Chris Matthews, the host of "Hardball" on MSNBC, said he's not happy with the 2020 Democratic field of candidates. In particular, he said the party is enthusiastic about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) but he will never be president.
"What are my thoughts? I'm not happy with this field. I think they need to find a candidate for president that could beat Trump," the MSNBC host explained as the Iowa Caucuses kicked off.
According to Matthews there are "obvious problems" with each of the candidates. In particular, he believes "Bernie Sanders is not going to be President of the United States."
"You don't think anybody in this field –" Joe Scarborough started to ask.
"I'm looking. I'm still looking," Matthews replied. "I look back at the '72 race. I was a young volunteer for the DNC. I was working for a senator from Utah at the time. I've got to tell you, it feels a lot like it. A lot of giddiness, a lot of excitement, thrill about this guy."
Scarborough clarified to ask if Matthews was referring to the 1972 Democratic nominee, South Dakota Sen. George McGovern.
"Well, exactly," he replied. "He excited the party completely, blew away a really good candidate like [George] Muskie, a really good guy. Blew him out of the water because he had some issues."
The MSNBC host said he thought Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) "was riding high and was going to sweep through everything, get through the first two easily and just keep going." But he cited the scrutiny Warren has seen as her reason for dropping.
"Does this stuff add up, Medicare for All, free college?" Matthews asked. "All that stuff got killed."
Now that Warren has faced serious scrutiny, he predicts Sanders is next to receive it.
"Guess who's gonna get it now? Bernie's gonna get it now," he explained. "Bernie's gonna ride high and he's finally gonna get scrutinty about his whole life, his ideology, who did he root for all his life, who is this guy ideologically?"
"People got to figure out who the guy is. I think I know because I've dealt with these guys most of my adult life," Matthews said. "They're usually the guys at the card table at an antiwar rally. There'd be some old guy with some old literature from his socialist party or that, trying to sell it, trying to latch on the antiwar movement. There's always guys like that."
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