MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Tuesday compared President Donald Trump's children to Uday and Qusay Hussein, who were the sons of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The "Hardball" host was interviewing journalist Michael Wolff about his book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House when he made the comparison. Wolff had mentioned that his book’s main source, Steve Bannon, had conflicted with Trump's family during his time as a White House strategist, and Wolff said he became close with then-chief of staff Reince Priebus.
"I mean, Steve Bannon did not speak to Jared Kushner," Wolff said. "These factions in the White House that were absolutely cleaved, but gradually...Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon had an enormous amount of—they were polarized, let's say, in the early months of the administration, and they actually came together."
"I think that they became quite good friends because they understood...this was an entirely anomalous situation that they had found themselves in, and it was coming apart," Wolff added.
"I guess when you're dealing with Uday and Qusay every day, you do find common purposes," Matthews replied about Priebus and Bannon’s relationship to Kushner and, presumably, other members of the family.
Matthews also gave a ringing endorsement to Wolff’s book, which the author has had to defend from numerous charges of inaccuracies.
"Congratulations, Michael Wolff," Matthews said. "Fire and Fury—I don’t have to help this book, but go out and buy it or you're missing out on the big story of this year so far."
It was a long and meandering interview, but toward the beginning, Matthews also discussed Bannon’s conflict with Trump’s children.
Bannon himself left the White House after about seven months, and Trump has denounced him for the comments he made to Wolff. Trump said Wolff's book is "full of lies," and on Tuesday Bannon also lost his job at Breitbart.