MS Now host Chris Hayes called one aspect of President Donald Trump’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool fiasco the “most embarrassing performance” of his second term in office, though he added that there’s stiff competition for the dubious honor.
“Do you remember, dear viewer, the saga of the Reflecting Pool? Of course you do,” Hayes said Friday on “All In.”
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He then asked viewers if they recalled how shortly after Trump’s pricey renovation of the D.C. landmark, it turned green with algae and its new “American flag blue” liner started peeling off in big pieces.
“And then how Trump, in the most embarrassing performance of his second term, which is a crowded field, tried to blame it on vandals and saboteurs?” he continued.
Hayes then rolled a series of clips in which Trump claimed that “vandals” wielding box cutters or knives were responsible for the pool’s deteriorating blue coating.
One of the sheets of blue coating that had peeled off the bottom of the Reflecting Pool. Jen Bendery
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Earlier that day, the Justice Department had moved to dismiss a criminal case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, whom it had accused of intentionally damaging the pool liner — an allegation he has denied. Government lawyers said the damage was in fact caused by a botched, rushed installation.
Hayes noted that despite the situation’s absurdity, it carried potentially grave consequences for Hearn.
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“You know, we’re laughing now — they were gonna try to put this guy in jail for 10 years!” he said.
Trump made it clear Saturday that he still blamed vandalism for the damage, no matter what the DOJ said.
“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Watch Hayes’ discussion of the Reflecting Pool below:
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