All In With Chris Hayes - General Discussion

[Complexity]

58 minutes ago, maystone said:

I'm starting to get a little tetchy about Chris having lower status in the MSNBC hierarchy. I love Rachel; I started following her when she had her radio show on Air America, and she is must-watch TV for me especially during this crisis. But … Chris Hayes also has important news to break and necessary perspective to add to the circus that is Trump and the GOP-controlled congress. He handles the legislative aspect of the news stories while Rachel and Lawrence are focusing more specifically on the Trump labyrinth. It is just as important to get the congress critters on record about the draconian legislation they're backing as it is to follow every lead in the Trump/Russia story. I just feel that he's getting short shrift, and he deserves some more credit.

I agree. I would love to have them remove Brian Williams and move Chris to a more prominent spot.

[stormy]

I also love that Chris gets the house republicans in and grills them, but respectively lets them have their say.

The 8 pm ET hour is, IMO, good for Chris.  Hell, my favorite Keith had it first.

Edited May 12, 2017 by stormy

[meowmommy]

8 hours ago, Complexity said:

I agree. I would love to have them remove Brian Williams and move Chris to a more prominent spot.

8 pm seems like a pretty good prime time slot, but MSNBC seems to have made BriWi their "news guy" whenever they need live reporting.  Given how well that worked out on the night of the Syria raid, perhaps they need to rethink that.  I've seen nothing to indicate that Chris or Rachel or Lawrence can't report on the fly.  

[ZoqFotPik]

Was there something different about tonight's (5/15) show? It might have be my signal, but the picture seemed different. Was Chris using a different studio because he is traveling for his book? Also the shadows his glasses were making near his eyes were very distracting.

[BennyB]

Quote

Was Chris using a different studio

He was in Detroit....the lighting was bad...looked like wannabe Alice Cooper :-(

[ButterQueen]

On 5/12/2017 at 9:44 AM, Complexity said:

I agree. I would love to have them remove Brian Williams and move Chris to a more prominent spot.

I love Chris at 8 and Rachel at 9.  Perfect for our schedule.  I never watch Brian at 11.

[Complexity]

2 hours ago, ButterQueen said:

I love Chris at 8 and Rachel at 9.  Perfect for our schedule.  I never watch Brian at 11.

I get Chris at 7 and Rachel at 8. Brian comes on at 10.

I wouldn't mind it so much if they repeated Chris in his normal cycle placement, but they don't. His first repeat is at 2am. By then, they've already repeated all the other shows (Rachel, Lawrence, and Brian). I don't know why they wait to repeat Chris' show until so late.

So my choices to watch Chris are 7pm or 2am. 

Edited May 18, 2017 by Complexity

[Grommet]

Chris has become must-watch for me, nosing out Rachel. Her odd giddiness is starting to bug a little bit, though I still love her. I generally like Chris's guests and the format. Am I mis-remembering, or was his show on the bubble a year or two ago when MSNBC starting shaking up the evening lineup? And then he won a well-deserved Emmy. Such a smart guy.

[clb1016]

25 minutes ago, Grommet said:

Chris has become must-watch for me, nosing out Rachel. Her odd giddiness is starting to bug a little bit, though I still love her. I generally like Chris's guests and the format. Am I mis-remembering, or was his show on the bubble a year or two ago when MSNBC starting shaking up the evening lineup? And then he won a well-deserved Emmy. Such a smart guy.

We're on the same page.  Chris is a smart guy and a good interviewer, and he has terrific guests.  I watch Rachel as well and appreciate the way she puts issues in historical context, but sometimes I need to take a break from her.

[stormy]

I seriously feel like I can't miss Chris.  Rachel, eh.  She get a little too preachy for me.

And BTW, I posted over on Lawrence's board that his contract ends June 4th and he doesn't know if he'll be signing a new one.  Stephanie Miller was all over this this morning and said Chris, Rachel, Lawrence and Joy are who really keep MSNBC running.

Edited May 18, 2017 by stormy

[clb1016]

OK, "Holy Potatoes!" is a phrase I will start using at every possible opportunity.

[stormy]

I think CNN stole John Dean from Chris. He's been on there every day this week :(

[Hanahope]

trump doesn't understand the lines separating the executive branch and federal law enforcement, or just doesn't care and believes he can get away with anything he wants?  

I loved the answer Brennan gave to the GoP committee member in response to the question of whether he saw collusion between trump and the russians, Brennan said he saw information that was worthy of investigation as to whether such cooperation or collusion was taking place.  I'm sure the GoP guy wanted Brennan to admit that they had nothing specifically of trump doing something in particular, but Brennan turned it around to say there was information worthy of investigation (i.e. in order to find the evidence of trump specficially being involved).  

