MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews ripped into GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday, deriding a "troll-like quality" and calling him "negative and menacing."
His withering verbal assault of the Texas lawmaker on
"Morning Joe," came after he was asked which Republican primary contender had done well so far against front-runner and New Hampshire primary winner Donald Trump.
"Nobody," Matthews bluntly replied. "The thing about — there is a troll-like quality to Cruz. He operates below the level of human life."
He then pushed ahead despite host Joe Scarborough's attempt to help Matthews dial back an opinion Scarborough labeled not only as "a little tough," but a one "you're not allowed to have."
Matthews continued, "Let me clarify it."
"I think he appeals to people's negativity rather than their joy," Matthews said. "I don't think people feel good about voting for Cruz… There's something about that guy who's always reminded me of Joe McCarthy and there's something about it that is 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," he added.
Even Cruz's heartfelt answer in the last GOP debate about his
half-sister's struggles with drug abuse "doesn't show anything," Matthews charged.
Even Scarborough's emphatic defense of Cruz's appeal to conservatives who "have been betrayed by the Washington establishment for 30 years" didn't wash with Matthews.
"They've been lying to the Republican base for 30 years and that is who is going for Ted Cruz because if you're that person, you're not going to vote for [Florida Sen.] Marco Rubio because Marco Rubio is a big government Republican," Scarborough said.
"You're not going to vote for Jeb Bush because Jeb Bush is Bush. You're not going to vote for Donald Trump because Donald Trump has been a Democrat most of your life. "
"Who are you going to vote for if you are a Republican who is sick and tired of being lied to? And the Republicans in Washington have spent three decades of lying," Scarborough asked.
Matthews responded with a blistering assessment of Cruz' opposition, as a rookie senator, of former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during his confirmation process, when Cruz suggested Hagel received money from foreign governments or extremist groups.
Cruz's "entree into national politics was to accuse Chuck Hagel, a combat veteran of Vietnam, which Ted Cruz is not, of being a basic trader, of taking $200,000 from the North Koreans," Matthews charged.
"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 low estimate of the potential of our candidates."
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