MSNBC hosts admitted twice this week that they’ve already forgotten about well-known controversies involving President Obama, even as they worked to attach Donald Trump to other contentious issues.
In a live interview Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio, where Trump is set to formally accept the Republican nomination for president at the party’s convention, anchor Tamron Hall grilled one of his supporters, actor Scott Baio, for a crude tweet he had previously published.
Baio responded by recalling a controversial comment Obama made in 2008 at a fundraiser, wherein he said of Republican opponents, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”
Tamron said, “That’s absolutely not true” and insisted, “I do not recall that.”
The exchange followed an interview last week in which host Chris Matthews said he didn’t know Obama has publicly admitted that in his past he was a frequent marijuana smoker.
“He used,” Matthews said during an interview with liberal comedian Bill Maher, who had just referred to Obama as “a pothead.”
“No, he was a pothead and he’ll tell you that,” said Maher.
“A regular user,” said Matthews, attempting again to correct Maher.
Maher told Matthews that Obama was part of the “Choom Gang,” which was a group of Obama’s high school-aged friends who frequently smoked together, according to a biography by David Maraniss.
“You never heard of that?” asked Maher.
“No,” said Matthews.
Obama also detailed in his 1995 memoir Dreams of My Father all of the places he smoked marijuana growing up.
During the same interview with Maher, Matthews made it clear he did remember a several-years-old claim Trump advanced, which suggested Obama was ineligible to be president because he was not born in the U.S. (He was born in Hawaii.)
“You know,” Matthews said, “my explanation for birtherism, if there is one, is that he’s playing to people who want to believe that somehow, you can put an asterisk next to Obama[‘s presidency.]”
