Ok so here's a transcript of the last Q&A session about Gannon on Hardball. Caught it last night.
MATTHEWS: Washington continues to buzz over a man who got into the White House press briefings under a false name. And now that man has given an interview to NBC News.
HARDBALL correspondent David Shuster reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID SHUSTER, NBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He was known around the White House as Jeff Gannon.
JAMES GUCKERT, FORMER TALON NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We know that the president is a man of faith.
SHUSTER: And for two years, he teed up White House talking points and trashed Democrats.
GUCKERT: How are you going to work at people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?
SHUSTER: In his first broadcast network television interview, Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, told NBC`s Campbell Brown his White House access was not a conspiracy, but rather the result of a simple request.
GUCKERT: I asked to come. They allowed me to come. And, apparently, there isn`t a very high threshold as far as somebody`s personal life to gain access.
SHUSTER: That, of course, is an understatement. If the White House had done the FBI background check required of regularly credentialed reporters, the Press Office would have discovered that Guckert is linked to several Internet sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com and WorkingBoys.net. Here is Guckert he described his activities to NBC.
GUCKERT: I registered a number of domain names that some have suggested are...
CAMPBELL BROWN, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Pornographic Web sites.
GUCKERT: Well, yes.
BROWN: Did you advertise yourself as a gay male escort for hire on a Web site?
GUCKERT: I cannot go into those specifics.
SHUSTER: That`s because, as Guckert told "Newsweek" magazine, he wants to sue liberal interest groups and bloggers for what he calls political assassination. That`s not grounds for a lawsuit.
Furthermore, Guckert has not denied what has been said about him. But what he says has been inconsistent. Two weeks ago, he told "Editor & Publisher" he would no longer talk to the media. Five days later, he complained to the same magazine that nobody was trying to contact him. As for covering the White House under a fake name...
GUCKERT: My name is James Guckert.
BROWN: James Guckert?
GUCKERT: Yes.
BROWN: It`s not so hard to pronounce.
GUCKERT: Well, when you read it, it is always pronounced some other way.
BROWN: Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan had said he did know Gannon was not using his real name, but--quote--"He, like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly."
The problem is, Talon News, a collection of Web sites run by Texas Republicans, was not formed until after Guckert had already started attending White House press briefings two years ago.
(on camera): All of this is raising questions that now some members of Congress want answers to. Democrats are demanding an investigation into White House access. Republicans say that`s unnecessary.
I`m David Shuster for HARDBALL in Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEWS: Thank you, David Shuster.
For the record, HARDBALL asked Jeff Gannon to appear on tonight`s show, but he did not respond to our invitation.
Al Sharpton is the president of the National Action Network and former Democratic candidate for president. And Susan Molinari is a former Republican member of Congress from Staten Island, New York.
I have to ask the Reverend Sharpton, suppose you were president of the United States and you found out there was this phantom character that showed up in your press room every day. Would you keep calling on him, the way the president does, if you did not know who the guy was or what?
AL SHARPTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, certainly not only would I not be calling on him. I would want someone to explain to me how he could have gotten in under an alias name from a news organization that wasn`t even in business when he started coming in.
I mean, if anything, it makes the whole White House press conference, press corps look like they pass no scrutiny. But it really smacks of someone planting someone there that can give certain questions and therefore set the tone of a press conference in a very partisan way. And this stinks to the highest heavens.
MATTHEWS: Do you think this is press manipulation, Susan?
SUSAN MOLINARI, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: If it is, it is really bad press manipulation.
(LAUGHTER)
MOLINARI: Let`s face it. There are some legitimate questions out there. How did he get in? Now, obviously, the question has come out that he has had a daily pass to press briefings, which is different than the overall kind of lifetime pass that others have to go through, that require the background check. But there`s some questions as to how he was allowed to survive.
But, I mean, if you were going to plant somebody, would you have them ask questions that were so pointedly, obviously partisan?
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Like, what is it like having to do with these clown liberals?
(CROSSTALK)
MOLINARI: Really.
MATTHEWS: He keeps asking these ringer questions to set the tone. The trouble is, a lot of these press conferences are on C-SPAN. They`re on television. You create P.R. just by asking the dumb, the stupid questions.
MOLINARI: But not that obvious. I mean, let`s face it. This is a smart P.R. operation in the White House, is it not? To have someone who is so implicitly not subtle is hysterical.
SHARPTON: But he got away with it.
MOLINARI: And the fact that other reporters did not even look and do background checks on him from the start kind of amazes me.
MATTHEWS: Reverend Sharpton.
SHARPTON: But they got away with it for two years, Susan. So, I don`t know how silly it is.
(CROSSTALK)
SHARPTON: I think they got away with it a long time. It was very obvious. But, obviously, they got away with it a long time and it set a bad tone for those that wanted to ask questions.
(CROSSTALK)
MOLINARI: What do you mean they got away with it? Obviously, just because somebody like seems like he`s giving platitudes to the president doesn`t mean you have to kick him out because he`s too obvious.
MATTHEWS: Let me lower this conversation to an even lower level.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: What do you make about these Doug Wead tapes? Do you think the president, if gets control of them again, Doug Wead, do you think he`s going to destroy him? Or should he?...
So...now the defense is "Obviously we're not stupid enough to let something this bad happen". Great defense...use this to our advantage guys. The MSM has picked up the Gannon story...let's use their defense against them.
"We're obviously too smart to have done something this stupid". Uh...huh...
