Former MSNBC Host Chris Matthews Says Sexual Harassment Allegations Made Against Him Were “Highly Justified”

Former MSNBC journalist Chris Matthews says his exit over workplace misconduct was “justified” and that his behavior was “inappropriate.”

It’s been almost two months since Matthews stepped down from his role as Hardball host, and in a new interview with Vanity Fair’s Inside the Hive podcast, he explains that the harassment allegations made against him were “highly justified.” “I didn’t argue about it; I didn’t deny it. I accepted the credibility of the complaint in the article,” he said.

Matthews is referring to an article that was published in GQ on February 28 by political communist Laura Bassett, who detailed her experience being sexually harassed by the former host. In the article, Bassett says Matthews sexually harassed her back in 2016 while she was getting her makeup and hair done. “Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her,” he said to the stylist. He then added: “Make sure you wipe this [makeup] off her face after the show. We don’t make her up, so some guy at a bar can look at her like this.”

Like Bassett, others also have stories about Matthews’ inappropriate behavior. Bassett said that the exchange between her and Matthews was a dig at her job. She said that his comments “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. Many had similar stories.” Bassett didn’t mention Matthews by name at the time because she feared that she would receive backlash from the network.

Matthews told Vanity Fair that his comments about Bassett were not okay. “I didn’t argue about it, I didn’t deny it,” Matthews said. “I accepted the credibility of the complaint in the article. I didn’t want to challenge the person that made the complaint and wrote the article. I thought it was very credible and certainly within the person’s rights to write that article, of course. That was highly justified. Basically, as I said, to repeat myself, it’s inappropriate in the workplace to compliment somebody on their appearance, this is in the makeup chair, and I did it.”

Bassett responded to Matthews’ interview via Twitter Saturday night, saying, “Somehow I missed that Chris Matthews confirmed my story about him to Vanity Fair yesterday. I appreciate him owning up this and respect how he handled it. And to everyone who reflexively said I was lying: Please read this.”