MSNBC star Chris Matthews mistakes black Senate challenger for South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott in uncomfortable interview

MSNBC host Chris Matthews awkwardly confused the Democratic opponent of Sen. Lindsey Graham with Sen. Tim Scott live on air Friday night during a cringeworthy segment.

Matthews was interviewing Jaime Harrison, a who's running for Graham's seat in , when a clip of Graham and Scott, both , appeared on air.

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"Jaime, I see you standing next to the guy right there maybe, maybe, maybe, Lindsey Graham," Matthews said, confusing the two black men for one another.

At least two people in the background of the segment can be heard telling Matthews the man in the clip is "Tim Scott."

"Who's that?" the host questioned loudly during a split screen shot with Harrison.

Someone, again, told him the person in the clip was Scott — but Matthews didn't seem to hear.

"Tim Scott, what am I saying, big mistake. Mistaken identity sir, sorry," Matthews finally said in the segment.

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The blunder was quickly criticized on Twitter.

"OMG WTH was Chris Matthews even thinking here?" user Erick Fernandez .

"Outside of the fact that Jaime Harrison doesn’t even look like Tim Scott, he was speaking to Harrison at that moment and he was referencing video that was a live event! He can’t be at two places at once!"

Fernandez said "live TV is tough" and "it's easy to make mistakes," but said "this is so incredibly bad."

"It's time for @HardballChris to retire," user Ryan Knight tweeted.

One person noted the embarrassing mistake happened "right after being forced to to the Nazi invasion of France."

"This has not been a good week for Chris Matthews."

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After he realized his error, Matthews asked Harrison how he plans to beat Graham in the Senate, trying to recover from his fumble.

"He is down in tonight with the president and we just released our first TV ad to hit Lindsey Graham on hypocrisy he had the last few years," Harrison said. "This is a guy you can’t trust. This is a guy doesn’t have a moral compass."

Graham's Senate seat is this November.

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