Chris Matthews compares Ivanka Trump and her husband to murderous sons of Saddam Hussein

Chris Matthews made a very odd comparison on his MSNBC show Monday while trying to impress upon his viewers the gravity of the power granted to Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner by President Donald Trump.

"You know, we kid," he said, "I kid about everything, but Uday and Qusay working for Saddam Hussein — you couldn't go to a restaurant and have eye contact with those guys without getting killed."

"These people are really powerful," he explained. "Imagine getting into a fight in the office with Jared or Ivanka. They have enormous power, and they're always gonna be there."

"This is what I worry about for other people in the White House," Politico's Annie Karni responded. "Ivanka Trump has been described as her father's eyes and ears on the ground. That's a little scary if you're just a regular White House staffer."

Matthews was discussing the issues arising out of Trump giving members of his family official positions in the cabinet, and even assigning some access to confidential information to them. Some have criticized the nepotism involved, while others have said there are ethical issues with the actions. Matthews is the first to compare them to the murderously evil brothers Usay and Qusay, the sons of dictator Saddam Hussein.

CNN described the expanding role of the power couple:

The pair have long been top advisers to Trump, but both now seem ascendent. Ivanka Trump, who is getting her own West Wing office, is heading to Berlin in April at the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to attend the W20 Summit. Kushner, it was announced Monday, will lead an "innovation" office tasked with making government more efficient.

Even as Trump courts chaos and competing factions among his top staff, the couple is often referred to as "moderating forces," and "Donald Trump whisperers." The phrases "inner circle" and "power couple" often accompanying reports about the two, who live just two miles from the White House in DC's Kalorama neighborhood.

Ivanka Trump has been a favorite target of the more malicious among the left. In December, a Politico writer was let go for wondering if Trump had committed incest with his daughter Ivanka, and she was accosted on an airplane flight by an angry man yelling at her that her father had "ruined the country."