At this rate, it appears that currently, there's more evidence of trump himself trying to squash the investigation, than trump actually doing things personally with the russians for the election.

[clb1016]

9 minutes ago, Hanahope said:

trump doesn't understand the lines separating the executive branch and federal law enforcement, or just doesn't care and believes he can get away with anything he wants?  

I loved the answer Brennan gave to the GoP committee member in response to the question of whether he saw collusion between trump and the russians, Brennan said he saw information that was worthy of investigation as to whether such cooperation or collusion was taking place.  I'm sure the GoP guy wanted Brennan to admit that they had nothing specifically of trump doing something in particular, but Brennan turned it around to say there was information worthy of investigation (i.e. in order to find the evidence of trump specficially being involved).  

At this rate, it appears that currently, there's more evidence of trump himself trying to squash the investigation, than trump actually doing things personally with the russians for the election.

Funny how, even though half these committee guys are lawyers, they don't seem to understand the concept of "probable cause."

[Kitty Redstone]

Or they don't care.  That guy with the amphibian-looking skin (Gowdy?) knew it wasn't Brennan's job to determine whether a piece of intelligence was evidence, but he tried to box him in to giving Donald an out.  Creep.

The look on Chris' face tonight when he got the report on Greg Gianforte - who put his hands around the throat of Ben Jacobs of the Guardian before body-slamming him to the ground - was one of utter disbelief and horror.  I am beyond disturbed at the hostility people are directing at the press and wonder if Mr. Jacobs can bring some sort of civil liberties suit against Gianforte.  Misdemeanor assault isn't enough.

[stormy]

And as far as Gowdy goes, if it doesn't have the names Hillary and Bengazhi in it, he's not interested.  Chris is just too polite to say that.

[attica]

I've been thinking about Chris's rant, well, forceful statement, anyway, about Shane Scanlon, the spokesweasel for the Montana Congress critter Gianforte. So many outlets put his statement about the Ben Jacobs bodyslam without analysis. I mean, it clearly wasn't supported by the audio and the eyewitnesses, but geez, you wish news presenters would say that out loud. That Chris drew a line under that, and went the extra mile by painting Scanlon as a person to be henceforth ignored, was an actual balm. Not that I think it'll make much difference to the media in general, but geez, it's a start.

[maystone]

This is just something funny that went down on Twitter last Friday. As you know, All In is a live show; the whole team is working on it right up until air time. So the big news about the tape transcript of the conversation between Kushner and Kisleyak dropped around 6:30PM. Within a few short minutes Chris posted to his Twitter TL just one thing: #YGBFKM  All of the rest of us are scrambling around trying to figure out how we'd missed the meaning of this obviously important hashtag, until one by one we got it. You gotta be fuckin' kidding me. Ha!!

He made it, though. If you saw the show on Friday, you know it was articulate and on point as always.

[stormy]

So CNN has definitely stolen John Dean from Chris.  He's always on there.

But Chris has a new Watergate expert.  Jill Wine-Banks, a former Watergate prosecutor.  She's quite good.

[attica]

I liked the last segment, parsing why Rs only seem to care about the left's tears. But I think it could have used a reference to Cleek's Law:  Today's conservatism is the opposite of what liberals want today: updated daily. And of course the Republican strategist's only suggestion was to 'fix' the Ds messaging.

[clb1016]

Well, today we got an answer to Chris's question:  Trump has filed for an extension for his 2016 tax return.

[Hanahope]

Interesting that trump takes legal advice as to Comey's hearing, but not as to his travel ban going before SCOTUS.

and it's amazing how many government offices still have no staff.

[stormy]

I love when Chris has longtime friend of the show, retired Col Lawrence Wilkerson, on.

He made me laugh last night when he said trump was the Godfather and this administration is a mafia family.  He was disgusted and actually seemed to spew out his analysis.

[Hanahope]

I loved the one interviewee saying that trump knew absolutely that his conversations with Comey about an ongoing investigation was wrong because he said during the campaign that Bill Clinton was wrong to talk about an investigation with Lynch and because he asked other people to leave the room before he talked with Comey

[attica]

Yay! Auntie Max time! I love her, and I love how Chris just lights her like a Molotov cocktail and throws. And loves watching the fire.

[Kitty Redstone]

And giggles with glee when she says what so many of us are thinking.  California 43 is lucky to have her.

[attica]

Two things on the Preet Bharara story: 1. Chris kept mispronouncing his name as Bahara. 2. Sheldon Whitehouse's snark. "He was trying to be charming, if you think he's charming..." Hee!

