Chris Matthews retires and apologizes for comments on women

The veteran MSNBC host Chris Matthews has announced his retirement, citing his inappropriate comments about women.

Matthews abruptly stepped down from his Hardball show on Monday, apologizing for his comments and saying “a younger generation is ready to take the reins”.

“The younger generation” is “improving the workplace” with “better standards than we grew up with, fairer standards”, Matthews said, adding that “compliments on a woman’s appearance” that some men, himself included, once “incorrectly thought were OK, were never OK”.

The move comes after a recent GQ story in which the journalist Laura Bassett wrote about Matthews’ inappropriate flirtatious remarks toward her when she was on his show.

Bassett wrote: “In 2016, right before I had to go on his show and talk about sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump, Matthews looked over at me in the makeup chair next to him and said, ‘Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?’

She went on: “When I laughed nervously and said nothing, he followed up to the makeup artist. ‘Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her.’ Another time, he stood between me and the mirror and complimented the red dress I was wearing for the segment. ‘You going out tonight?’ he asked.”

Matthews’ on-air comments in the past weeks have also sparked repeated calls for him to be fired. He compared Bernie Sanders’ victory in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday to the Nazi invasion of France. And in an interview with Elizabeth Warren, he repeatedly questioned why she thought Michael Bloomberg would have lied about the employee who claimed he told her to “kill it” when she said she was pregnant.

“And why would he lie?” Matthews said. “Just to protect himself?”

In her GQ piece, Bassett cited Matthews’ interview with Warren as part of a long pattern of sexist and inappropriate behavior and wrote that he was “unfit for his job”.

Agencies contributed reporting