In an essay for GQ magazine, political journalist Laura Bassett said that Matthews had made multiple inappropriate comments about her appearance when she was a guest on MSNBC Hardball in 2016.

Bassett alleged that while she was in the make-up room before the show, Matthews had looked at her and said: “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?” She wrote: “When I laughed nervously and said nothing, he followed up to the make-up artist. ‘Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her’. Another time, he stood between me and the mirror and complimented the red dress I was wearing for the segment. ‘You going out tonight?’ he asked.”

This is not the first time Matthews has been accused of making inappropriate comments on and off-screen. In 1999, he was found to have made “inappropriate” comments to an assistant producer who accused him of sexual harassment. In 2008, he was quoted in a magazine profile declaring actor Kerry Washington “a total knockout”. And then there’s the time in 2016 when his comments about Melania Trump’s “runway walk” were picked up by a hot mic as she took the stage at a rally for her husband in Indiana.

Dear Chris Matthews: sexist and inappropriate comments are not “compliments”