MSNBC host Chris Matthews was missing from the network’s coverage of the South Carolina Democratic Party primary, one day after a woman accused him of sexual harassment.
Matthews, who normally is on air to conduct political analysis during election contests, was notably absent from the lineup Saturday night for the South Carolina primary, which featured other MSNBC fixtures such as Rachel Maddow, Brian Williams, and Nicolle Wallace.
On Friday, GQ columnist and former network guest Laura Bassett accused him of “inappropriately flirting” with her four years ago when she was a guest on his show.
“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,'” Bassett wrote in an opinion piece. “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. I said I didn’t know, and he said — again to the makeup artist — ‘Make sure you wipe this off her face after the show. We don’t make her up so some guy at a bar can look at her like this,'” she said of the Hardball host.
Bassett, who noted that she was not certain his behavior mounted to the level of illegal sexual misconduct, said she felt compelled to tell her story after watching Matthews get into a back-and-forth with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren over former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s alleged past conduct with female employees.
Matthews has been accused of or caught making inappropriate comments to women in the past.
Over the years, there have been reports on how he would rate female guests on a numerical scale based on appearance, that he has been reprimanded for comments directed to a subordinate that led to a separation-related payment, and was caught on camera joking about a “Bill Cosby pill,” which was a reference to a date-rape drug. He also referred to former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates as “attractive.”
Matthews grabbed headlines in recent weeks for his criticism of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential primary heading into Saturday’s contest. On Monday, he apologized to Sanders for comparing the socialist’s decisive victory in the Nevada caucuses to the 1940 Nazi invasion of France. On Friday, the MSNBC host mixed up Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Democratic opponent Jaime Harrison and the South Carolina Republican’s colleague Sen. Tim Scott, both of whom are black.
All the while, calls for Matthews to resign have grown louder.
MSNBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Matthews’s absence on Saturday.
