As far-left MSNBC hosts go--an admittedly low bar--I'll admit to having found Chris Hayes a relatively fair and decent proponent of his misguided policies. But he did two things tonight that made me lose respect for him. First, he literally laughed in the face of Rick Tyler, calling "preposterous" his depiction of Donald Trump as a "northeastern liberal progressive." This despite Trump's record of donating to . . . northeastern liberal progressives and describing himself, among other things, as "very pro-choice." Would Hayes ever be so rude to a liberal guest?
Even worse when it comes to hypocrisy, it is hard to top Hayes' skeptical suggestion about Denny Hastert's pattern of sexual abuse of boys: "good Lord Almighty do I wonder whether that just stopped when he left the precints of Yorkville high school?" Come back and reclaim your integrity, Chris, when you wonder the same about Bill Clinton. Did his abuse stop when he left "the precincts" of the White House? Orgy Island, anyone?
RICK TYLER: And Donald Trump, if he had -- if you were to identify an underlying governing theory for him, which he doesn't seem to have, he would be a northeastern liberal progressive. That's what he fits in.
CHRIS HAYES: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
TYLER: You don't like that.
HAYES: I just think it's a preposterous label.
(....)
HAYES: I also have to say, I've reported on, particularly in the context of the Church, I've reported on people who have serially preyed on children. It is behavior that doesn't often just stop on a dime. This is someone who was doing this while he was in high school and then had a long political career and we know nothing--there's no allegations afterwards--but good Lord Almighty do I wonder whether that just stopped when he left the precincts of Yorkville High School?
