Showing disdain for middle America and people not on-board with the liberal media complex, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews mocked red states like Texas and Utah on Thursday plus anyone not concerned about the Trump-Russia collusion news, suggesting they’d “be going crazy and lighting bonfires at federal buildings” if this involved a Clinton presidency.

Matthews had heard a sampling of GOP Senators offering unsatisfactory reactions to the Donald Trump Jr. news when he ruled that he’s “not here to assess the interest there is in Wyoming, in South Dakota, in Texas or in Utah” besides take note of how the Senators mentioned represented those states.

Republican strategist John Brabender attempted to explain that there was something to that, stating how “there is a lot of apathy about” the Trump-Russia story. Brabender tried to continue but was interrupted so Matthews could dismiss this swath of the country:

BRABENDER: I'm talking to a lot of senators and congressman doing town hall meetings. And I’ve asked them: What do you hear about Russia. Nothing. They want to hear about health care, they want to know about — MATTHEWS: That was true of Watergate for months. It was true of Watergate for months. BRABENDER: People don’t see how this affects their life right now. MATTHEWS: I know. Well, you know, it might affect who the president is.

Later, Matthews circled back to Brabender’s comments to again trash rural, western conservative voters, suggesting they’d be furious if this story was about a Clinton presidency instead:

You said that people out in the country aren't focusing on this. I understand there’s still a lot of attitude against the establishment. But if this were Chelsea and Hillary involved in this, you don't think that that crowd out there in Ted Cruz country, in Utah, southern South Dakota, and those other countries represented there — in Wyoming[.]

MoveOn.org’s Karine Jean-Pierre interjected sporadically with approval as Matthews lashed out, parodying hard-working Americans by suggesting such a scandal under a Hillary Clinton administration would have resulted in these folks “going crazy and lighting bonfires at federal buildings.”

Brabender reiterated his argument that “the average American” doesn’t really care about Russia, but was shouted down by Matthews and Jean-Pierre:

JEAN-PIERRE: Hypocrisy. It’s blatant hypocrisy. GOP hypocrisy. BRABENDER: You’ve actually proved my point. It's a political issue. This time it's the left. Other times it's the right. MATTHEWS: Your crowd would be livid with excitement right now. JEAN-PIERRE: You’d be livid. Their hair would be on fire. MATTHEWS: I love it would be their line all weekend. JEAN-PIERRE: Screaming from the mountain tops. You guys would be screaming from the mountaintops if this was Hillary Clinton. Absolutely.

Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on July 11: