Chris Matthews and conservative radio host Larry Elder had an unbelievably hostile conversation earlier in the week.
The Hollywood Reporter caught wind of the chat when Elder wrote about it in his syndicated column.
"You know things didn't go well when, a few minutes after the interview concludes, Matthews' booker emails my producer: 'I wish you would've let me know that Larry was planning on attacking Chris,'" Elder wrote.
Whatever it was, the interview was definitely not a friendly one. Elder started by asking Matthews, "do you still feel that, as a journalist, it's your job to help Obama succeed?" Matthews responded by saying that he wanted to help every new president succeed, and that if Obama did something wrong, he would "break with him."
"Do you consider yourself a journalist?" Elder asked. "Yeah I'm a journalist...I'm an opinion journalist," Matthews said, adding that he views himself as "slightly to the left." Elder then played a clip of Matthews saying Republicans "want more people to die" and "want executions," among other things. "That's true," Matthews murmured as the clip played. When it ended, he said it was a "fair analysis." Elder interrupted him.
"Do you want me to answer the question or not?" Matthews said. "I'm sorry for cutting you off the way you cut your guests off," Elder snapped back.
The two then turned to the subject of Matthews' book about John F. Kennedy. Elder took issue with a slew of Matthews' interpretations, accusing him of "glossing over" the weak parts of Kennedy's presidency. The two talked over each other so much, and threw so many insults, that the conversation degenerated quickly.
"You're screaming, Larry, why are you screaming?" Matthews said at one point. "If you want to hang up, go ahead and hang up, Chris," Elder said at another point.
"This is an embarrassment," Matthews said a little later. "This is absurd...this is why this country is being torn apart, with this kind of hatred."
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