MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough mourned the retirement of Chris Matthews while addressing the accusations of sexual harassment against their longtime colleague.
Matthews announced his retirement on Monday night less than a week after he was accused of sexually harassing colleagues and other guests on his show Hardball. During Tuesday’s Morning Joe, Brzezinski addressed her relationship with Matthews and questioned the “cancel culture” of the #MeToo era.
“As a woman, I just want to say this: I loved working with Chris Matthews. I really enjoyed being his colleague,” she said. “And I really, I understand the important changes around this so-called cancel culture. They’re important. They’re hard. They’re painful. And in many cases, they are necessary.”
She continued, “I do wonder, at this point though, as we move forward and we look at this and what happened here, if there might be a better way for all of us in the future where we work through this and get to a better place. But for now, I’ll just say I’ll miss him every night at 7 p.m., but I remain his friend.”
Scarborough, who married Brzezinski after the two started dating while co-hosting the program, also expressed his sorrow with Matthews’s retirement.
In his retirement announcement on Monday, Matthews addressed his behavior toward women, saying, “Compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK, were never OK. Not then and certainly not today, and, for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”
Because of the underlying sexual harassment accusations, some were unhappy with Brzezinski’s kind words for Matthews.
Max Weiss, the editor-in-chief of Baltimore Magazine tweeted, “In news that will shock exactly no one, Mika Brzezinski said that as ‘a woman I loved working Chris Matthews’ and although ‘cancel culture’ was ‘hard’ and ‘necessary’ there ‘might be a better way for all of us in the future.’ This is today’s installment of Mika is a Bad Ally.”
Weiss continued, “[By the way], using the phrase ‘cancel culture’ is a tell. Similar to using the phrase ‘social justice warrior.’ The disdain is built right into the phrase.”
(BTW, using the phrase “cancel culture” is a tell. Similar to using the phrase “social justice warrior.” The disdain is built right into the phrase.)
— Max Weiss (@maxthegirl) March 3, 2020
It is not yet clear who will permanently replace Matthews. MSNBC told the Washington Examiner that the network would be rotating hosts in the time slot until a long-term decision is made.
