Video: Chris Matthews surprised to learn it was Obama who first mentioned "revenge"

After Wagner played a clip of Mitt Romney rehashing a line that president Obama said on the campaign trail — that “voting is the best revenge” — Matthews admitted that he was unaware how the “revenge” theme had come from.

Wagner explained that Obama had first said the line, and Romney had made it a part of his stump speech. Matthews digested this fact and determined that Mitt Romney was focusing on the theme of revenge because his audiences were thirsty for vengeance.

“It might fit with running robo-calls with Donald Trump. You having [John] Sununu as your chief surrogate,” Matthews said. “There has been a bad side to the Romney campaign – he can talk sweetly about bipartisanship, but behind the curtains when no one is looking, of course, he’s Donald Trump’s best friend. He’s putting people like Sununu out there to talk the dirty talk – the ethnic stuff. It’s relentless. They haven’t once’ pushed back from it.”