Al Sharpton's MSNBC show Politics Nation precedes Chris Matthew's Hardball daily but on Thursday the two joined forces to slam the Supreme Court's decision to allow donors to give a max donation of $5200 to as many candidates as they choose. Previously the Federal Election Commission had a cap on how much could be donated, $123,200 per election cycle (primary, runoff and general.)
Sharpton and Matthews attacked Charles Koch for his Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he said he was fighting for the freedom and American principles of Thomas Jefferson. When Sharpton asked Matthews what he thought about the Koch op-ed, Matthews conjectured whether Jefferson and Koch wondered about the "liberty" of Sally Hemmings, a slave who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Jefferson. Sharpton laughingly agreed and said those comments would go over well at his National Action Network conference in New York City next week. Matthews is one of the speakers at the conference along with Eric Holder, President Obama and other high-profile Democrats.
Matthews used the Politics Nation segment as an opportunity to once again rant about "truthers", "birthers" and people who allegedly hate Barack Obama because of his race. Playing clips of Michelle Bachmann, Ted Cruz and other Republicans who were grateful for big donors like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers and defended them, Sharpton and Matthews asserted that conservatives championed a "sham" of a democracy. Matthews added:
I don’t know why they’re so proud of this system!
Matthews continued to discuss the Supreme Court decision, averring that it was “pure Republican politics,” then urged Democrats to appoint Supreme Court nominees that are young and will be able to live and serve on the Court for a long time:
Get more, get more justices! Win presidential elections! Outlive the conservatives! They pick young people if ya notice. You see how young they are, Reverend? I mean, Scalia is gonna be there for 30 years, and Alito is gonna be there for 30 years and Clarence Thomas is gonna be there forever!
Matthews then said Democrats pick "seasoned" people who will not be able to serve as long as the Republican picks. Matthews wrapped up the segment by exclaiming:
There are some decisions on the Supreme Court that are just based on sheer partisan politics like this one, they really are.
Hardball started out with a 14-minute segment where Matthews said Charles Koch “can’t write” and paid someone else to do the op-ed for him. Matthews then shouted he’d like to put Koch in a room to see what he is actually capable of writing.
