Hayes: Comey & James Cases Have No Merit, Trump's DOJ Is Authoritarian, Bolton Is Ultra-Conservative

Hayes Calls Trump’s DOJ Authoritarian, Bolton Ultra-Conservative & Portrays James & Comey As Victims

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes spent his Thursday night show turning reality upside down.

On All In with Chris Hayes (October 16, 2025), he claimed Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is waging an “authoritarian power grab,” labeled John Bolton “ultra-conservative,” and portrayed James Comey and Letitia James as victims of political retaliation. It’s a backward picture that misrepresents all three — Bolton isn’t ultra-conservative, Comey and James aren’t innocent bystanders, and Trump’s DOJ isn’t the authoritarian monster Hayes wants his audience to believe it is. Enforcing the law isn’t tyranny — it’s what the Justice Department is supposed to do.

Hayes said:

“As No Kings weekend approaches, and millions of people across the country prefer to gather and say no to Donald Trump’s authoritarian power grab. His Department of Justice is forging ahead and going after yet another political critic. Long time ultra-conservative hawk John Bolton, who is Trump’s own former national security advisor turned critic, was indicted by a federal grand jury today on 18 counts related to mishandling of national security information. Bolton, of course, the latest target on Trump’s de facto political enemies list to be indicted by his handpicked U.S. attorneys in under a month. Oh, I have to say the facts of this case look different in some crucial specs than the other ones. This case against Bolton appears to, at least at first glance, have some merit. It wasn’t spun entirely out of nothing. Unlike the charges Trump demanded against James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James...”

Hayes called Bolton “a long-time ultra-conservative hawk,” which is absurd. What does “ultra-conservative” even mean? It’s not a factual description — it’s an opinion label, a vague media term the press throws around. Hayes wants Bolton to appear as a “far-right” figure who turned against Trump, but it’s a misleading pairing meant to make conservatives look pro-war. In reality, genuine ultra-conservatives believe in smaller government, lower taxes, individual liberty, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. By definition, conservatives favor limited government and are not pro-war.

Bolton is not “ultra-conservative” in any real sense — he’s a career Washington insider, part of the foreign-policy establishment, and someone who’s been openly hostile toward Trump and conservatives. The word “hawk” refers to someone who supports military intervention or an aggressive foreign policy — but Hayes uses it as if it automatically means “conservative.” There are hawks in both parties — Democrats and Republicans alike — and most of them are not conservative at all.

Chris Hayes wants his audience to believe that Trump is using the DOJ to jail “political critics.” But the facts about James Comey and Letitia James don’t fit his story.

James Comey wasn’t charged because Trump “demanded” it — he was investigated because, as FBI Director, he leaked official FBI memos about his private meetings with the president, deliberately giving them to a friend to trigger a special-counsel investigation. Comey later admitted that he shared those memos in hopes of prompting the appointment of a special counsel, which ultimately launched the Trump–Russia investigation. The Department of Justice’s own Inspector General confirmed in 2019 that Comey violated FBI policy, mishandled government information, and “set a dangerous example” for the bureau. He wasn’t a “political critic” under attack — he was a former official who abused his position and violated FBI protocol.

Letitia James isn’t some innocent “critic” of Trump either. She’s now indicted on two federal charges — one for bank fraud and another for making false statements to a financial institution — after allegedly misrepresenting the use of a Virginia property to obtain better mortgage terms. Yet Chris Hayes wants his audience to see her as a victim of Trump’s “authoritarian” DOJ, not as a powerful official accused of serious financial crimes. These aren’t minor technicalities. Bank fraud and false-statement charges are among the most serious white-collar crimes on the books — each carrying up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $1 million. Calling that “political persecution” insults every American who’s ever faced prosecution for far less.

Hayes tells his viewers that prosecutions like these are “authoritarian.” But that’s projection. The real authoritarian mindset is the one that says Democrats are above the law — that accountability equals persecution.

By that very definition, it’s the Democrats who’ve spent the last eight years proving his point. They tried to put Trump in prison — not for what he did, but because of who he is. They fabricated investigations, politicized indictments, and used every lever of government to destroy their chief opponent.

Hayes and MSNBC want you to believe that enforcing the law against Democrats is dictatorship, and that targeting Trump with fabricated charges is democracy. In truth, the only “authoritarian power grab” here is the media’s demand that Democrats be untouchable.