While covering on Wednesday the public ridiculing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions by President Trump, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews bizarrely claimed that it’s “mostly southern senators” with “Dixie in their voices” who are supporting “a favorite of the old Confederacy.”

The loony train was off and running seconds into the show as Matthews declared that “we're watching civil war between mostly southern senators loyal to the man from Alabama as he challenges the President out there loudly trying to dump him.”

“The fight is now making Republicans take sides between Donald Trump, a former Democrat from New York, lets remember, and Jeff Sessions, a favorite of the old Confederacy. Well, the President’s latest assault is to hit Jeff Sessions for not removing the acting FBI director,” he continued.

Yeesh. Everything has to be about racism with liberals.

Matthews wasn’t done, telling a panel eight minutes later that Republicans and conservatives defending Sessions are “mostly southern senators” and thus, in his mind, “[t]here’s a real sort of regional thing here.”

“They consider Sessions one of their own — sort of an old southern guy. You can almost hear Dixie in their voices. Watch this,” Matthews added while The Washington Post’s Philip Bump could be heard laughing.

However, there was just one problem: not all of the Republicans in the video montage were southerners. Sure, Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich from Georgia are from the South and Deep South, but the other three arguably are not.

John Cornyn is from Texas, but many would contend that Texas stands on her own. As for the other two, John Barrasso represents Wyoming and Orrin Hatch hails from Utah. So, in other words, this space deems this hatchet job fake news (pun intended).

Nevertheless, Matthews unsuccessfully tried to keep this southern obsession alive, wondering Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley (Ill.):

Congressman Quigley, you're from Illinois, but figure this out. There seems to be a regional loyalty to one their own — to Sessions. I mean, he is one of the post-1964 I mean that seriously, southern Republicans now. They used to be all southern Democrats. Dixiecrats. Now they're all very loyal to Trump and it looks line he's the leader among them. They're all sticking to him.

Quigley turned matters back to Trump, arguing that the President has gone to great lengths in order to blame anyone but himself when things don’t go his way.

Tonight's crazy talk on Hardball was brought to you by Birds Eye Voila! Skillet Meals, Hilton Hotels, Liberty Mutual and TUMS.

Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on July 26: