Matthews Bashes Bush for Holding Saudi King’s Hand in 2005, Ignores Obama’s Bow to Same Man in 2009
In a classic example of liberal media bias, Chris Matthews on Friday bashed former President George W. Bush for holding Prince Abdullah of Saudia Arabia's hand when he visited the Crawford ranch back in 2005. After mentioning how “the bowing and scraping” involved in the “paramount task” of presidents honoring Arab leaders has sometimes “been nearly comical,” the host of the syndicated program bearing his name completely ignored President Barack Obama's deep bow to the very same man less than two years ago (video follows with transcript and commentary): CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: I think we do pay attention. I want to give you an example of this as we go to break. Honoring Arab leaders has of course been a paramount task for presidents, but sometimes the bowing and scraping has been nearly comical at least to American ears and eyes. ♪♪ See the pyramids along the Nile ♪♪ Here’s our all-time favorite image, President George W. Bush down in Crawford, his ranch in 2005, just six years ago, tiptoeing through those Texas blue bonnets with Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. They were meeting about a current oil crisis and Bush was trying to get the Saudis to increase production. ♪♪ You belong to me ♪♪ MATTHEWS: (Laughing) Well, Jon Stewart, of course, had this take back then. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JON STEWART: Earlier this week Bush met with a key player on the world energy scene. Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The President greeted him with a kiss on both cheeks and then led him by the hand into his ranch. That is unacceptable on my part. Two easy to joke about the two of them kissing and holding hands. The truth is both of those are Saudi customs indicating friendship and trust. If you heard what they were talking about, believe me, you’d hardly call them sissies. GEORGE W. BUSH: All of these are blue bonnets. This is our state flower. PRINCE ABDULLAH: Beautiful! It’s just gorgeous. STEWART: Added Prince Abdullah, I mean GORGEOUS! He added, “You know, we used to have fields of blue bonnets in Saudi Arabia. Then we beheaded them in a soccer stadium.” (END VIDEOTAPE) MATTHEWS: Message – we care. I guess Matthews forgot this from April 2009: Matthews could have even used Stewart again to drive home the point, for the “Daily Show” host had a lot to say about Obama's bow at the time: I guess that would have been too much like journalism for a man that believes “Hardball” is “absolutely nonpartisan.”
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Matthews Bashes Bush for Holding Saudi King’s Hand in 2005, Ignores Obama’s Bow to Same Man in 2009
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on February 6, 2011. Filed under