On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, former MSNBC host Chris Matthews acknowledged Iran has at all times used the “assist of American media” to hawk pictures of warfare again to the American viewers to harm the opinions of American presidents, together with his former boss, President Jimmy Carter, amid the Iranian hostage disaster.
However, after all, Matthews helped peddle that very same Iranian propaganda additional of their dialogue as he mentioned any future U.S. navy actions in Iran could be “warfare crimes.”
Morning Joe common Mike Barnicle requested Matthews in regards to the expertise with Iranians amid the Carter hostage disaster. “Iranians appear to have been taking part in their tune for us, and we have been going together with it for a protracted, very long time,” Barnicle mentioned.
On Morning Joe, Chris Matthews mentioned the Iranians get “the assistance of the American Media,” as he in contrast the present protection of the Iran Conflict to the Iranian Hostage Disaster underneath Jimmy Carter, whom Matthews labored for.
In fact, after saying that, Matthews echoed warfare crime claims. pic.twitter.com/3PaLtVvKph
— Nick (@nspin310) Might 12, 2026
Matthews adopted with a narrative of the 1980 presidential marketing campaign amid the disaster. He recounted that there was a second within the marketing campaign when it appeared the Iranian mullahs may launch the hostages, however they have been “tricked.”
He then remembered the protection by Walter Cronkite as he began to allude to media protection of Iran in that disaster as a comparability:
The ayatollah and all that gang knew they have been going to screw Carter yet one more time. And so the day earlier than the 1980 election, Walter Cronkite led with the hostage disaster anniversary. It wasn’t even the subsequent election the subsequent day, it was the anniversary of the hostage taking. And American held hostage was on each evening at 11:30. It by no means stopped.
Then, Matthews recalled the protection then because the Iranians hurting Carter, with “the assistance of American media”:
They stored the warmth on him within the media, day after day after day, with the assist of the American media, and he might by no means get previous it. So, I take a look at Trump and what he is dealing with proper now once you talked about this morning, and these choices aren’t there.
What Matthews mentioned by way of American media round 1980 was similar to protection at this time, within the media’s utilization of Iranian State Media as major sources, as seen on CNN and different mainstream networks.
Simply as he talked in regards to the media, he echoed a continuing Democrat and media speaking level of warfare crimes:
You may’t return and begin committing warfare crimes, attacking energy crops and desalination amenities, and all that. You may’t do this. You are going to begin killing folks, and it may be all around the information. And guess how we’ll find out about it? The Iranians will make sure that we’ll find out about each lady’s faculty that will get hit, each hospital that is hit, all the things we do flawed, each warfare crime that appears like a warfare crime, we’ll know all about it as a result of they’re actually good at this.
After Jonathan Lemire and Joe Scarborough talked about Iranian A.I. LEGO propaganda memes, Matthews joined again in and feared of a ladies’ faculty being hit amongst different warfare motion:
If we do this once more, and we’ll do this once more, if we begin doing saturation bombing and we begin hitting important amenities that have an effect on folks’s lives, we’ll get into killing folks. And I feel Trump should know that.
Even after Chris Matthews illustrated how Iranians manipulate U.S. media, Matthews and the Morning Joe crew proceeded to display it firsthand.
The transcript is under. Click on “broaden”:
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
Might 12, 2026
7:08:34 AM Japanese
(…)
MIKE BARNICLE: Chris, listening to David and listening to the conversations which have been going down right here this morning across the desk about Iran, and for the previous couple of weeks about Iran. Let’s discuss one other president, a president who you served, Jimmy Carter. And let’s discuss in regards to the hostage taking by the Iranians.
The Iranians appear to have been taking part in their tune for us, and we have been going together with it for a protracted, very long time.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Effectively, I used to be listening to Joe yesterday morning, and I used to be thrown again 46 years, nearly a half a century, to being on Air Drive One with President Carter on the Saturday earlier than the election of 1980.
And naturally, we went to – again in these days, we have been nonetheless, Democrats have been nonetheless attempting to get Texas. We spent 5 totally different stops on the airports. Now we have 10,000 folks ready for you on the airport, within the stands there. And we went all by means of Texas the day earlier than, and that, on Saturday. Then we went to Milwaukee late that evening, after which we – Carter threw on an Italian sports activities heroes program about midnight as a result of Marty Russo, the congressman, acquired him to try this. After which at two within the morning, Hamilton Jordan confirmed up in Chicago to say, “the mullahs are voting. It appears like there is likely to be an opportunity we’ll get the hostages again earlier than the election.”
