Chris Matthews and Martin Bashir had some harsh words for GOP candidate Mitt Romney on Monday.
Matthews appeared on Bashir's MSNBC show, live from Des Moines, Iowa. The two MSNBC pundits were discussing the high volume of negative television and radio ads attacking Newt Gingrich in Iowa. The ads are paid for by the super PAC Restore Our Future, which Matthews described as "basically a Romney operation."
Bashir called Romney "disingenuous" and asked if he was playing an "entirely duplicitous campaign." According to Bashir, Romney was on the campaign trail acting "as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, as the most civil of all candidates."
Matthews agreed with Bashir and likened Romney to Dr. Jekyll — the protagonist in Robert Louis Stevenson's story about a kind scientist who takes a potion and turns into a homicidal maniac, Mr. Hyde. "He plays Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde runs the ad campaign," Matthews said of Romney. Matthews added that Romney "goes around quoting verses from 'America the Beautiful' as if there's something new to talk about...meanwhile his ads are kicking the hell out of Newt Gingrich."
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