MSNBC host Chris Matthews joked about slipping Hillary Clinton a “Bill Cosby pill” in a January 2016 video released Friday.
The video, obtained by The Cut, was shot in an Iowa fire station moments before Matthews interviewed Clinton as she sought the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Can I have some of the queen’s waters? Precious waters?” the host asked. “Where’s that Bill Cosby pill I brought with me?”
As Matthews laughed, staffers looked at the host uncomfortably. One man put his hand over his face.
“This was a terrible comment I made in poor taste during the height of the Bill Cosby headlines,” Matthews told The Cut. “I realize that’s no excuse. I deeply regret it and I’m sorry.”
In 1999, a female assistant producer received a monetary payment after accusing Matthews of “inappropriate comments and jokes about her in front of others.”
TheCut added that Matthews “has a long history of talking disparagingly about Hillary Clinton.”
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of drugging them with pills and raping them. He faces a retrial this year in Pennsylvania after another trial ended with a hung jury in June. He faces three charges of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand in 2005.
Cosby has maintained that they had consensual sex, and denied assaulting anyone else.
Reps for Clinton didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.
