Newbusters reports that yesterday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews previewed Donald Trump’s convention speech and warned that by "running on law and order" and mentioning the names of big urban areas facing significant crime, Trump is delivering racist “coded language.” Chuck Todd agreed, naturally.
Earlier in the night, Matthews had made the same point. "You're going to see a lot about the big cities. There's going to be an ethnic aspect to this, a racial aspect to it”:
A partial transcript:
MATTHEWS: There's going to be a lot about the usual Republican theme of law and order going back to 1968. You're going to see a lot about the big cities. There's going to be an ethnic aspect to this, a racial aspect to it. They — Trump in his speech talks about the crime rate in Washington, D.C. He talks about the crime rate in Baltimore. Those are cities of large minority populations, we all know, and it's going to carry that kind of flavor. He talks very much about that theme. And I think the idea of running on law and order at a time we're really being challenged by terrorism is a very Republican approach to it.
MATTHEWS: If you look over the speech drafts or text, what you see is a melding together of concern about terrorism, which puts us all in the same boat. All Americans don't like terrorism. All Americans are fearful of it. But when you get back to the angle, the edge, it's about big cities with large minority populations. You go back to that old thing of bashing Washington, D.C., the old Marion Barry days, bashing Baltimore and Chicago, those city names evoke minorities.
TODD: There is — you wonder — there’s some coded language.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
No, it's not coded language. Those cities and every other major urban area in the United States controlled by Democrats are facing rising rates of violent and property crime, the vast majority of which are perpetrated by blacks. The Democratic media don't want the country talking about this reality, so they have to label any discussion of inner-city crime and the need to do something about it as racist. Racism - it's everywhere it needs to be, for people like Matthews and Todd.