MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, host of “Hardball,” was conspicuously absent from a scheduled “Meet The Press” appearance on Sunday morning.

Matthews announced the scheduled appearance on a pre-taped episode of “Hardball” on Friday, and it was noted in the Friday edition of POLITICO’s Playbook.

Matthews may have chosen to sit out the appearance because of a 2016 video uncovered by New York Magazine’s The Cut late Friday, which showed him joking about drugging and raping then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

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According to a former NBC producer and executive who were at the network when the payment was made, the woman left the network “overnight” after she filed the complaint. The former executive, who was intimately familiar with the payment, claimed that the woman had specifically complained about Matthews making rape jokes.