Matthews tells Yamiche Alcindor that ‘African Americans Have Been in this Country ... Centuries Longer than White People’

RUSH EXCERPT:

MATTHEWS: "It’s amazing to watch somebody I know like you fighting it out with the president on equal terms. It’s something else. I guess that’s good for democracy despite all this other hellish stuff we’re talking about. It was awful what he said in the campaign, and I do agree with you and your reporting about this nationalist thing here. African-Americans have been in this country a lot longer, by centuries than most white people. The idea that you’re not part of the nation is an absurdity and, you know, is just pure racism, by the way. That is racism."