Matthews did not challenge Republican strategist's false claim that "it was Senator McCain who called for Don Rumsfeld to be sacked"

Summary: On Hardball, Todd Harris falsely claimed that "it was Senator [John] McCain who called for Don Rumsfeld to be sacked." Chris Matthews responded: "Right." But a McCain spokesman reportedly acknowledged that McCain "did not call for his resignation."

On the June 12 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, when Republican strategist Todd Harris falsely claimed that "it was Senator [John] McCain who called for [former Secretary of Defense] Don Rumsfeld to be sacked," host Chris Matthews responded, "Right." Harris went on to assert: "In all -- in my party, a lot of people said, 'How dare he come out and say Don Rumsfeld needs to go?' " In fact, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, McCain did not call for Rumsfeld's resignation. While McCain expressed "no confidence" in Rumsfeld in 2004, the Associated Press reported at the time that McCain "said his comments were not a call for Rumsfeld's resignation." Further, when Fox News host Shepard Smith specifically asked McCain, "Does Donald Rumsfeld need to step down?" on November 8, 2006 -- hours before President Bush announced Rumsfeld's resignation -- McCain responded that it was "a decision to be made by the president." On March 27, MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell issued a "clarification" on MSNBC Live after she falsely claimed McCain "called for Don Rumsfeld's resignation."

The Washington Post reported in a February 9 article that McCain "regularly reminds audiences that he also criticized Bush's management of the war and called for Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation as defense secretary." After Media Matters noted the article's failure to report that McCain's repeated assertions that he had called for Rumsfeld's resignation were false, the Post published a February 16 article reporting that McCain "overstate[d] his public position on Rumsfeld" and that he had never called for him to resign. According to the February 16 article: "[D]uring a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., aired on CNN, McCain said, 'I'm the only one that said that Rumsfeld had to go.' A McCain spokesman acknowledged this week that that was not correct. 'He did not call for his resignation,' said the campaign's Brian Rogers. 'He always said that's the president's prerogative.' " The February 16 Post article also noted that "McCain's false account has been unwittingly incorporated into the narrative he is selling by some news organizations, including The Washington Post."

From the June 12 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: But on the biggest issue people care about, the war on Iraq, he will continue it. And the biggest issue --

HARRIS: No, the biggest issue --

MATTHEWS: -- people care about at home is the economy, and he'll keep the Bush fiscal policy, won't he?

HARRIS: Well, if you mean is he going to keep taxes low, yes. Absolutely. He's going to keep taxes low.

MATTHEWS: No, he's going to keep the Bush tax cuts.

HARRIS: On the issue of Iraq --

MATTHEWS: He's going to keep us in Iraq for 100 years.

HARRIS: -- remember it was Senator McCain who called for Don Rumsfeld to be sacked --

MATTHEWS: Right.

HARRIS: -- because the war was not being executed the way that it should have been. In all -- in my party, a lot of people said, "How dare he come out and say Don Rumsfeld needs to go?" John -- John --

MATTHEWS: Do you buy the theory that it doesn't matter how long we stay there? That's what he said yesterday. Is that really true?

HARRIS: What he --

MATTHEWS: It doesn't matter how long we stay there?

—B.J.L.