***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
MSNBC’s Hardball is no more! That was part of the somber announcement host Chris Matthews made at the top of the program on Monday when he announced his retirement from the network. The move came after a week of pressure from supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the #MeToo movement for him to be fired for controversial comments he had made. The pressure appeared so great that he wasn’t even permitted to finish the final episode of his show, with Steve Kornacki taking over.
“Let me start with my headline tonight. I'm retiring. This is the last Hardball on MSNBC, and obviously this isn't for lack of interest in politics. As you can tell, I have loved every 20 minutes of my host as Hardball. Every morning I read the papers, I'm gung ho to get to work. Not many people have had this privilege,” Matthews told viewers at the top of the hour.
In recent days, Matthews was accused of making repeated sexually suggestive comments over the years. A week ago, he was on the receiving end of the wrath of the so-called Bernie Bros for comparing Sanders’s rise to the Nazis conquering France, along with other embarrassing slip-ups.
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