MSNBC host Chris Matthews said Monday that the reason Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump attack House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) is because she is "ethnic" and from one of the coasts.
In a moment caught by NewsBusters, the "Hardball" host played a clip of Trump attacking Pelosi as the Republican Party's "secret weapon" after she dismissed the raises and bonuses that some companies have given workers as "crumbs."
"I will reserve judgement; picking on somebody from one of the coasts, usually ethnic, and making them the poster person of the Democratic Party is old business for the Republicans," Matthews responded to the clip.
"They did it with—way back to some guy from the Bronx back in the 40s. They did it with Bella Abzug from the West Side of New York City, they did it to Tip O'Neill, they did it to Teddy Kennedy," he continued.
"Now they're doing it after [sic] Nancy Pelosi," Matthews complained. "They love to get an ethnic sort of person from one of the coasts and make them the bad person."
Pelosi is Italian-American, Abzug was Russian-Jewish, and both O'Neill and Kennedy were Irish-American.