As Bernie Sanders surged to the top of the pack at Saturday's Democratic caucuses in Nevada, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews was having a rough time.

The Hardball host told viewers that if Sanders became the Democratic nominee, Republicans would release opposition research about "what [Sanders has] said in the past about world affairs, how far left he is," which would "kill him" in the general election in November.

"But I think it's a little late to stop him," Matthews told viewers.

Then the MSNBC star turned to the history books for an analogy to describe his feelings at watching a series of top Democrats be outpaced by Sanders.

"I was reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940," said Matthews, "And the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says, 'It's over.' And Churchill says, 'How can that be? You've got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?' He said, 'It's over.'"

Matthews added, "So I had that suppressed feeling."



The comment prompted outcry not just from Sanders' supporters; many people on Twitter described the reference to a Nazi invasion to discuss a prominent Jewish candidate as distasteful.