He announced it on MSNBC's air, so let's take a look at what he had to say.

>> Let me start with my headline tonight, I'm retiring.

This is the last Hardball on MSNBC.

And obviously, this isn't for a lack of interest in politics.

As you can tell, I've loved every minute of my 20 years as host of Hardball.

After conversation with MSNBC, I decided tonight will be my last Hardball.

So let me tell you why.

The younger generations out there are ready to take the reins.

We see them in politics, in the media, and fighting for their causes.

They 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, is certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past, I'm sorry.

>> Now, as we know, Chris Matthews has faced quite a bit of backlash over the last few

weeks because of his comments about Bernie Sanders and his candidacy.

But recently there were some accusations of sexual harassment toward Chris Matthews.

And so Laura Bassett, who is a columnist for GQ, shared some details about her experience

with Chris Matthews back in 2016.

And I wanna share those details with you.

My guess is that's what he was referencing in that statement.

In 2016, according to Laura Bassett, 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, quote, why haven't I fallen in love with you yet?

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.

>> That's a weird line.

>> Yes, incredibly weird lines.

But you don't even have to rely on what he said to someone in some degree of privacy,

because he said incredibly uncomfortable things to women on the air.

This was a video that I remembered in reading about the details of these sexual harassment

allegations.

This is from 2007 when Erin Burnett was about to join CNN, and here's how the conversation

went down.

>> Could you get a little closer to the camera?

>> Why, what is it?

Is it something >> Come in closer.

No, come in closer, really close.

>> What are you doing?

>> Just kidding, you look great.

Anyway, thanks, Erin, it's great to have you.

Look at that look.

>> I don't even know, I'm gonna have to go look at the tape, here

>> No, you are beautiful.

I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, you're a knockout.

Anyway, thank you, Erin Burnett.

>> All right.

>> That's all right getting bad news from you even, okay?

>> And some of you might think, well, that was back in 2007, the culture was different

then, he might have changed.

>> It wasn't that long ago.

>> Except here's what he had to say about Melania Trump fairly recently.

>> And only the candidate can make that decision.

>> And the party will trust Trump to be able to make that decision.

>> Well, I think the party wants a role in it.

>> Look how she walks.

Do you see her walk?

Runway model.

My God, is that good.

>> We just heard from the likely nominee of the Republican party.

We will go to a break here.

>> I could watch that runway show.

>> The discussion.

>> Yeah, time to go.

>> So hold on, the obvious question is, did he not know that his mic was live?

But the secondary question is, did he not know that he was with other people?

Because even if you thought your mic wasn't on, why would you vocalize those thoughts?

That's way too revealing and personal and specific.

>> Because he has a history of vocalizing those thoughts and not suffering any consequences

for it whatsoever.

>> That's true.

>> So that segment with Erin Burnett was so uncomfortable to watch, to experience.

>> I felt so bad for her that she had to go through that.

It's so weird and drawn out.

And you're not just saying something, which would be bad enough, but making her do something.

It's this weird, I have the power to make you do the thing I want.

I didn't like it at all.

I thought his sort of apology, just the apology, not all the context around other things he

said and done, God only knows, I thought that apology was good.

He didn't do the thing that they all do, which is, standards are changing and people are

sensitive now.

>> That's true.

>> I said something back in the day and it was fine then, but I get, okay, now it's not

fine.

Lots of them say that.

Almost no comedian can pass this bar.

He said, it wasn't right then.

We thought it was, it wasn't.

It was never okay.

>> It's true.

>> And that's the right stance.

>> I mean, I don't know if he's genuine.

I don't really care to speculate about that, but I liked that he didn't trash younger generations

who are fighting for equality in the workplace, who are fighting for a more comfortable work

environment for women and minorities.

So I guess I'll give them some credit for that.

But one other thing that really stood out to me was, I didn't know he was 74 years old

until today.

I knew he was up there in age, but 74 is so he's retiring.

And what's incredible to me is that as he experienced Bernie Sanders rising in the polls,

winning primaries, he started panicking as if he was some sort of victim.

And all I could think about is, he gets to retire.

>> Yeah.

>> With millions and millions of dollars.

>> I guess he has some money.

>> He is good.

He is not a victim.

>> Yeah.

>> And he never will be.

He is an incredibly privileged person, despite all the terrible things he said both on the

air and behind the scenes, despite his terrible political analysis, he gets to retire comfortably

with millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars in the bank.

He's good.

He was never a victim.

>> Yeah.

>> But he somehow tried to make himself out to be one because he doesn't like Bernie Sanders.

>> That's true.

I will say, just purely sort of looking back at him, look, I never like sat down and watched

an hour of his show, but I did like, and Cenk has said things like this, I liked the enthusiasm

that he brought to it.

There was an element there of interest in politics that a lot of them don't have that

reminds me more of us.

It's the only thing that reminds me more of us.

It's not like I'm a news actor, put some stuff on the teleprompter and I will read it for

you, he actually cared and was passionate.

It led him in the wrong direction.

I don't agree with a lot of his values and, obviously, not with any of the policies he

would go for, certainly any of the candidates he would go for, but I liked that.

I think that's one of the reasons he had the audience he did was, he sort of had this sort

of like childlike glee sort of thing to him.

And beyond that, that's the only thing I'm saying.

>> Okay, I'm just gonna leave it there.