[Hanahope]

The brown nosing of trump's cabinet was incredible and disturbing.  I loved Schumers response. 

[Kitty Redstone]

So, the guy with the unfortunate haircut that Chris was trying to talk to at the end of the show was ... a bit frightening.  He's unable to process that the Hillary Clinton email scandal is over and is flat out refusing to deal with reality.  I'd love to know what Chris was thinking during their exchange, i.e., is narcissistic, magical thinking contagious or is this a variant of something Stanley Milgram studied?

[attica]

Aww, how great was it that Chris got Dan Hernandez on the show? I had heard he was running for office, but I guess I never knew he won. Yay! Such an inspiration.

[attica]

I'm glad that Chris played the Turnbull audio last night. I'd read about what he said, but hearing it, hearing the Aussie mimic DJT's cadence, well, let's just say it cheered me up a bit.

(But, Chrissy, sweetie: it's so not a good look to make fun of Spicey's mispronunciation of 'Trumbull' when you're still calling him Preet 'Bahara.' Glass houses and rocks and all...)

[Kitty Redstone]

I'm very glad Chris is paying attention to the secret health care bill.  It's not getting enough attention, nor is the way they're attempting to foist it on the public.  The procedural move he described is shockingly undemocratic.  I think Chris said it was diabolical, but I'd go further.

[Grommet]

Attica, he finally got Preet Bharara's name right! He pronounced it very deliberately, so I think he knows he's been getting it wrong.

I loved him cracking up when one of his guests asked why anyone is still listening to Newt Gingrich. Because, seriously...no.

[maystone]

Chris is a better person than I am. I become "yelling at my TV" enraged whenever he has on a GOP politician whose evergreen routine is to fling BS and talk rapidly over Chris. Now Chris appears energized while this is going on, but I remain frustrated and kind of ticked off that they're getting free air time to just add to the tornado of arrogance and bad faith that swirls around them.

Aww, Michelle Goldberg just made me sad (and a bit fearful). She was talking about the GA06 results and reporting that all of those new-to-campaigning activists for Ossoff were heartbroken not just because he lost, but because they discovered that the people they had thought of as friends, people who were anti-Trump or NeverTrump, hated liberals more than anything else. Her voice broke a little when she said, "They hate us." I knew that on an intellectual level, but that report from Goldberg gave me chills.

[navelgazer]

4 hours ago, maystone said:

Chris is a better person than I am. I become "yelling at my TV" enraged whenever he has on a GOP politician whose evergreen routine is to fling BS and talk rapidly over Chris. Now Chris appears energized while this is going on, but I remain frustrated and kind of ticked off that they're getting free air time to just add to the tornado of arrogance and bad faith that swirls around them.

At my house Mom and I were both yelling "Cut his mic, Chris.  Cut his mic."  I realize Chris thinks he's being contrarian with his allowing these gasbags to have free rein in a non-FAUX Noise environment when really all it is is a waste of time and oxygen.  The ideology of the RWNJ is full of lies, damn lies, and statistics, but yet they still spout nonsense like that the GOP bill doesn't cut Medicaid by $800 billion to give an extra $50,000 a year in tax cuts to millionaires.  The bill just slows down the rate of growth in Medicaid over time and it all balances out.  Yeah, and i'm related to Angelina Jolie.  

Edited June 22, 2017 by navelgazer

[attica]

12 hours ago, maystone said:

Her voice broke a little when she said, "They hate us." I knew that on an intellectual level, but that report from Goldberg gave me chills.

This was exactly my response to the results. (Well, that, and to never ever ever believe polling data ever ever again). Hearing and reading other pundits blame the candidate or Pelosi or some other dem failure has just enraged me. Hearing Goldberg echo my mind was not exactly comforting, but at least it wasn't enraging. Handel was a bad candidate by every measure but the one that mattered: the R next to her name on the ballot.

Edited June 22, 2017 by attica

[attica]

To Chris's point about how different news orgs viewed the day, I'll submit a corroborating anecdote: I happened to be in a cab driving by the Fox building on the evening before Comey' s testimony. The ticker surrounding the building concerned itself with some blather about Eric Holder and Fast & Furious. It was like a time warp.

[navelgazer]

I wish Hayes would stop having on Jon Ralston of Nevada.  Ralston joined the sleazy journalists club last year when he falsely reported that there had been violence, i.e., chair-throwing, at the Democratic Convention in Nevada when no such thing happened.  Ralston wasn't even in the room when everything went down.  Even so, the MSM went with his first-person account to spread the "Bernie supporters are violent" meme.  Ralston's PBS show got cancelled, but that seems to be the only professional price he paid for being a goddamn liar.  

