Rick Santelli and Matt Lauer, February 26

Matt Lauer was very aggressive in questioning Rick Santelli on Today this morning.

CNBC's Dylan Ratigan was also part of the discussion. He tried to temper Lauer's hostility, but he failed. Lauer was foaming-at-the-mouth angry at Santelli.

Video.

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Transcript

MATT LAUER: Let me take this a step further. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, commented, called you out, in the briefing room. And after you heard his comments, you said that he was threatening you. Are you serious about that?

RICK SANTELLI: Listen, let's put it this way. Matt, you're married, are you not?

LAUER: Yeah, I am.

SANTELLI: OK. This is more about the feelings my wife had when she watched the body language and listened to what he was saying.

LAUER: But this is the White House Press Secretary. You think he's gonna threaten you on national television?

SANTELLI: Well, let's rephrase the question. Do we think it's normal to be named by name as opposed to the general media at large, say the cable guy, or some of the comments? I find and my wife finds and many of my friends find that the direct confrontation and pointing me out by name just is not ordinary. And I'll leave it at that, and let people make their own judgment.

DYLAN RATIGAN: Let me say one thing on Rick's behalf. Rick is channeling an emotion everybody in America is feeling, that people were able to cheat the system, whether it's on Wall Street, whether it was politicians, or whether it was homeowners. Rick has been aggressive in criticizing the treatment of the bankers, the behavior of the politicians. He's gotten a lot of attention now for the homeowners, but that is not a unique issue. He hits a Behavioral Economics 101 issue which is people will not engage a system that they do not believe is fair.

LAUER: And I completely understand your supporting Rick. And Rick, I'm sure your wife is a lovely person. However, what Robert Gibbs said was basically, and I'm paraphrasing here, he was saying he's not sure that as a former trader and current television personality you're living in the same kind of neighborhoods where people are struggling to pay their mortgages. He wasn't threatening you.

SANTELLI: Well, listen, I'm not saying threatening. It's just to be pin-pointed specifically, I find very unusual. And I think that it's more of a decision for you as the press, or all the people on the lawn that giggled at the joke about caffeine, and it was funny, but how would they like to be pin-pointed specifically? I think that's the issue at hand. I don't want to make more out of this. You know, here I am, and I want to continue to do what I've always done, and that is question motivation. Whether it's the fed chairman...

LAUER: Right. But the only thing I would say, Rick, is if you go out of your way to call-out the president of the United States, you have to expect that his representative may go out of his way to call you out. Isn't that... doesn't that go with the territory?

Lauer seems to consider himself a representative of the president of the United States. He's certainly calling out Santelli and defending Obama.

SANTELLI: Well, what we're really saying is calling out... As a member of the press, do I not get to ask a question or questions?

LAUER: And as the press secretary, doesn't he have the right to ask you a question?

Good grief. Lauer doesn't get it. Rick Santelli does not have the power of the U.S. government behind him. It's not a level playing field at all.

SANTELLI: He certainly does. It would be nice if he did it face to face, but I don't know that he needs to throw out my name. I just have an issue with that personally.

RATIGAN: I think the emotion here is a real emotion that everybody in this country feels, and we would be well served by this administration, Republicans and Democrats, making it clear that they are going to make sure that the cheaters on Wall Street, and in the housing market, and in Congress, will be caught. I think that if you back up and look at the emotion, I think that's Rick's point, your point, and my point.

LAUER: Clearly, it's touched a nerve. We will all agree on that.

SANTELLI: One thing, Matt. Let's get this out, Matt. Everybody that's talking right now, we want all of this to succeed. We just want to make sure that as we spend the money we don't have we're getting a return, and people have a chance to look at it and understand where it's going, and what type of return we're getting.

RATIGAN: And you can't restart a system that's riddled with cheaters.

Lauer needs to get his Obama love in check. He's embarrassing himself. Lauer needs to work on trying to at least appear objective. If he can't do it, send him to join the loons at the Siberia of cable news, MSNBC.