Flashback video throws an awkward wrench into Chris Hayes' slam on 'authoritarian, flatly anti-democratic' attempts to delay election certification

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes this week slammed attempts from the Trump campaign and other Republicans to delay vote certifications in certain states:

“The tolerance that the institutional Republican party has for authoritarian, flatly anti-democratic politics to just overturn the election—the tolerance is luckily lower than the worst case fears. But it is way higher than anyone should be comfortable with,” says @chrislhayes. pic.twitter.com/NL2TvIqOSZ

— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) November 25, 2020

Hayes was then reminded about what he said after the 2016 election, and the spin began:

I knew it would be widely denied that prominent liberals floated an Electoral College coup in 2016, which is why I contemporaneously saved a bunch of examples pic.twitter.com/7gvape3ba2

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) November 25, 2020

Wait this is still true! That's the whole problem.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 25, 2020

Anyway nothing was beijng *floated* here since the point is that if electors were to go to the winner of the majority of all counties would probably just give it to the Republican in every state. My point was that people should be able to vote for president.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 25, 2020

Then a flashback video was shared showing Hayes and Michael Moore discussing the very actions they’re condemning this time around. This certainly sounds like something was being “floated”:

pic.twitter.com/AoZ2T1LVRK https://t.co/54IITqtfuc

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 25, 2020

MSNBC in the aftermath of the last presidential election ran segments for weeks in late Nov. and early Dec. pushing a scheme for the Electoral College to ignore certified election results to block Donald Trump. Here's Chris Hayes and Michael Moore floating the idea. pic.twitter.com/XWdIojuUbE

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) November 25, 2020

Funny how @chrislhayes completely memory holed this. https://t.co/IVnGLogMiE

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) November 25, 2020

This still isn’t responsive to the tweet, which is clearly making a point that the electors system is bad and anti-democratic. And my consistent view is that, yes, the person that gets the most votes should be president. The constitution says otherwise but it’s wrong normatively

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 25, 2020

Come on, Chris. This was all being done at the time when very influential Democrats were floating the idea of faithless electors ignoring how their states voted to install Hillary. You had Michael on to endorse that. You often referenced it:https://t.co/TIGbCVjv6j

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 25, 2020

Yes! People were pushing for it, though I don’t think I was personally (there are lots of things I come out strongly and advocate for, I don’t think that was one of them.) But the point is that the principle of democratic legitimacy actually matters!

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 25, 2020

If Trump had lost by 7-8 million votes and 4 points but eeked out an EC win by flipping 60,000 votes it wouldn’t be *hypocritical* for people to protest that very strenuously. It’s why I’ve said for a long time the entire structure is a ticking time bomb.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 25, 2020

But in those clips and in many other places, the only argument isn't that Trump lost the popular vote. It's that Trump is bad/scary for multiple reasons & therefore electors should refuse to follow their states' vote totals. You asked MM about several of those other reasons.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 25, 2020

We’re gonna need Dramamine after all that spin from Hayes:

Unprecedented. https://t.co/t5ofVWhgc6

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 25, 2020

Lol you are so full of it. Just take the hit Chris, and move on.

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) November 25, 2020

Can’t you for once just say the words: “I was wrong”.

— CaliBerns (@BerninginCali) November 25, 2020

From this to “Russia stole the election,” to “Trump is illegitimate,” to “You’re a conspiracy theorist if you even question voting irregularities in Philly” https://t.co/b8xuOXZdHn

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 25, 2020