MSNBC evening anchor Chris Matthews compared the death of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani with the deaths of Elvis Presley and Princess Diana, specifically regarding the "outpouring" of grief.

"When some people die, you don't know what the impact is going to be. When Princess Diana died, for example, there was a huge emotional outpouring," Matthews said on his show Wednesday night. "Elvis Presley in our culture — it turns out that this general we killed was a beloved hero of the Iranian people to the point where — look at the people, we got pictures up now — these enormous crowds coming out. There's no American emotion in this case, but there's a hell of a lot of emotion on the other side."

Tensions between the United States and Iran escalated and de-escalated over the last week or so. President Trump's order to kill Soleimani last Thursday was in response to the death of an American contractor last month. Iran responded to the killing of Soleimani by attacking two U.S.-Iraqi air bases with more than a dozen ballistic missiles on Tuesday night, but there were no casualties in the retaliatory strikes.

While Matthews noted that thousands of people poured into the street following the death of Soleimani, he failed to mention that "the government has forced students and officials to attend," according to Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, who wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled, "Don’t believe Iranian propaganda about the mourning for Soleimani" earlier this week. Alinejad also reported that "free transport [was provided] and [the government] ordered shops to shut down."

Trump announced that the U.S. would not respond to Iran's missile fire with military force. Instead, during the president's Wednesday morning address, he lobbied for the U.S. to make "a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place."