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Chris Matthews: Obama a 'Gentleman,' Unlike Trump
By Edmund Kozak, Edmund Kozak
Published May 24, 2017
Former White House press secretary Josh Earnest and MSNBC's Chris Matthews engaged in a nostalgic love-fest over former President Barack Obama Sunday.
According to Matthews, Obama was a shining example of a gentleman, while President Donald Trump "has brought down the level of what we think is decent."
"To use the old term [Obama] was a gentleman," Matthews remarked to Earnest. "Unlike what we have," he added. "I think it's an objective fact that President Trump has brought down the level of what we think is decent."
While President Trump may not a gentlemen in the traditional sense of the term, it seems it is a remarkable charge to suggest he has lowered the level of what Americans consider to be decent.
Neither commentator noted the purveyors of popular culture have been lowering the nation's measure of decency through expanded sexualization of all mediums and more graphic displays of violence for decades.
Moreover, while Trump is often accused of not speaking like a gentleman, there are numerous stories of him acting like one.
During the 2017 inaugural celebrations, the new president gave a $10,000 check to Shane Bouvet, a struggling single father who travelled all the way from Illinois with borrowed suit and shoes just to experience the moment.
It seems equally as exaggerated to suggest Obama was a paragon of gentility.
Obama regularly brought hip hop stars and Hollywood celebrities to the White House who had employed anti-police rhetoric, glorified drug use and made a living using lewd, sexually explicit language.
"I think what President Obama wanted to do in so many ways was try to restore some dignity to this notion of public service," Earnest claimed.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chris-matthews-obama-a-gentleman-unlike-trump