MSNBC’s Chris Matthews absent from air amid sexual harassment allegations

Longtime MSNBC host Chris Matthews was absent from the network’s live coverage of the South Carolina primary on Saturday, one day after being accused of sexual harassment by GQ columnist Laura Bassett.  

Among other allegations, Bassett in a GQ opinion piece published Friday claimed Matthews told a network makeup artist to “keep putting makeup on her” and asked, “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?”

“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. “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,'” Bassett also wrote.

“I’m pretty sure that behavior doesn’t rise to the level of illegal sexual harassment,” she added. “But it undermined my ability to do my job well. And after I published a story about it, even though I didn’t name him, dozens of people reached out to say they knew exactly who it was.”

In 2017, I wrote about a cable news host being gross and inappropriate with me. I was afraid to name him at the time. I’m not anymore; it was Chris Matthews! And his sexist exchange with Warren this week inspired me to revisit those moments and name him https://t.co/oBWXXJDPhR

— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) February 28, 2020

Matthews, 74, who has been the host of “Hardball” for more than 20 years and has been a fixture of MSNBC’s political coverage during big events, has also been at the center of controversy in recent days for remarks comparing Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) decisive win in the Nevada caucuses to the Nazis taking France in 1940.

Criticism quickly poured in on social media over Matthews using the analogy as it pertains to Sanders. The senator and Democratic presidential candidate is Jewish, and most of his family died in the Holocaust.

Mike Casca, who serves as Sanders’s 2020 communications director, was among the critics of Matthews.

never thought part of my job would be pleading with a national news network to stop likening the campaign of a jewish presidential candidate whose family was wiped out by the nazis to the third reich.

but here we are. https://t.co/2G1bqZ6bkI

— mike casca (@cascamike) February 22, 2020

Chris Matthews just compared Bernie Sanders, a Jewish man whose relatives were killed by the Nazis, to the Nazi army. He should be fired immediately. #FireChrisMatthews https://t.co/Z6irGFuXK4

— Krishan Patel (@IAmKrishanPatel) February 22, 2020

Matthews apologized for the comparison last Monday on the air, but the former speechwriter for Jimmy Carter found himself in hot water again after confusing Democratic Senate candidate Jaime Harrison (S.C.) for Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in a clip that quickly went viral and led to more online criticism.

No @MSNBC Chris Matthews, not all Black people look alike…No that’s not Jamie Harrison, that’s Sen. Tim Scott. https://t.co/VpQgT2pR2p

— Pastor Mark Burns (@pastormarkburns) February 29, 2020

The Hill has reached out to MSNBC for comment.