Matthews on Iowa ‘Chaos and Disaster’: ‘Would the Last Person Leaving Des Moines, Please Turn Out the Lights?’

Late Monday night, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews slammed those handling the Iowa caucuses for the uncertain pending outcome, calling it “chaos and disaster.”

Matthews said it was a bad mark for the Democrats, and it bolstered the political case of Democratic presidential hopeful New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and incumbent Republican President Donald Trump.

“I’d start with a language I didn’t grow up with — mishegoss, it’s a Yiddish term for complete chaos and disaster,” he said. “This is making Mike Bloomberg’s night — a man who made his billions in a communication in numbers. This is what he does. This is how he’s become zillionaire … The guy in the White House is chuckling all night here, showing the Democrats can’t even get a three-car funeral organized or whatever you want to call it. I would say to the people of Iowa: Would the last person leaving Des Moines, please turn out the lights. This has not been a success.”

He also argued for government intervention in future election processes.

“It argues the case — Lawrence [O’Donnell] said go back to voting in machines, and the more consistent the machinery in this country, the better. I really think the federal government has got no constitutional right to run elections,” Matthews added. “But we’ve got to find some statutory way of making our elections countable in realtime.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor