Former MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews returned to the network Tuesday for the first time since he retired last year amid accusations of inappropriate behavior.
Matthews was accused of making comments to a female guest of his program while she sat in a makeup chair getting ready to go on the air.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” Matthews said on “The ReidOut,” the program that took over his old time slot.
“Nobody has to come to defend me,” he added.
“And by the way I’ve kept all of my friends but nobody needs to defend me. I did something wrong. So I’m going to move on from that.”
“I accept it,” he went on.
“I took ownership of it — using a nice modern phase — I have took complete ownership. I did not deny it. I lost my show over it. That’s it — so that’s the truth.”
Matthews was on the show promoting his new memoir, “This Country: My Life in Politics and History.”
Host and former colleague Joy Reid asked Matthews the upshot of his exit in March 2020 and he said it was people who came up to him and said they missed him personally.
Matthews abruptly left the show after a 20-year run based on the allegation and several controversial comments.
Journalist Laura Bassett wrote a column in GQ describing an uncomfortable encounter with the host where he asked her, “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?”
Before that, he had mixed up two black politicians while covering one of President Donald Trump’s rallies. He had also apologized for comparing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Nevada caucus win with Nazi Germany’s defeat of France in 1940.