MS NOW’s Chris Hayes said he feels like he’s “losing it” every time he sees President Donald Trump seeming to fall asleep during public events.
On Friday’s All In, Hayes played a clip from the day before, when the president was at a press briefing at the White House.
“I need to take a moment to play you a clip from a press conference the day before in the Oval Office,” Hayes said to the viewers.
“You’ll see the EPA chief, Lee Zeldin, talking to reporters while standing next to Donald Trump in the Oval Office.”
In the clip, Trump, who was sitting behind the Resolute Desk, starts to lean back and to the side, as if he’s about to fall asleep.
He closes his eyes for a while, then opens them quickly, and does it again. This pattern happens more than once.
Hayes then invited CT Insider’s Philip Bump and MS NOW’s Lisa Rubin onto the show.
“I saw that yesterday, and I really feel like we’re getting used to how absurd it is that this man falls asleep in public right in front of everyone, and then his eyes pop open the way my dog’s do when I scare her coming down the stairs,” Hayes said as the clip played again.
“I feel like I’m losing my mind. It’s like, that’s not—how is that the president of the United States, Philip, standing or sitting in front of everyone. This is now a daily thing. Look. Look! He’s asleep! The man is asleep! He’s not just closing his eyes!”
“I don’t know why he keeps doing this,” Bump replied.
“This is something that keeps drawing attention to himself. One suggestion I might make is that he just stand up. But it’s also interesting to see how much this has become a test. It’s impossible for his supporters to say anything other than, ‘No, no, no, you’re wrong. He’s not looking tired at all.’ Which, ‘Orwellian’ is probably too strong, but it’s really happening. You have to ignore what you see with your own eyes. Like, the guy is falling asleep, and maybe he shouldn’t put himself in that situation.”
Trump’s apparent dozing made liberal social media go crazy, with the Democratic Party’s official account calling him “The Commander-in-Sleep.”
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