On Wednesday night, amidst the Independence Day preparations and festivities, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes took it upon himself to rain on the parade. Joined by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and former Congressman David Jolly, the All In host began: “David, we've got tanks positioned outside the Lincoln Memorial for $100 million essentially Trump campaign rally for his top donors while he's contradicting his own DOJ and wants to run roughshod over the Supreme Court. Like, as we are celebrating the Declaration of Independence, there is a little bit of a mad king feel to where we are right now.”
Jolly actually attempted to tamp down Hayes's hyperbolic statement about the court ruling on the census citizenship question: “The majority kind of moved around. But if you thread it all together, what the majority of the justices ruled was it is not unconstitutional to ask the citizenship question. It is not unreasonable. However, that reasonableness has certain constraints.”
Hayes barely acknowledged this response before turning to Reich: “…there are parallels I think to the July 4th celebration and the census. In which, the President contradicts his own government at every turn… there's a real question about the degree to which he is being properly constrained and the degree to which he's actually pushing at the guardrails about what a democratic representative of the people looks like.”
For further explanation on how Trump’s proposed census question could possibly be related to the Fourth of July, Reich responded:
Well, there is no constraint at all, Chris. In fact, there's not even a Trump administration. There is Donald Trump. And as you pointed out, I mean, we are -- the irony here is this is the night before Independence day, where we fought a tyrant, we declared our independence from what essentially was then a mad king. We created a constitution, a constitution with checks and balances and separation of powers and now we have a mad king back again that basically is defying all of the constitutional provisions, basically thumbing his nose at the Supreme Court…
The former Clinton administration cabinet official then added in some wishful thinking: “I think he is laying a predicate for impeachment, actually.”
Hayes happily agreed and proceeded to explain why he felt victimized by the Fourth of July celebrations:
“Like, I think the reason people are upset about the tanks in the streets and the President throwing himself some big military parade, is that it does feel an anathema to our American democratic culture. It is not the way that we celebrate American constitutional democracy.”
Hayes and the liberal media prefer to celebrate by doing their best to tear down the ‘democratic culture’ and constitutional democracy. So of course, any celebrations by “mad king” Trump should be prohibited.
Here is the transcript from the July 3 episode of All In:
All In with Chris Hayes
07/03/19
8:10 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS HAYES: Joining me now, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and former Republican Congressman David Jolly, now an MSNBC political analyst. David, we've got tanks positioned outside the Lincoln Memorial for $100 million essentially Trump campaign rally for his top donors while he's contradicting his own DOJ and wants to run roughshod over the supreme court. Like, as we are celebrating the Declaration of Independence, there is a little bit of a mad king feel to where we are right now.
DAVID JOLLY: Oh, certainly, oh, certainly. Look, he is contradicting his staff attorneys. The reality is I think Bill Barr told the President you do have a lane here to win this. And look, Chris, I agree with everything you and Dale just discussed. But I also would say, and I hate to be the skunk at a party, I think the government, the Trump administration does have a narrow lane here to have this reconsidered. The case that was decided was decided in multiple parts. The majority kind of moved around. But if you thread it all together, what the majority of the justices ruled was it is not unconstitutional to ask the citizenship question. It is not unreasonable. However, that reasonableness has certain constraints.
HAYES: Right.
JOLLY: And in this case, the Department of Commerce hasn't provided a congruent or rational case for making the citizenship question basis. So if I'm the Department of Commerce and the Department of Justice, I would say hey, look, allow us the opportunity to rebrief this, and allow it to be a case of first impression. Because what the court also said is under administrative law, we have to provide deference to reasonable justification. Now that's the New York case. The Maryland one is different. The Maryland one is saying this is discriminatory, and this was based on discriminatory actions. That's the case today. But Chris, I think if you're Donald Trump and Bill Barr, which is very different than the DOJ staff career attorneys, hey, they're going to say forget what the Supreme Court said, let's keep arguing this and see how far we can get.
HAYES: But there is also something here, Robert, about the way in which this entire thing has been undertaken. And there are parallels I think to the July 4th celebration and the census. In which, the President contradicts his own government at every turn. In which he sort of issues these edicts internally that people tell him, well you can’t do that. We know he wanted a big parade earlier, that he wanted tanks rolling down the streets. You can't do that. You can't just make something up and tell the -- represent it to the court. And there's a real question about the degree to which he is being properly constrained and the degree to which he's actually pushing at the guardrails about what a democratic representative of the people looks like.
ROBERT REICH: Well, there is no constraint at all, Chris. In fact, there's not even a Trump administration. There is Donald Trump. And as you pointed out, I mean, we are -- the irony here is this is the night before Independence day, where we fought a tyrant, we declared our independence from what essentially was then a mad king. We created a constitution, a constitution with checks and balances and separation of powers and now we have a mad king back again that basically is defying all of the constitutional provisions, basically thumbing his nose at the Supreme Court, pushing the envelope as far he possibly can and then some in terms of getting his way, not allowing any congressional oversight. I mean, basically saying to the House I'm not going to give you anything. I'm instructing everybody to say no to appearing before you to providing any documents. I mean, what are we supposed to do?
HAYES: Yes.
REICH: I think he is laying a predicate for impeachment, actually.
HAYES: Yes, and David, you know, what I keep returning to is—is two ideas. One, the sort of -- the strength of actual American democracy and the set of sort of constitutional provisions, norms, traditions that undergird that, right? Deference to the courts, you know, viewing yourself as representative of the people. And then also democratic culture. Like, I think the reason people are upset about the tanks in the streets and the President throwing himself some big military parade, is that it does feel an anathema to our American democratic culture. It is not the way that we celebrate American constitutional democracy.
