Chris Hayes torched Donald Trump for derailing a bipartisan housing bill, suggesting the president refused to sign it in order to chase “dictator” ambitions.
“Why would Trump punt on what is by all accounts a very popular bill, a bill you could go and sell to the American people? And the answer is really, in large part — the main answer is that he just doesn’t care,” the MS NOW host said during Wednesday’s broadcast for “All In With Chris Hayes.” “He couldn’t care less. It would be impossible for the man to care less about whether your housing is expensive.”
He continued: “In fact, don’t take my word for it. He told the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, as much weeks ago: ‘No one gives a bleep about housing.’ The ‘no one’ there being: ‘I don’t give a bleep about housing.’ People really do care about housing.”
As Hayes went on, he suggested that Trump “only cares about two things right now,” adding, “He cares about building a bunch of stuff, like his ballroom and his arch and the reflecting pool, and he cares about becoming a dictator – and rigging the elections in order to become a dictator.”
At this moment, Hayes highlighted Trump’s reasoning for not signing the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on Wednesday, which was that he wanted Congress to pass the SAVE America Act first.
“His stated reason for punting on the ceremony today was he wants his voter suppression bill passed first,” Hayes sounded off. “Okay, there’s a lot in there. I mean, the first is that he just cares about rigging the election. And sabotaging free and fair elections, right? That’s what he cares about. And he’s not bluffing here.”
Hayes warned that this wasn’t “just talk” from Trump, noting there’s “a lot of action behind it.” Specifically, Hayes highlighted how the Postmanager General recently said Trump is serious about restricting the delivery of mail-in ballots.
He also tore into Trump for lying about election rigging brought about by mail-in votes in California. “That’s all nonsense. It’s either lies or dementia or some combination of the two. You never know. Self-delusion,” Hayes said. “There is no evidence Trump actually altered the results despite his implication.”
“But the fact that you would make those comments publicly, boast about it, means he does not even care if you know that he would, and this is really important, he would rather cheat than win,” he noted. “Think about what he did today. The midterms are coming up … A President who’s concerned about persuading persuadable voters would make a big to-do about signing a bipartisan housing bill.”
Yet, Hayes said Trump did not do that as he “doesn’t want to win, he wants to cheat.”
“He doesn’t actually care what the voters think,” he said. “Because he wants to suppress the vote and control the electorate.”
Watch Hayes’ full commentary above. A representative for the White House did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
“All In With Chris Hayes” airs weeknights at 8 p.m. ET on MS NOW.
