After two long decades of hosting at MSNBC, Chris Matthews finally announced his retirement. On Monday night, Matthews said, “Let me start with my headline tonight. I’m retiring. This is the last ‘Hardball’ on MSNBC.”

Matthews’s abrupt resignation came after political columnist Laura Bassett accused the host of making “sexist” comments. According to Bassett, Matthews made the remark in 2016 when she was a guest of his show “Hardball.”

According to Bassett, the host had “inappropriately flirted” with him in the make-up room. In her essay, Bassett wrote that Matthews was sitting beside her when he asked: “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?”Bassett continued, “I froze, He was older, married, far more powerful than I was in the media. He could decide whether or not I got booked on the network again. I’d been warned by more than one person that he sometimes tried to humiliate his female guests on the air.” She added, “So I laughed uncomfortably and said nothing.”

In his speech, Matthews had also made a reference to the incident. “Obviously, this isn’t for lack of interest in politics. As you can tell, I have loved every minute of my 20 years as host as ‘Hardball.’ Every morning I read the papers, I’m gung-ho to get to work. Not many people have had this privilege. I love working with the producers and the conversations we’ve had over how to report the news. I love having the connection with you, the good people who watch. I’ve learned who you are, bumping into you on the sidewalk or waiting in an airport and saying hello. You’re like me. I hear from your kids and grandchildren. Who says my dad loves you, my grandmother loves you. Or my husband watched it until the end,” he said.

Matthews continued, “After my conversation with NBC, I decided tonight will be my last ‘Hardball.’ I’ll tell you why. The younger generations are ready to take the reins. We see them in politics, in the media, in fighting for their causes. They are improving the workplace. We are talking about better standards than we grew up with, fair standards. A lot of it has to do with how we talk to each other. Compliments on a woman’s appearance some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK were never OK. Certainly not today. For making such comments in the past, I’m sorry. ”

Finally, Matthews ended his speech by saying, “I’m very proud of the work I’ve done here. Long before I went on television, I worked for years in politics, was a newspaper columnist and author. I’m working on another book. I’ll continue to write and talk about politics and cheer on my producers and crew here in Washington and New York and my MSNBC colleagues. They will continue to produce great journalism in the years ahead. For those who have gotten in the habit of watching ‘Hardball’ every night, I hope you’re going to miss me because I’m going to miss you. Remember Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. We will always have ‘Hardball,’ let’s not say goodbye, but ’til we meet again.”

In a column for the New York Post, writer Maureen Callahan described his resignation as something “that makes no sense.” Callahan wrote, “Chris Matthews has had quite the week, comparing Bernie Sanders’ Nevada win to the Nazis seizing France, confusing two black politicians for each other, and fielding a female journalist’s claims that Matthews made some cringe-worthy verbal passes: “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?” “Are you going out tonight?”

Callahan implied that Matthews seemed to be the “sacrificial one” for the network, “Yet execs have sacrificed the wacky, irascible Matthews, the only anchor given to sentimental effusions about all things Kennedy.”