Chris Matthews announced his abrupt retirement from MSNBC Monday night after more than two decades at the network.

The MSNBC mainstay made the stunning announcement at the start of Monday’s night edition of Hardball, a show that has for years been a staple of the network’s politics programming. It also became a thorn for MSNBC brass in recent weeks as Matthews was accused of sexual harassment and came under increasing fire for his often out of touch commentary.

“Let me start with my headline tonight,” Matthews said. “I’m retiring. This is the last Hardball on MSNBC.”

“After conversations with MSNBC I decided tonight would be my last Hardball, so let me tell you why,” Matthews said. “The younger generations out there are ready to take the reins. You see them in politics, in the media, in fighting for the causes.”

“A lot of them have to do with how we talk to each other,” he continued. “Compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, included me, might have once incorrectly thought were okay, were never okay. Not then and certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”

After a commercial break Matthews had left the Hardball set, with a stunned Steve Kornacki hosting the show in his stead. It stunned others at the network as well — MSNBC host Katy Tur issued a concise, if perplexed tweet in response to the announcement: “Wait. What?”

MSNBC told Mediaite a rotating cast of anchors will fill in for Matthews until a permanent replacement is selected.

While Matthews is 74, his resignation comes after a rough few weeks. Critics called on the MSNBC host to resign or be fired after he compared Bernie Sanders’ recent victory in the Nevada caucuses to the Nazi defeat of the French during World War II. The comment prompted private complaints to MSNBC from senior Sanders staffers and a rare on-air apology from Matthews himself.

That apology did little to stanch the criticism, as calls for his firing were renewed after a combative interview with Elizabeth Warren was decried as sexist. The interview prompted journalist Laura Bassett, a frequent MSNBC guest, to allege in an op-ed that Matthews made sexist and belittling comments to her off the air.

“Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?” Bassett said Matthews told her. “Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her.”

Matthews was left out of MSNBC’s coverage of the South Carolina primary on Saturday.

In 1999, he was formally reprimanded by CNBC after a female staffer accused him of making inappropriate comments. He made a series of inappropriate comments throughout his time at MSNBC, including an ill-advised joke told to Hillary Clinton about a “Bill Cosby pill” in 2016.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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