Chris Matthews, longtime MSNBC host of ‘Hardball,’ announces his retirement – By Paul Farhi (Washington Post) / March 2 2020
Chris Matthews, the long-running host of “Hardball” on MSNBC, announced Monday that he is resigning from the program, an abrupt exit prompted by a series of recent gaffes and controversies.
Matthews, 74, made the announcement at the start of his weeknight program. His resignation is effective immediately, MSNBC said.
Matthews has been a familiar commentator on cable news for a quarter century, and his departure — which Matthews called a retirement — was a surprise. He appeared for about two minutes at the start of his 7 p.m. program and effectively signed off on his television career.
“Let me start with my headline tonight: I’m retiring,” he said. “This the last ‘Hardball’ on MSNBC, and obviously this isn’t for lack of interest in politics, as you can tell I’ve loved every minute of my 20 years as host of ‘Hardball.’ ”
He thanked viewers and added, “The younger generations . . . are improving the workplace, we’re talking here about better standards than we grew up with, fair standards. A lot of it has to do with how we talk to each other, compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men — including me — might have once incorrectly thought were okay were never okay. Not then and certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”
He paraphrased Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”: “We’ll always have ‘Hardball.’ So let’s not say goodbye but till we meet again.”
The network immediately went to a commercial break.
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