Chris Matthews is a news anchor and the popular host of Hardball with Chris, which is a cable television channel affiliate with
MSNBC. Matthews appears regularly on many
NBC and
MSNBC programs and he recently renewed his contract to work with
MSNBC up to 2012.
He was born in December 1945 in the city of Philadelphia to Roman Irish American parents. After high school in La Salle, Chris attended the college of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and further pursued economics at the University of North Carolina.
Matthews went to African in 1968 and served as an advisor for two years (1968- 1970) while working for the US Peace Corps.
On arriving in Washington, D.C. Chris worked as a police officer and also served as staff for many Democratic members of congress. This gave him a lot of experience and knowledge in politics and in 1974 he tried to vie for Congress in Pennsylvania but was unsuccessful gathering only 24% of the votes.
After that, for the next 13 years Matthews worked as a print journalist for The San Francisco Examiner and he covered international happenings too like the election of the first president in South Africa and the famous fall of the Berlin wall. After covering his presidential campaign, Chris later produced some secret and highly controversial tapes on President Nixon's presidential campaigns. He is a journalist who has personally covered all presidential campaigns and followed the proceedings for over two decades.
In his earlier years, Matthews used to work as a presidential. This was during the time Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States and he also played some key roles during the reign of Reagan as president.
It was in the late 1990's that he started his own talk show popularly known as the Hardball originally hosted at
CNBC but later moved to
MSNBC. Here he host popular political figure as guests. Chris moderates other broadcasts too and has also written a book titled 'Hardball'.
In 2008 some tabloids reported that Matthews has been in contact with senior staffers of Obama's campaign about a possible run for senate. In mid 2009 Chris Matthews appeared on the Charlie Rose Show and he declared that he would contest for a senate seat in 2010. The seat is currently held by Senator Arlen Specter.
Chris Matthews's health had been an issue of concern, as he has in recent years been diagnosed with malaria and has personally confessed to be a diabetes victim. He is said to have contracted the malaria while on a trip to Africa. It was in one of his Hardball broadcasts that he confessed that he was diabetic. Chris is also said to have Pneumonia.
Chris is married to Kathleen Matthew, who also is a journalist and a senior executive at J.W Marriott. They are a family of five as the couple has three children; Michael, Thomas and Caroline. Caroline Matthews was formerly as student at the University of Pennsylvania but had previously studied in the UK.
Chris has a brother who is a stout Republican and is a County Commissioner in Montgomery.
