As allegedly straightforward journalists seek to aid Democrats in their mission to pin the government shutdown on Republicans, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes joined Comedy Central’s The Weekly Show podcast on Thursday to sabotage that message and praise Democrats for shutting down the government.
Hayes ranted, “And so, I think the Democratic Party and consultant class has to internalize this idea of taking risks because you are behind, because the brand is not very good right now, and that means not just conserving what you have. You are not up a few scores with five minutes left.”
Host Jon Stewart then interrupted to add his agreement, “You're saying, ‘Don't play prevent defense.’”
Resuming his speech, Hayes concurred, “Don't play prevent defense. And I do think, and look, there are races where you should play prevent defense. Like, I would have not told Spanberger, ‘Hey, you should do five debates down the stretch in the last two weeks.’”
Turning to the government shutdown as an example, Hayes cheered, “I think the risk calculation of the Democratic Party, its leadership, generally, is too risk averse. And let me just say one last thing. The shutdown is a great example. They have pursued a fairly high leverage and high risk strategy around the shutdown, and I think it has redounded to their benefit, and I think a more risk averse strategy, which is ‘people are gonna blame us, we're the party out of power, it's gonna be bad,’ all this stuff. This, these elections happened against that backdrop. I think the higher risk, higher leverage strategy they pursued has been rewarded, and I think that should be a lesson for everyone about what your general risk profile is.”
While Hayes applauds Democrats for trying to use the shutdown to save Biden-era Obamacare subsidies—including those for rich people—three percent of all flights in the U.S. were cancelled on Friday due to the shutdown, with that number expected to grow to ten percent by the end of next week. As Americans suffer due to Democrats’ political games, it was nice of Hayes to accidentally tell the truth about who is shutting down the government. Now, if only the supposedly non-partisan journalists could listen.
Here is a transcript for the November 6 show:
Comedy Central The Weekly Show
11/6/2025
CHRIS HAYES: And so, I think the Democratic Party and consultant class has to internalize this idea of taking risks because you are behind, because the brand is not very good right now, and that means not just conserving what you have. You are not up a few scores with five minutes left.
JON STEWART: You're saying, “Don't play prevent defense.”
HAYES: Don't play prevent defense.
STEWART: Alright.
HAYES: And I do think, and look, there are races where you should play prevent defense. Like, I would have not told Spanberger, “Hey, you should do five debates down the stretch in the last two weeks.”
STEWART: Right.
HAYES: Absolutely not. You're up ten points. Don't do that, right? But generally, I think the risk calculation of the Democratic Party, its leadership, generally, is too risk averse. And let me just say one last thing. The shutdown is a great example. They have pursued a fairly high leverage and high risk strategy around the shutdown, and I think it has redounded to their benefit, and I think a more risk averse strategy, which is “people are gonna blame us, we're the party out of power, it's gonna be bad,” all this stuff. This, these elections happened against that backdrop. I think the higher risk, higher leverage strategy they pursued has been rewarded, and I think that should be a lesson for everyone about what your general risk profile is.
