BUCHANAN: Well, I heard you talking, Chris. And I was a communications director. That was not a rehearsed moment.

I think Janet – that was one of the most moving things I have seen at a State of the Union address. That woman is Middle America. Her husband, I thought, was tremendously moving when he reached across and shook hands. There was nothing – there was nothing rehearsed about that. [END OF EXCERPT]

Matthews rolled a clip of the hug again, then accused Buchanan of "acting naive" for insisting that the hug wasn't staged. The exchange went like this:

BUCHANAN: I think we are too cynical in this.

MATTHEWS: She embraced the Iraqi woman.

BUCHANAN: I think we are too cynical.

MATTHEWS: You mean these things aren`t staged?

BUCHANAN: I mean, obviously, she was up there. Somebody got that letter and said, Mr. President, there's a wonderful example of the heroism and sacrifice in Iraq and how an American family treated it. Let's show the country this vignette.

And they put her there, but you looked at him shaking hands with the Marine. That was very natural and normal. That was not rehearsed.

MATTHEWS: The reason it would come to some people's thought that it might be partially rehearsed, in a sense, [is] that there's a selection process now for filling that balcony seating. So many of the people are seated up there because they represent a particular ethnic group or somebody who is in play politically or some symbolic group that they are trying to grab politically.

MATTHEWS: This is done so often, Pat. You are acting so naive about this. [END OF EXCERPT]

Editor's note: