Chris Matthews felt a new thrill in his leg after hearing Donald Trump slam Jeb Bush for saying his brother "kept us safe" on 9/11. On Monday's Hardball on MSNBC, the host began his show with a full-throated "thank you" to the Republican candidate he could otherwise do without.

It doesn't take much to get Matthews going, and so a simple jab to a rival candidate by Trump, who was clear that he wasn't "blaming George Bush," was enough of a catalyst to open the flood gates of Matthews' still-raging-after-all-these-years Bush-hatred:

It took a political new-comer, Donald Trump, to say something we already knew but nobody had said before; that President George W. Bush did not keep us safe in the eight years he was president of the United States. He didn't keep us safe, or the people in those four planes safe that day. He didn't keep those safe, those men and women forced to choose between jumping from a hundred-story roof and being killed by the smoke and the fire. He didn't keep safe the hundreds of fire fighters killed that day doing their courageous duty. 

Matthews then focused his ire on Jeb Bush for saying that only a fringe-set even think this way.

"Really?!" Matthews chirped in frustration.

He continued unloading on Republicans for fiercely defending George W. in the years after 9/11, but then being so eager to throw Hillary Clinton under the bus as the villain of Benghazi.

"As if it was she who left the window open that night," he said.

"Again," Matthews concluded, "I want to thank Trump and Jeb, of course, for finally getting this one out in the open by throwing out the red meat by saying he 'kept us safe.'"

Matthews saved one criticism for Democrats for not having "the stones" to go after President Bush in the way he saw fit. 

Mediaite has the video.