Former Hardball host Chris Matthews is returning to MSNBC for the first time in more than a year, and he’ll appear on Tuesday’s broadcast of the 7 p.m. show that has succeeded his: The ReidOut.
Matthews is making the rounds to promote his new memoir, This Country. Tomorrow, he’ll appear on The View.
Guess who’s back and hanging out with me on @thereidout tonight?? My pal and one of the people who gave me a crucial career break way way back in the day, the great @HardballChris, who’s got a fantastic new book out Today: #ThisCountry. See you … and Chris … at 7!! https://t.co/NPb8hvluJD pic.twitter.com/hox8jpuVeB
Advertisement— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) June 1, 2021
Just days prior to Matthews’ sudden departure from Hardball on March 2, 2020, freelance journalist Laura Bassett wrote an article published by GQ, in which she outlined a number of instances in 2016 where Matthews “inappropriately flirted with her” before she appeared on a Hardball panel. She acknowledged that his actions might not fall into the realm of sexual harassment, but that they had still made her feel uncomfortable, affecting her ability to do her job. Bassett also wrote that she was not the only woman to appear on Hardball who left the program feeling this way.
Matthews later admitted in an interview with Vanity Fair that his behavior and alleged inappropriate comments were accurate and “highly justified” his leaving Hardball after decades hosting the program.
Hardball had been MSNBC’s longest-running show. It debuted on MSNBC in 1999, but actually premiered on CNBC in 1997. (Matthews’ association with NBC goes back even further to 1994 when he hosted a politics show on America’s Talking.)