I have watched Chris Hayes’ show from time to time on MSNBC and have always come away feeling that he was smart, enthusiastic and competent but never quite as compelling as Rachel Maddow.
But that changed today, after I came across a clip of All In with Chris Hayes, filmed in front of a live audience.
This format not only works profoundly well for him but for anyone bored, bewildered, frustrated and angry while trying to wade through the twists and turns of our current political crisis. (Okay, I admit when I say ‘for anyone...’, I mean me.)
Below is a clip of the show.
I particularly like his storytelling beginning at the 8:41mark.
I just learned today how to direct you to an exact in point on a YouTube video. So if you click the 8:41, it will take you there. You can see from the two links above marking the 8:41 point, that I am proud and excited about the new linking skill I learned, after an exhaustive tutorial, lasting upwards of 1 minute and 15 seconds. (My transcript is below):
8:41
It’s after midnight. Okay? Early last month, our career foreign service guy Bill Taylor, you remember him, right?[…]He’s texting back and forth with [Gordon] Sondland. The guy who gave a million dollars to the inauguration.
And this is the part of the text I read to you earlier.
The career foreign service guy—clearly uncomfortable. Trying to put it on record, everything that’s happening.
Very specifically he says, quote: ‘As I said on the phone. I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance to help the political campaign.’
And then...silence.
Five hours go by.
The New York Times reports, that before responding to this text that’s just hanging there, with the career foreign service person being like, ‘what you’re doing is crazy and wrong,’ right?--that the Trump appointee, Sondland, spoke to Trump. The Times reported that yesterday. He speaks to Trump.
And one can imagine—I don’t know what was in the conversation—but one can imagine what happened in the conversation between Trump and the appointee, about a career diplomat, who is now calling out the fact that they are corruptly extorting a foreign-occupied nation, for a political hit-job , for the president’s political rival.
What should I tell him?
Well the Trump appointee comes back. Five hours later. With like this like hilarious, lawyered, press release, cover story in a text.
Which by the say (sic) is the same cover story they’re going to use when all of it becomes public.
‘Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The president has been crystal clear no quid pro quos of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign.’
This is a text.
And then here it comes again. Here it comes again.
‘I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.’
I bet you do. You probably should stop texting that.
No quid pro quo. Let’s stop texting about this. He says it, no quid pro quo.
Well okay, now it gets weirder. You guys following? […] So today it gets weirder.
So Republican Senator Ron Johnson, from Wisconsin, who is a big supporter of the President, says basically he can do no wrong. Says basically what he did in the driveway yesterday was just fine: soliciting hit jobs on his political enemies from the authoritarian state of China.
Well today he tells the Wall Street Journal—Johnson—that the Trump appointee, Sondland; the guy who gave that lawyered up press release thing saying no quid pro quo—that that guy, told him, Ron Johnson, back in August, there is a quid pro quo.
That guy.
The guy who put into writing with the lawyered text after he talked to Trump. No no no no no quid pro quo no no no no no. He went to Senator Johnson and be like, Dude there’s a quid pro quo.
We’re holding up aid to Ukraine, in exchange for this crazy investigation.
And so then Johnson—again, told this is all Johnson told this to a reporter today—Johnson then goes to Trump and says, ‘is there a quid pro quo. Are you holding up aid to Ukraine so that they investigate the Bidens?’ and Donald Trump—you cannot make this up—Donald Trump, according to Johnson says, no and who told you that?
If you are video-averse person like me, I get it. (And don’t get me started on the internet slide shows. “Throw These 6 Items Out of Your Home Immediately If You Want to Live a Full and Centered Life. Begin Slideshow.” Nope. I am at peace leading a slideshow-less, chaotic, half-life.)
Even for video-resisters like me, this clip is worth a click to enjoy Chris, enjoying himself, set free, in his element.
All along the way the pacing, timing, phrasing (7:35: “morally incontinent sociopath”), mockery and clarity are nearly flawless.
There are so many threads to this unravelling presidency, and Chris Hayes has found an entertaining way of exposing the gravity and levity of this presidency-ending (hopefully) political moment, that is less depressing than the roundtables and more granular than the late night hosts.
If this show is an example of how he will handle the twists and turns ahead, then I will definitely be making his stand up punditry, must-see-tv, for me.