'Greatest political crime since secession': Chris Hayes says Trump charge is what the law is for

Former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election is more odious than any political crime since the Civil War era, argued MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Tuesday.

This came after special counsel Jack Smith issued a four-count indictment against the former president — the third indictment brought against him, second at the federal level, and the first concerning conduct that took place while he was in office.

"I know there's been a lot of reaction already, we've had reaction from a lawyer, the president and everything," said fellow anchor Rachel Maddow. "Overall, how are you feeling about your expectations for this, for what it has turned out to be?"

"My first reaction, which is just a personal one ... if this wasn't a crime, nothing is a crime," said Hayes. "We watched him do it on television ... we knew what he was doing." Moreover, he said, it feels "gratifying" to see the charges come down. "Yes, yes, of course this was corrupt. Of course this was fraud, of course there was a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. We all saw him."

"The second thought I had is about the magnitude of this moment, which I think is just worth taking a second on," Hayes continued. "With Donald Trump, lots of things are unprecedented. The first time he was indicted was unprecedented, and the second time was indicted was unprecedented, because of the federal indictment had never come down. This is in the canon of American events, January 6 and its aftermath. The reason is that for 159 years after the cannon fire at Fort Sumter, there is an unbroken chain of transfer of power. Not only that, the core story of the American experiment is its fight within itself to be true to the radical promise of democracy. That is why Lincoln says at the battlefield at Gettysburg that the question before the nation is whether a nation of, by, and for the people can long endure. It's a test whether the thing can last."

"That is in a category of itself in American history, the Civil War and the death and misery," added Hayes. "This is the greatest political crime since secession. And the gravest test, that Lincoln called on the battlefield in Gettysburg of whether a nation of, by, and for the people, that we are our own masters, whether that can long endure. So I feel profoundly gratified by reading this document because it calls into question in a way that has not quite been called yet."

Hayes concluded, "If the law is not for this, what is it for?"

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