The departure is part of the host's new long-term contract with MSNBC, where he will continue to host "Hardball." Matthews says that with his extra time, he will work "on writing books like the one I’m committed to now on the relationship between Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan, that and producing documentaries on history and politics."

Matthews' full statement, below:

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One proposal was made by President Barack Obama, as part of his proposed budget. This called for using inflation adjustments to deprive the middle-class elderly of nearly 10 percent of their promised Social Security benefits if they lived to their 90s, while only the poor would be shielded from the cuts. Obama’s proposal was angrily denounced by progressives and conservatives alike.

The rival proposal came in a policy paper called “Expanded Social Security,” written by Steven Hill, Robert Hiltonsmith, Joshua Freedman and me, and published by the New America Foundation’s Economic Growth Program. Our plan called for a major expansion of Social Security benefits, on the grounds that Social Security is far more efficient and reliable than the other two “legs” of the retirement security “stool” — employer pensions (both defined-benefit pensions and 401Ks) and tax-deferred private savings accounts like IRAs.

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On Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, for example, Brian Williams brought Leiter on to explain how investigators should deal with the evidence they had collected so far, including “tons of imagery” and backpacks, wires and a battery left by the bombers. Would all of that be a “big early help”? Absolutely, replied Leiter. “All of that imagery from the store, from the police and from people, you combine that with the forensic evidence and then the secret intelligence that we are not hearing about from human intelligence sources, cell phone records, things like that,” he said. “And that starts to paint the mosaic from which they can find their suspect.” He provided much of the same information later on MSNBC’s evening broadcasts and over the weekend on the Today Show.

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“My theory is [Tamerlan Tsarnaev] was radicalized by 2009, 2010,” McCaul said. “Reports show the Russian Intelligence Service reach out to our law enforcement to interview this individual, which they did. He was on the radar, then he got off the radar. Then he travels overseas. I would assume the Russians would have some intelligence on this individual.”

Although he lacks direct evidence McCaul appeared to suggest that Tamerlan, who reportedly had a bomb strapped to his chest when he was shot, had ties to international terrorist networks. “I think another important point [is] the tools of trade craft used here,” McCaul said. “This pressure cooker device is very similar to what the Taliban in Pakistan use. The idea that they could make pipe bombs and then there are reports they had suicide vests, all point to the fact that this was…”

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In response, Trump tweeted on Tuesday:

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Matthews' remarks had been picked up by a number of conservative news sites, who took issue with the characterization. "Chris Matthews seems hell-bent on trying to blame the Boston Marathon bombing on a domestic terrorist, preferrably a conservative one," wrote Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters, for example, who also pointed to comments Matthews made about the attacks possibly being linked to Tax Day.

Here's the clip, via Newsbusters:

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Immediately after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, all of the network news channels, the cable news channels, and ESPN were airing nonstop commercial-free coverage of the catastrophe. Shamed by recent misreportings brought on by working too fast and carelessly — falsely IDing Ryan Lanza as the shooter at Newtown, claiming Gabrielle Giffords was dead, botching the Affordable Care Act decision— the news programs tried to be cautious. They were careful not repeat something just because it had appeared on Twitter (or in the New York Post). They didn’t want to speculate — the anchors kept saying they didn’t want to speculate — but they did have time to fill, and so on-air experts started talking about whether the attack was "sophisticated" or "homegrown,” whether it was perpetrated by al-Qaida or a lone wolf, whether the presence of shrapnel suggested the bomb makers had overseas roots or a working knowledge of the Internet. Speculation accrued.

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One reason was the ambiguity of the legal situation: While public parks close by 12 p.m., Zuccotti Park was a public-private hybrid, owned by an investment firm, Brookfield Office Properties. Technically such “privately owned public properties” are accessible to the public twenty-four hours a day. Still, by our experience, the mere existence of such a law would have been of little relevance if the authorities decided they wanted to evict us anyway, but it allowed something of a fig leaf. But why did they even want a fig leaf?

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This bizarre repetition of presidential history was the subject of Rachel Maddow's MSNBC interview last night of President Obama's top political consigliere David Axelrod. The discussion was significant for how Axelrod tried to avoid answering why, when it comes to Social Security, President Obama is now positioning himself to the right of Ronald Reagan. He is doing this by invoking deficits and debt as the reason to propose cutting Social Security, even though that program that has almost nothing to do with the national deficit and debt.

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"We have never invested as much in public education as we should have," she says in the spot. "We haven't had a very collective notion of, these are our children. We have to break through our private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it's everybody's responsibility and not just the household's, we start making better investments."

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MSNBC just announced that Karen Finney, a network political analyst and former communications director of the Democratic National Committee, will host a new weekend show. MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham immediately Tweeted:

MSNBC touting Karen Finney as another African-American host. Would the average viewer be able to guess that? Or is Boehner a shade more tan?

— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) April 2, 2013

Finney is African-American, although MSNBC didn’t particularly “tout” that in its press release; it mentioned that she was the first African-American communications director of the DNC and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. I’m not sure what would cause Graham to even muse about her racial bona fides, let alone share his idiocy publicly. When mocked on Twitter, he just dug his hole deeper:

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In a recent New Republic cover story on the liberal-leaning cable news network, Rebecca Dana wrote: "In 2005, Tucker Carlson’s team brought Rachel Maddow into the network based on a tape her agent sent them. Maddow wasn’t Griffin’s style—she didn’t look like a Fox blonde—but Carlson insisted that she stay on, and Maddow quickly proved herself to be erudite and winning on-air."

Surprising, considering that Carlson is now the editor in chief of the conservative Daily Caller and seems like a natural fit at "Fox and Friends." But, Maddow told Salon via email, there's truth to it:

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Here’s what I wrote in my original Salon essay:

In the interest of expediency and bringing as many unlikely conservative allies on board, the gay rights movement may give cover to or even amplify a set of narrow values that rank married families as better than unmarried families, two parents as better than one parent — norms that continue to divide America into good people and deserving families versus everyone else. And even if we temporarily succeed in getting gay folks added to the “good” category, is it worth it? Plus do we really think that’s the way we or anyone else will be treated equally?

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Salon's Alex Pareene pointed out that in a video segment to commemorate the Iraq War, Scarborough had said in a voice-over that "the very same people who spent years beating up George Bush were the very ones beating the drum for Iraq's regime change and Saddam Hussein's ouster." The video then shows Pelosi saying, "I applaud the president's focusing on this issue, and on taking the lead to disarm Saddam Hussein," but leaves out her remarks afterward that "I rise in opposition to this resolution on national security grounds."

"In fact, it seems like she got it just about right," Scarborough said in Thursday's segment, as he and Brzezinski apologized.

Watch:

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The Russert segment is sort of bizarre, referring to "that big anniversary" and completely ignoring the reasons the Iraq War started. It concludes -- after Engel explains how Iraq is once again in a sectarian civil war -- with Russert essentially asserting the inevitability of a military strike against Iran, saying they could be "months" away from building nuclear weapons.

Here's the Morning Joe segment. It's long, but well worth watching. Bob Woodward's presence adds a note of dark comedy to the proceedings. No one bothers to mention any of his horrible pre-war punditry, or his culpability for the misleading journalism the Washington Post was producing at the time.

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Salon's Steve Kornacki has been announced as the new host of MSNBC's weekend "Up," the very best reason to get up early on a weekend since "Schoolhouse Rock!" (Host Chris Hayes, of course, gets the move to prime time.) We're thrilled for Steve, and will be riveted to his debut.

On the same week when onetime Salon reporter Jake Tapper  launched his own CNN show, we're making bets on who will next blow up the small screen. (Even odds: Pareene joins "The View.")

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The news anchor is about to hit movie screens in perhaps his highest-profile cameo yet, as a news anchor (for a generic news network, explicitly not MSNBC) in the action drama "Olympus Has Fallen," which depicts an attack by North Koreans upon the White House and features Aaron Eckhart and potential Senate candidate Ashley Judd as the president and first lady. We spoke to O'Donnell about his unusual career, why Jim Lehrer would never do what he does, and his future in Hollywood.

Why do you say yes when offered films? The director of "Olympus Has Fallen" told us that he'd reached out to many news anchors, including CNN's Don Lemon, and only you were able to do it.

Because I miss show business so desperately that I will do anything short of pornography at this point to hang around sets and have fun.

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The hip, bespectacled journalist is preparing to take over the covetable 8 p.m. time slot vacated by Ed Schultz's "The Ed Show" — network executives have moved Schultz to Saturday and Sunday evenings. Hayes has hosted "Up With Chris Hayes" since September 2011, and established quite a following in less than two years of carrying a show.

"Chris has done an amazing job creating a franchise on weekend morning," network president Phil Griffin said in a statement. "He’s an extraordinary talent and has made a strong connection with our audience. This is an exciting time for MSNBC."

Griffin is banking on Hayes -- and possible Hayes's morning slot replacement Ezra Klein -- to make MSNBC a household name. Well, a liberal household name, at least. “Our awareness level, people who can define who we are, is much lower than Fox and CNN,” Mr. Griffin told the New York Times. The network president has been building out a brand identity through the steady recruitment of ever-younger, ever-more progressive on-air talent. Of the network's gravitation to the left, former President Bill Clinton remarked, “Boy, it really has become our version of Fox.”

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He joins former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, who signed on as a contributor to both networks last month.

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