Matthews on Obama Speech: ‘It Was Perfect,’ Says Conservatives Believe Liberals Are ‘Not Americans’

ROBERTS: "Joining me now is 'Hardball" host Chris Matthews. What do you think of the tone that the president was trying to achieve with this?"
MATTHEWS: "It was perfect. No victory lap. It's done. It's already done. We don't know the numbers yet, but in terms of consumer confidence slowing toward production going toward the the holidays and Christmas the damage has been done. This wasn't street theater. There's a cost here. Behind that cost was an insult to the American people and to our government. The willingness of the people, and not John Boehner, he had to go along with it. They wanted to stop everything, and pay the price of default and worrying about the value of our word and signature all because they believe and this is a scary prospect, about 30 percent of the country thinks they're better American than the rest of us. They say 'we the American people.' Ted Cruz, he speaks for the American people even though the numbers show he's a minority. You know why? They believe they're better Americans. When they see that the country voted it for Obama they say 'that was just minorities. That was just the liberals in the big cities. They're not Americans. Americans' votes should count for more. They never gave him a honeymoon. They never respected him being president and a bunch think he's an illegal immigrant because he's not one of them or one of us as they call themselves and you did see it on the face of Ted Cruz. Every time he speaks he's got that hurt look. Somehow he's been wronged. We have to take back our government, from whom? Who are the U.S. people returning the government? They don't want to admit the Americans are running this government and the American people elected this twice and it was passed by the Senate with 60 votes and passed by the House and signed by the president and they don't respect that, you know why? Because we didn't pass it. We, the true american patriots, the super patriots -- and the irony is they have the Confederate Flag. What's that got to do with patriotism and they do it all. By the way, he was speaking to that today and 'if you want to change something, argue. Win an election.'"