RIDE THE CHRIS MATTHEWS MOBIUS LOOP:

Chris Matthews — the long-time host of MSNBC’s Hardball weeknight program — surprised his fellow commentators by asserting that the billionaire [Donald Trump] can be as deadly as a former dictator in the Middle East.

“He has a lot of information on everybody,” Matthews told moderator and Meet the Press host Chuck Todd. “He’s ready to go after a guy like Charles Krauthammer,” a popular commentator on the Fox News Channel. Trump “has already done the oppo (opposition research) on every journalist around. He’s ready with the worst stuff to throw at you.”

At that point, the Hardball host made an outrageous claim about the GOP candidate:

It’s like you used to read about in the days of Baghdad under (former Iraqi dictator Saddam) Hussein (who was executed on Dec. 30, 2006).

You didn’t want to be in a restaurant with one of his kids because they might make eye contact with you, and you might make eye contact with their girlfriend at the time, and you’re dead the next day.

“So it’s going to be dangerous territory out on that (Republican debate) stage,” he added.

—”Chris Matthews: Donald Trump Can Be as Dangerous as Saddam Hussein,” NewsBusters, yesterday evening.

MATTHEWS: I still think a reasonable question is, would we be better
off with Gadhafi and Bashar al-Assad still in there and Mubarak still there
and Saddam there than the crap we have got looking at us now?

EUGENE ROBINSON: We could be worse off.

MATTHEWS: With ISIS and all — I think it`s still — I begin to get a
tad of nostalgia.

—NBC Transcript of Matthews’ May 15th Hardball segment.