Matthews: Cruz ‘Operates Below the Level of Human Life,’ If You Think ‘He’s As Good As It Gets,’ You’re ‘Really Sad’

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MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews argued Republican presidential candidate Texas Senator Ted Cruz “operates below the level of human life” and “almost sees Obama as Castro, as a dictator of the left” on Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live.”

Matthews said, “[T]here’s a troll-like quality to Cruz. He operates below the level of human life.”

He added, “I think he appeals to people’s negativity rather than their joy. I don’t think people feel good about voting for Cruz, I think they feel — I don’t know what it is he appeals to. Now, people keep telling me he’s inherited the libertarian crowd. I don’t see how. He doesn’t seem libertarian to me. He’s appealed to the Baptists up here. I don’t understand that. He — what is he, a theocrat? Maybe he is. I’m serious abut the guy. There’s something that’s enlivening about these other candidates that makes you feel good. There’s something about that guy who’s always reminding me of Joe McCarthy, and there’s something about that’s negative and menacing. When I say below the level of human life, I mean the good nature of human life, not just being a person.”

Matthews further argued, “[H]is entree into national politics was to accuse Chuck Hagel, a combat veteran of Vietnam, which Ted Cruz is not, of being a basic traitor, of taking $200,000 from the North Koreans. That was McCarthyite, inexcusable, and that’s the kind of guy he is. And I’m telling you, if you think — if you’re that conservative and that angry and you think he’s as good as it gets, you are really sad. That is a very low estimate of the potential of our candidates.” And “I sense in him a darkness, a virulent antipathy towards Obama that’s — almost sees Obama as Castro, as a dictator of the left. He — his viciousness with which he goes after…the Washington establishment. The vicious anger of him, I think it’s for real, and it scares me. It’s so menacing.”

After fellow host Joe Scarborough countered that Democrats did the same to George W. Bush, Matthews responded, “Well, there was a particular issue there, the war.”

(h/t Daily Caller)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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