30 Facts About Chris Matthews

1.

Christopher John Matthews was born on December 17,1945 and is an American political commentator, retired talk show host, and author.

2.

Chris Matthews announced on his final episode that he was retiring, following an accusation that he had made inappropriate comments to a Hardball guest four years earlier.

3.

Chris Matthews is a 1967 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and did graduate work in Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

4.

Chris Matthews was a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics.

5.

Chris Matthews served in the United States Peace Corps in Swaziland from 1968 to 1970 as a trade development adviser.

6.

Chris Matthews holds 34 honorary degrees from numerous universities and colleges.

7.

When Chris Matthews first arrived in Washington, DC, he worked as an officer with the United States Capitol Police.

8.

Subsequently, Chris Matthews served on the staffs of four Democratic Members of Congress, including Senators Frank Moss and Edmund Muskie.

9.

Chris Matthews was a presidential speechwriter during the Carter Administration, and later worked for six years as Chief of Staff to longtime Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill, playing a direct role in many key political battles with the Reagan Administration.

10.

Chris Matthews has been accused by Media Matters for America of having panels of guests that skew to the right and of supporting Republicans in his own questions and comments.

11.

On November 28,2008, Chris Matthews contacted senior staffers of Barack Obama's campaign about a possible Senate run.

12.

On January 7,2009, The New York Times reported that Chris Matthews told his staffers that he would not run for the Senate.

13.

Chris Matthews covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first all-races election in South Africa, and the Good Friday Peace Talks in Northern Ireland.

14.

Chris Matthews covered American presidential election campaigns from 1988 until his retirement in 2020.

15.

Hardball with Chris Matthews featured pundits and elected officials as guests.

16.

The Chris Matthews Show aired in syndication on weekends from 2002 until 2013.

17.

In March 2012, Chris Matthews described himself as a centrist during an episode of his MSNBC talk show Hardball.

18.

Feldman observed that Chris Matthews has criticized liberals such as Hillary Clinton and occasionally even Barack Obama, and that this could explain Chris Matthews's description of himself as a "centrist".

19.

In 2013, Matthews announced that he had signed a long-term contract extension with MSNBC but that he would no longer host The Chris Matthews Show in order to focus his efforts on Hardball, writing books, and producing documentaries.

20.

In December 2018, Chris Matthews interviewed US Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who stated she was "seriously considering" running for President.

21.

In February 2020, Bassett alleged that prior to that program, Chris Matthews made inappropriate remarks about her makeup, clothing, and dating life.

22.

In 2018 during a setup for a television interview with Hillary Clinton, Chris Matthews stated out loud "where was the Cosby pill" that he brought with him.

23.

On February 22,2020, commenting on the 2020 Nevada Democratic caucuses, Chris Matthews invoked Winston Churchill's feeling of disbelief following the fall of France to the Nazis in 1940 as a metaphor for the feeling of disbelief experienced by establishment figures in the Democratic Party to Bernie Sanders's victory in the state.

24.

Chris Matthews has been married since 1980 to Kathleen Chris Matthews, who was a news anchor at WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC, before accepting a position as an executive vice president with Marriott International.

25.

In 2015, Kathleen Chris Matthews launched an unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic nomination to run for a House seat in Maryland's 8th congressional district, which has been represented by progressive Democrat Rep.

26.

One of his four brothers Jim Chris Matthews, a Republican, is a former county commissioner in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

27.

In 2002, Chris Matthews was hospitalized with malaria, which he evidently contracted on one of his visits that year to Africa.

28.

Chris Matthews has had other health problems, including diabetes, alcoholism and pneumonia.

29.

Chris Matthews was the commencement speaker at Ohio State University on May 4,2014 and Merrimack College on May 15,2015.

30.

Chris Matthews has received over 30 honorary degrees, among which are:.