Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball was a guest on Bill Maher’s “Overtime” show and explained why black people thank him for putting racist Republicans on blast.

Bill Maher: “Chris Matthews. Are you taking heat for willing to call a comment racist sometimes before anyone else has raised the issue?”

Chris Matthews: “Everybody I’ve met who’s African-American has come up to me, about six inches away from me and very personally said, ‘thank you.’ I met some people in Mozambique, I met some people in Jamaica. It is an international reality and everybody feels it on that side of the racial divide and it’s disgusting that white people to whom the dog whistle is aimed, refuse to acknowledge it, is there, it’s been part of our politics, we thought it was gone, it’s back and it’s being used to get votes”

WENN