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MSNBC's Chris Hayes laid into Senate Republicans for what he called "seething theatrical contempt" for Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, earlier this week.
During Thursday's confirmation hearing, Hagel responded to aggressive lines of questioning from Republican senators. At one point, he found himself in a heated clash with Sen. John McCain about the Iraq War.
On his Sunday show, Hayes called Hagel's confirmation hearing "an omnidirectionally embarrassing debacle for everyone involved." He added, "Republican senator after Republican senator threw questions at Hagel that even by the debased standards of a nominating hearing were the cheapest kind of demagoguery and bullying."
Hayes also called out Democrats at the hearing for asking soft, safe questions. The MSNBC host also argued that Hagel to have prepared for the hearing "in the cab ride to the capitol."
"Perhaps most depressing of all was what seemed to be the underlying assumption of nearly everyone on the dais that American military and foreign policy is doing just great," Hayes said. He later added, "As we enter the twelfth year of the longest war in the nation’s 237 years, so many of the senators seemed so intent on laying the groundwork for the next war against Iran that they could hardly trouble themselves to discuss the actual, ongoing war that Hagel would be charged with ending."
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