RNC Chair Fires Back at Chris Matthews After Tense Exchange: Took Prize for 'Biggest Jerk in the Room

Following this morning's blow up by Chris Matthews during a segment with RNC Chair Reince Priebus on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Priebus spoke with a small group of reporters inside the Google Lounge at the convention center and offered his reaction, throwing out the term "biggest jerk."

TheBlaze was on hand and asked the question, "Mr. Chairman, on Chris Matthews... when you went to commercial after the conflict with Chris Matthews, was there anything said between the two of you?  Did you shake hands? Was there a hug?

Mr. Priebus answered the question fully for TheBlaze, and delivered one of the classic lines from the convention today:

"When someone wants to take the prize of being the biggest jerk in the room, he made the case for us."

Priebus also said the the two shook hands and that someone from MSNBC had been trying to call him all day, possibly to make amends. And while he said no amends was needed, he did refer to Matthews as an Obama "surrogate."

But he wasn't done there. After mentioning that hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were unhappy with Matthews, he took a parting shot, saying that "if more than 10 people actually watched his show I'd actually care."

After our question and a follow up about future appearances on MSNBC, we informed the chairman that his MSNBC segment was the #1 story on TheBlaze today.

He smiled.

Watch the question-and-answer below: