Journalists at MSNBC paid tribute to colleague Chris Matthews after his abrupt on-air resignation Monday night, and so too did Fox News’ Tucker Carlson … in his own way.
“Boy, you never thought you’d see that happen. I’ve known Chris Matthews very well since 1995 when I started appearing on his show regularly. He’s everything you think he is. Groveling in the end couldn’t save him; it never does. I would say his real sin, of course, was being old and unfashionable. That’s why they’re making him leave,” Carlson said on his show Monday night.
Matthews, who was identified Friday by reporter Laura Bassett as the once-unnamed “famous broadcast journalist” she had accused in a 2017 piece of making inappropriate comments to her when she was a guest on his show, quit Monday. In recent days, the “Hardball” veteran issued an apology to Bernie Sanders and his voters for comparing a Sanders caucus win to a Nazi victory.
In his commentary, Carlson then asked why Joy Reid, another MSNBC host, was still on the air after her 2018 scandal involving old blog posts. Two years ago, the FBI investigated the possibility that Reid’s long-defunct blog was compromised by an “external party” responsible for the homophobic content in recently unearthed posts, according to the MSNBC host’s lawyer. Similarly, he brought up other NBC News officials and hosts who have had scandals associated with their names.
“As long as we’re making people leave for moral crimes, you gotta wonder why is Joy Reid still on the air, who lied and got the FBI implicated in her lie? Or Noah Oppenheim, the buddy of Harvey Weinstein, or Andy Lack? Joe Scarborough still works there? Really? Amazing,” he said.
Representatives for MSNBC and NBC News didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Watch Carlson’s clip above.