New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio has been focusing a lot of his campaign’s attention on opposing the proposed Cordoba House Islamic center near Ground Zero, and today on Hardball, Chris Matthews took him to task for playing politics with the controversy. Matthews asked Lazio how he responds to those who say the focus “has a lot to do with the fact that you’re down 30 points in what looks to be your upcoming general election fight with Andrew Cuomo for governor.”
Matthews also accused Lazio of “distorting” and corrupting” the words of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to make it seem like he is a “hater” of America: “You’re making it sound like this guy is blaming Americans for the World Trade Center horror.”
Lazio contended that he’s just saying: “Let’s get to the bottom of this.”
“The bottom of it is you’re running for governor,” Matthews fired back.
Here’s one choice snippet of the interview:
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.