On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball” during a discussion with former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, host Chris Matthews argued part of the reason Donald Trump was elected president was former President Barack Obama “was such a sterling character.”

According to Matthews, it drove “some people who don’t like the success of anybody that was a minority crazy.”

Matthews said, “I believe in it, that Barack Obama was such a sterling character, his family was such a sterling perfect family, they are perfect by any standards of traditional American values. They obeyed all the rules. They weren’t money-grubbers, public service from the beginning of his career. He didn’t go into private money. He went into helping the country with community development, the whole works, public service. And it drives some people who don’t like the success of anybody that was a minority crazy. You suggested that was one of the reasons why you thought Trump might win.”

Rice said, “I think it was that and more. I think there was a vein of discontent that I sensed that Trump had the potential to tap into. Part of it may have been, of course, the fact that we had an African-American president who was elected twice and quite successful in office. But I think it was broader than that. And, you know, at that time the field was very large, and it seemed almost inconceivable to most people that it wouldn’t be, you know, a Bush or a Rubio or something like that. But Trump had a particular brand of tapping into visceral, negative views of, you know, many Americans.”

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