Chris Matthews to DNC Chair: What’s the Difference Between Democrat, Socialist?

MSNBC host Chris Matthews requested Democratic Nationwide Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to elucidate the distinction between a Democrat and a socialist.

Matthews first began questioning Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) on whether presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a proud socialist, would be given a slot on prime time to speak at the Democratic National Convention. (And even that boiled down to “Democrats love everyone, but Republicans hate everything.”) She couldn’t answer because there is no difference between Democrats and Socialists. “What do you think it is?” he asked again. “But what’s the big difference between being a Democrat and being a socialist?”

Matthews kept after Wasserman-Schultz until she finally blurted out an answer – you’d have thought he had a GOP spokesperson on the hot seat.

Sanders is an independent socialist who has always caucused with Democrats in the Senate and is now polling second for that party’s nomination for president of the United States.

Instead of answering, Wasserman Schutlz tells Matthews that there’s a much bigger gulf between Democrats and Republicans than Democrats and Socialists.

Not only is Bernie Sanders a Socialist, but Barack Obama was reportedly a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Wasserman Schultz laughs nervously.

“You are the chairman of the Democratic Get together”.

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: The difference between-the real question is what’s the difference between being a Democrat and being a Republican… I used to think there was a big difference. And that was precisely the Matthews’ point.

“The basic idea is that production decisions and everything else are not organized around the desire to make a profit, they’re organized by a cooperative group to produce stuff that people think they need”, Ahlquist said. “The modern American Democratic Party has very little to do with anything resembling what we would consider to be socialism or social democracy”, Ahlquist said during a phone interview. Video of the exchange can be seen above.