During live coverage of Donald Trump's inauguration, Brian Williams asked Chris Matthews to give his thoughts as they watched Trump leave the Capitol grounds aboard Marine One.
Matthews somehow pivoted from the beauty of Washington, D.C., to the "Hitlerian" nature of Trump's speech, wondering what kind of havoc it will wreak on the global stage.
Here's the transcript:
WILLIAMS: "Chris Matthews, it never gets old. Very few have gotten the view from the seats inside that Sikorsky helicopter, but this is part of the pageantry, part of the tradition."
MATTHEWS: "I remember taking off in the White House, it's quite a scene. You look at everything getting small below you, and to see the city to be looked at I think from the air. It's a beautifully designed city and the relief, as someone said here, the relief on this guy's shoulders, until a few moments ago he was trying to think what is Kim Jong-un up to today."
WILLIAMS: "That's right."
MATTHEWS: "Is he crazy enough to drop a bomb in the middle of the Pacific, something I have to react to, and that would be -- but I'm thinking, when he said today, 'America first,' it was not just the racial -- I mean I shouldn't say racial, the Hitlerian background to it -- but it was the message I kept thinking, what does Theresa May think of this this morning when she picks up the papers? My God, what did he just say? America first, what of the special relationship? If you're Putin you're probably pounding the table, 'That's what I've been saying, Russia first! Russia first!' This whole bullying message to him. And I wonder, are people around the world going we're watching closely in the PDBs, the got one this morning, what will the reaction today? Will somebody do something they weren't going to do yesterday?"