Chris Matthews on Tuesday claimed the Republicans were engaged in a “Stalinesque” purge. On Tuesday’s Hardball Matthews charged that conservatives challenging moderates within the Republican Party (like Marco Rubio versus Charlie Crist in Florida) was akin to Joseph Stalin’s violent purges in the 1930s, as he teased an upcoming segment this way: “Coming up what happens to Republicans who don’t march to the right wing tune? Well they’re getting purged. This is Stalinesque, this stuff.”
Later on in the segment Matthews claimed the GOP was engaging in something “particularly nasty” in “pruning itself” and warned Republicans risked losing “sophisticated” voters in the suburbs if it continued to turn toward “Palin-ism and gun-toters.”