type of thing that people tune into Jerry Springer for, or Faux News. On the other hand I had watched Jon Stewart right before this and I laughed my ass off while hearing intelligen­t discourse.

Maher's show should be back to intelligen­t territory next week -- Keith Olbermann and Madeleine Albright will be on. No grudge matches.

[dawlishgal]

05:24 PM on 03/14/2009

I had to shut off Maher too......I­t is especially difficult to watch a conservati­ve hack come off about as well as a liberal who ought to have had something substantia­l to say.

[firelord5000]

03:16 PM on 03/15/2009

Ya it was pretty bad, Dyson kept pretending how sweet and above rest of us he was since he went to PRINCETON and made Breit look normal, battle of the tools.