Things got awkward on “The View” on Wednesday morning when Joy Behar confronted former MSNBC host Chris Matthews about comments he allegedly made about two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that he says he didn’t make.
Behar tried to confront Matthews for making what she described as “a lot of sexist comments” he allegedly made regarding Clinton.
“You called her, ‘She-devil, witchy, Nurse Ratched,” said Behar, to which Matthews responded, “No, I didn’t, actually. I never did.”
“You never did that? So my research is wrong?” said a visibly thrown-off Behar as Matthews told her to “look it up.”
“Well, I think what you heard was—you know what a tease is on the show?” Matthews replied. “There was a tease by a producer. It was setting up what the Republicans were going to do to her in that campaign.”
“It was a setup to a whole segment on the program how the Republicans were not going to run against her on the issues. They’ll go after her personally, in that kind of attack,” he added. “That’s how that phrase was used… I never said that about her.”
Behar was clearly very confused as she fired back “it was reported that you said those things” before adding: “So that’s my bad—I think.”
A very frustrated Behar then tossed her papers to the side and handed off the questioning to her co-host Sara Haines.
The tone of the interview was already an awkward one, as cohost Sunny Hostin had asked Matthews about the allegations that he “inappropriately flirted” with Lauren Bassett when she was a guest on his former show as she sat in a makeup chair. The scandal led to him eventually leaving MSNBC.
“Was it your decision to leave and what were the lessons learned in retrospect?” Hostin asked.
“The lesson is you’re not supposed to comment about a person’s appearance in the workplace, certainly, and I know that rule by heart, certainly now. I had made a couple of comments what we might have called in the old days compliments, but are not taken as compliments today by any means,” Matthews replied.
“I owned up to it. I took ownership of it. I never challenged it, I never said it was he said/she said. The reporting by Lauren Bassett was correct. It was factual,” he added. “It was great reporting, you might argue. I just said it all was true, and I retired. And that was the decision I made, and I may have faced some sort of disciplining by the network, but I’m telling you, I sat in that room and told the president of the network I’m leaving.”
Check out the full segment below.
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