Chris Hayes Mocks Trump’s Impeachment Defense: He’s Telling Everyone to ‘Read a Transcript That Incriminates Him’

President Donald Trump is encouraging people to “READ THE TRANSCRIPT,” which baffled MSNBC’s Chris Hayes during his live show tonight.

Between the president’s continued refrain and the fact that the Trump campaign is actually selling READ THE TRANSCRIPT shirts (which people have worn at recent rallies), Hayes said Trump “is attempting in a clever or dumb or just sort of feral animal instinct for survival kind of way — I can’t really tell which one it is — he’s attempting to turn his biggest weakness into a strength.”

“So the president is banking on the idea if he says ‘read the transcript,’ what he can do by saying that is wash the devastatingly incriminating nature of the call itself from people’s minds,” Hayes continued.

He brought up Trump’s recent tweet asking if anyone’s “dumb enough” to believe he would say something inappropriate to a foreign leader on a call where others were listening.

“Could the president be so dumb as to commit a flagrant abuse of power? Extort a foreign country while a bunch of people were listening?” Hayes asked. “The answer is yes, he could be! So could he also be so dumb to tell everybody to read a transcript that incriminates him?”

Hayes reviewed the transcript, as well as the testimony of officials who have spoken to the Ukraine pressure campaign that was going on, before returning to “read the transcript.”

Hayes not only agreed that you should reach the transcript, but he stood in front of people wearing “YES, READ THE TRANSCRIPT!” shirts.

You can watch above, via MSNBC.