And there it was, a chance. We flew again to Washington. And, as soon as once more, the mullahs tricked us. The ayatollah and all that gang knew they have been going to screw Carter yet one more time. And so the day earlier than the 1980 election, Walter Cronkite led with the hostage disaster anniversary. It wasn’t even the subsequent election the subsequent day, it was the anniversary of the hostage taking. And American held hostage was on each evening at 11:30. It by no means stopped.
The Iranians knew precisely learn how to screw Carter. They stored the warmth on him within the media, day after day after day, with the assistance of the American media, and he might by no means get previous it. So, I take a look at Trump and what he is dealing with proper now once you talked about this morning,, and these choices aren’t there.
You may’t return and begin committing warfare crimes, attacking energy crops and desalination amenities, and all that. You may’t do this. You are going to begin killing folks, and it may be all around the information. And guess how we’ll find out about it? The Iranians will make sure that we’ll find out about each ladies faculty that will get hit, each hospital that is hit, all the things we do flawed, each warfare crime that appears like a warfare crime, we’ll know all about it as a result of they’re actually good at this, Mike.
They actually sustain with our media and learn how to screw an American president, and they will do it once more.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Effectively, and let’s examine what occurred in 79 and 80. They might at all times make sure that, and Chris talked about this earlier than when he was right here, and at all times make sure that they might burn an American flag in entrance of American tv cameras to make it possible for American flag being burned could be proven in the US, make the president look even weaker. They might parade out hostages with blindfolds.
They might do all of those horrific issues that might enrage Individuals, figuring out that the American president could not do something about it. And they’d simply hold –
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: They have been ruthless.
SCARBOROUGH: – pulling the string and pulling the string. And it value Carter the presidency. They’re doing the identical factor now. And I am not being glib once I say this. They don’t seem to be burning American flags. They’re doing memes.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: They’re hitting the place it hurts probably the most now on this new tradition. And like Legos and teletubbies and all of this stuff that really burning an American flag would play into Trump’s power to say, we’ll struggle, we’ll do that.
However now they’re mocking him ruthlessly as a result of they perceive that that is the way you get to him probably the most.
LEMIRE: And what number of instances have we heard Donald Trump over the past ten years complain that the world is laughing at the US proper now? Iran is laughing at him. They do know what buttons to push. It is a very on-line presidency. It is a web-based nation proper now. And persons are seeing these memes, and the president would not have a good way of responding –
SCARBOROUGH: Like, how in regards to the instance of like when he mentioned one thing like, I would like a solution by eight, or we’ll destroy your civilization? They rapidly responded and mentioned, that is not a great time for us. How about two within the morning? Yeah. And so it is a – even when he is attempting to be powerful on-line, the Iranians know learn how to mock him and mock him.
And once more, this is not nearly Donald Trump. That is what we’re saying right here is that is about each American president that crosses them. They know learn how to pull the strings. And now, as Physician Brzezinski warned, as all people else warned about for many years, now they’ve the straight.
LEMIRE: Yeah. Tehran has specialised in humiliating American presidents for a very long time. And only a few extra examples right here. Let’s keep in mind they’ve blown off deadlines. They’ve ignored threats. The time the place the overseas minister was in Islamabad and the U.S. negotiating staff was heading to the airport to fly to Islamabad to fulfill them. And the overseas minister merely left like they knew. They’re poking, , the president the place it hurts.
(…)
7:15:45 AM Japanese
MATTHEWS: So I feel it is the worry of one other lady’s faculty being hit, as a result of all of us acquired large clearance as media folks to go in there and get that story. One factor the Iranians are good at is letting Individuals know the dangerous tales about themselves, and they’re going to let the nation know the way dangerous it was that we by chance hit that ladies’ faculty.
If we do this once more, and we’ll do this once more, if we begin doing saturation bombing and we begin hitting important amenities that have an effect on folks’s lives, we’ll get into killing folks. And I feel Trump should know that.
I feel Admiral Stavridis, his third possibility, looks like the one going to maintain attempting to open the straits, simply restricted warfare simply in a single a part of the nation, the strait itself. Attempt to open that up. It looks like that’s what he was recommending, I feel.
(…)