[stormy]

I love when Chris has any former Watergate prosecutor on.  They're always, Watergate is so blase compared to trump/Russia.

[thosme]

I know Ari was on tonight but since I didn't catch any rap references, it might not have been him.  (Of course for me to catch any they have to be glaringly obvious.). Anyway he had three politicians on who all annoyed me.  The two who were there about health care just pushed what each wanted instead of talking about the latest development.  The representative who supported the Trump care plan couldn't give an opinion about Russia because he has only watched an hour of news this week because he has been so busy. I hope this isn't too political for the comments.

[attica]

I like whenever Julia Ioffe is on. She can talk Russian gud.

[maystone]

I wonder if this is a scheduled vacation for Chris or if he just needed to back away from the news for a while after his reaction to Don Jr.'s email explosion last Thursday. He wasn't just shocked by that turn of events, he was gobsmacked. He admitted that he'd been skeptical of the collusion charges (which shocked me), so consequently he was blown away by Jr's admission that he was there to talk with the Russians about sabotaging the Clinton campaign. And then Chris got angry. Really, really angry. Because he'd felt that he'd been lied to. Well, of course you've been lied to. We all have. Right from that stupid-ass entrance down the escalator.

I love All In. Hell, I used to get up at 6:30 on a Saturday so I could watch Up with Chris Hayes. I have to admit that I was thrown by his surprise at the blatant duplicity on view with all of the Trumps. I'd been assuming that until then he'd been showing his objective journalist side (although it's not the place of the news to be objective as in he said/she said; it's to be truthful). He's a policy wonk, and his show has always been heavy on the policy aspects of the administrations, which is a needed focus for sure. I wonder if he's going to switch focus when he gets back.

[navelgazer]

Joy Reid subbing for Chris today, Wednesday -- yay!  Not that I don't like Ari Melber, but I just love Joy.  

[attica]

I had a very strange reaction to Chris's airing of the Kushner statement. I couldn't quite put my finger on why that statement bothered me so, until it occurred to me. He looked like Vanessa Bayer doing her 'Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy' bit on SNL.

[maystone]

Guys, tell me I'm just being paranoid.  As you may have noticed, Joy Reid has been filling in for Rachel a lot lately. I'm concerned that they're going to turf Chris and put Joy Reid in that slot, especially since they run a nightly ad on Rachel's show that specifically references Joy filling in for Chris, and she and Rachel laughing while Rachel points out how great Joy is. Followed by the tag line: "This is why we watch." Plus there's not a lot of friendly chatter between Chris and Joy during the hand-off between shows lately. I don't know.

[stormy]

I hope not. Chris is my only must see show.

Plus I thought he was nominated for an Emmy. He has been in the past.

[clb1016]

2 hours ago, maystone said:

Guys, tell me I'm just being paranoid.  As you may have noticed, Joy Reid has been filling in for Rachel a lot lately. I'm concerned that they're going to turf Chris and put Joy Reid in that slot, especially since they run a nightly ad on Rachel's show that specifically references Joy filling in for Chris, and she and Rachel laughing while Rachel points out how great Joy is. Followed by the tag line: "This is why we watch." Plus there's not a lot of friendly chatter between Chris and Joy during the hand-off between shows lately. I don't know.

 

44 minutes ago, stormy said:

I hope not. Chris is my only must see show.

Plus I thought he was nominated for an Emmy. He has been in the past.

The "This Is Why We Watch" commercial is part of a series.

And I could be wrong (NB: I have absolutely no connection to the TV business--I'm strictly a viewer--so my opinions are worth no more or less than anyone else's), but isn't Chris's show part of the prime time ratings surge that MSNBC has been experiencing?  Rachel's ratings are the highest, with Lawrence's 2nd, but I believe Chris's show has also had an upswing (and I think it's been nominated for 2 Emmys).

Also, I believe that Joy's weekend shows are the highest-rated weekend shows on the network, and she wouldn't be able to do the five-night-a-week prime time show and the 2 weekend shows.

Which is by way of saying that I would imagine MSNBC is happy with things as they currently are and wouldn't be looking to make a change without thinking it through very carefully, or unless one of the players starts making demands.

[Sharpie66]

Joy is also teaching during the week in the fall and spring, so she's got her weekdays full.

[maystone]

Thanks, guys. See, this is why I come here :)

[ButterQueen]

Chris asks some great questions to senators on both sides, but I would drop dead if anyone could ever give a yes/no answer instead of the same ole political bullshit.