Russiagate promoter Chris Hayes claims Trump, GOP unleashed 'delegitimization of elections'

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MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes, who often promoted Russiagate conspiracy theories, accused former President Donald Trump and the Republican party of "delegitimizing elections."

On Tuesday, the "All In" anchor tweeted out an accusation that "conspiracy-theorizing" and delegitimizing elections began with Trump and the Republicans following the 2020 election.

"Something to consider is that the corrosive Big Lie conspiracy-theorizing and delegitimization [sic] of elections that Trump and the GOP have unleashed, won’t necessarily just stay contained to them," Hayes tweeted.

This tweet followed the recent report from The New York City Board of Elections stating that an error resulted in 135,000 pre-election test votes being accidentally counted in the latest primary. The final result is not expected to be announced until mid-July.

NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY IN CHAOS AFTER 135,000 PRE-ELECTION TEST BALLOTS COUNTED

Though Hayes claimed conspiracies and delegitimizing elections began with Trump and the GOP, the MSNBC host has had a history of promoting both in recent years. Notably, in 2018, Hayes featured Stacey Abrams as a guest following her failed 2018 Georgia gubernatorial campaign to Republican Governor Brian Kemp. There, he allowed Abrams to declare that the Georgia election was "not a free and fair election."

He continued to have Abrams as a guest despite her frequent assertions that she did not lose the 2018 election. Politifact has stated on the record that there is no proof that any voter suppression prevented Stacey Abrams from becoming governor.  

Furthermore, Hayes promoted a theory to delegitimize the 2016 elections and prevent Trump from being president. In a clip from December 2016, he discussed the idea with liberal filmmaker Michael Moore.

"There are people who have been pushing very hard who think that because of some of the constitutional perils of the emoluments clause, because of the popular vote margin, because of fundamentals they think threat to liberal democracy that electors should be persuaded and pressured on Monday and to part to what their pledge is and vote against Donald Trump," Hayes said. 

"Yes, they absolutely should," Moore responded. "I believe that right now that there are electors—we only need 38 of them, who have a conscience or are worried about a man who won't attend daily security briefings, who we now know Russia was trying to help get elected."

After the 2016 election, Hayes also tweeted out a "fun fact" about state electors not voting for the candidate who won the most votes in their respective state.

"Fun fact: states decide how to apportion their electors. They could give them all to, say, whichever candidate won majority of counties!" Hayes mused. 

Hayes went as far as asserting the result of the 2000 presidential election was not legitimate nearly two decades after the fact.

"A reminder that Bush v Gore, which functionally handed the presidency to Bush, was so legally shoddy its own authors explicitly disavowed it as precedent *in the opinion itself*," Hayes tweeted in 2018. 

In his Monday tweet, Hayes omitted the fact that Democrats in Congress have sought to challenge the certification of the electoral college in the 2000, 2004, and the 2016 presidential elections, the last three times a Republican candidate won. 

After the 2000 and 2016 elections, Democrats in the House of Representatives filed a motion to challenge the certification of the electoral votes of a variety of states but didn't have the required support of a senator needed to move forward with the motion. After the 2004 election, Democrats again filed a motion to prevent Ohio's electoral votes from being certified. 

This time House Democrats received support from then-California Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer. They claimed "numerous, serious election irregularities," occurred in the election. The motion failed when brought up for a vote and President George W. Bush was able to move forward with his second term. 

Republicans in Congress challenged the certification of several states after the 2020 election on January 6, the day of the Capitol riot, but the certification went forward with no successive challenge. 

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Hayes also frequently boosted more far-fetched theories about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In 2018, Hayes spoke with liberal writer Jonathan Chait on the claim that Trump had been a "possible" asset of Russia’s since 1987. 

Earlier in March, Hayes also retweeted a false claim that Hunter Biden’s laptop came from Russians in an effort to affect the 2020 election. He eventually backtracked and deleted the tweet.