MSNBC host Chris Hayes went viral on social media after he complained about the backlash toward anti-Israel protesters who smashed windows and occupied a building on Columbia University’s campus on Tuesday.
The liberal journalist wrote on X on Wednesday, “I feel like I’m losing my mind a little: people understand that ‘occupying buildings on campus’ is, like, one of the most common forms of studen [sic] protest for decades and not some devious new ploy devised by professional anarchist plotters, right?”
Hayes’ post blew up, reaching over 4.5 million views in about 24 hours. Conservatives attacked the MSNBC host for seeming to give a pass to the left-wing protesters for breaking and entering.
“Imagine posting this publicly and not feeling immense shame and embarrassment,” conservative radio host Jason Rantz wrote in reply.
“Burning down buildings has been done for a long time too… it doesn’t suddenly make it legal or right,” author and Substack journalist Justin Hart replied to Hayes.
“Let me get this straight. So by Chris’s logic, when a crime becomes more common, the laws against it shouldn’t be enforced. Got it,” lawyer Leel Sinai wrote.
“Really poor take from a really poor journalist,” RedState columnist Buzz Patterson added.
Other commentators on the social media site suggested Hayes would not come out to defend right-wing protesters for doing the same thing.
“How is that different from any other form of trespassing? Especially when people smash windows and doors in order to break in. If some protesters broke into the MSNBC studios and refused to leave, you would certainly have a problem with it. And you should. That’s illegal,” X user TheValuesVoter asked.
“If you’re pro-life and you ‘occupy a building’ as a protest, you are committing a federal crime and you will arrested and convicted. You will do multiple years in jail, even if it is your first offense,” X user Polimath wrote.
The user was referring to abortion protesters in Tennessee and Washington, D.C., who are facing federal charges and potential prison time for violating the FACE Act by holding demonstrations at abortion clinics.
Hayes was also criticized by left-wing users who felt he should defend protesters more forcefully on his network.
“My man, I don’t know if you knew this, but you work for MSNBC and have no small degree of influence with your co-workers,” one user wrote.
Another challenged him to make that point on his program.
“Is there a reason you tweet this stuff out and not say it on your show or to your colleagues and hold them accountable for their role in all of this, including justifying a genocide?” AJ+ journalist Sana Saeed asked.
In response to one X user who said abetting such behavior was “illiberal,” Hayes said that wasn’t his point.
“The NYPD seemed to be saying that the *reason* for the truly overwhelming display of force was that this all must have been the work of ‘outside agitators’ and it seems perfectly possible that it was done…by students,” he wrote. “But if it’s students doing it, there’s a question of why hundreds of officers and an MRAP are necessary.”
Hayes defended anti-Israel protesters later that night on his MSNBC show, “All In.”
He compared the students occupying the university building to civil rights protesters at Morehouse College in the 1960s who locked college trustees in their offices to make the point that current protests were not as radical.
“College activism has long been a part of college education,” Hayes said. But the media’s “sense of proportion” in reporting on these protests “seems to be lacking,” he argued.
Hayes said there had been an “obsessive media focus” since Oct. 7 on protesters at college campuses.
He argued it was easier for the media to focus on college kids rather than conduct a debate about whether it was “morally defensible” for the U.S. to continue to give aid to Israel for their war in Gaza because of all the children who have been killed in the conflict.
This isn’t the first time Hayes has criticized how college protesters have been treated by universities and the media.
“As a sheer tactical matter, mass arrests of the protesters seems to be having the opposite of its intended effect,” he wrote in a post on X last month.
Hayes has also shared posts about the lack of “credible reporting” about “antisemitic incidents” at a protest at the University of Texas at Austin.
A spokesperson for MSNBC didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report.
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