On Monday’s broadcast of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, “Hardball” host Chris Matthews took a few shots at Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, resulting in a heated back-and-forth between the two.

Matthews accused Republicans of playing the “race card,” particularly with last week’s birth certificate joke from Mitt Romney.

“That cheap shot about ‘I don’t have a problem with my birth certificate’ was awful,” said Matthews. “It is an embarrassment to your party to play that card. This stuff about getting rid of the work requirement for welfare is dishonest, everyone’s pointed out it’s dishonest and you are playing that little ethnic card there. And you can play your games and giggle about it, but the fact is your side is playing that card. When you start talking about work requirements, we know what game you’re playing, and everybody knows what game you’re playing, it’s a race card.”

Priebus dismissed Matthews’ claim and suggested the MSNBC host was merely trying to “push his brand.”

“You got your monologue in — so, congratulations,” Priebus said.

“You’re loaded up, you got it out. Good for you. The fact of the matter is that he’s from Michigan. He was born in Michigan. He’s making the point that I was born in Michigan. And you know what? We’ve gotten to a place in politics that any moment of levity is totally frowned upon by guys like you just so that you can push your brand. You know what? Good for you. It is a moment of levity. Everybody gets it.”

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