On November 27, 2018, Chris Matthews, a news anchor on MSNBC, criticized President Donald Trump for engaging in divisive politics similar to that of Zimbabwe’s opposition. Matthews compared Trump’s tactics to those used by Zimbabwe’s opposition, who have a history of discrediting election results they disagree with. He argued that this approach undermines the idea of objective truth and fosters a tribalistic mindset where one side is always right and the other side is always wrong. He said:
I was reading about Zimbabwe today, and I’ve been to Zimbabwe. I know it’s a young country with all kinds of problems … and trying to figure things out. He (Trump) is taking us back to where they are, where all the opposition does is say that people who win elections are crooked, that everything’s rigged, everything — nothing’s on the level, there’s no such thing as objective truth, everything is tribal, our side is always right, your side’s always wrong. That’s my judgment.
You can watch Matthews’ video HERE
In Zimbabwe, the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has repeatedly rejected election results, accusing the ruling party, ZANU-PF, of rigging the elections and suppressing their supporters. Even in the recent July 30, 2018 election, the opposition claimed that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission manipulated the results in favour of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.