Chris Matthews took exception to Gov. Chris Christie's (R., N.J.) use of the word "animals" to describe Islamic State terrorists on Monday night.
The MSNBC host scoffed at Christie's statement without explaining why he was so offended at calling jihadists who post films of mass beheadings inhuman. He suggested that we use the term "bad guys" to describe those who are responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people.
"And also, animals! I mean, call them what they are, bad people. But what's this animal thing that Christie's throwing around?" Matthews said to David Corn.
The former Jimmy Carter advisor turned television personality painted all Republican candidates with a broad brush. He said the GOP was condoning hatred towards Muslims, clearly an indictment on the Republican field for Donald Trump's policy proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. until his administration can "figure out what is going on." Matthews also went after Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) for saying he would carpet bomb ISIS in Syria.
"Republicans now say it's OK to hate Muslims. I mean, when you hear carpet bombing, there's no way to hear that from [Sen. Ted] Cruz without knowing a lot of regular people that just happen to live in those geographical areas will die because you're carpet bombing," Matthews said. "You're not going after the bad guys, you're killing everybody that's there."
Every single major Republican presidential contender, including Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Jeb Bush (R., Fla.) denounced Trump's ban on Muslim immigration.
Update: (7:22 a.m.) This post has been corrected to show Chris Matthews was once an adviser for Jimmy Carter, not Bill Clinton.