Chris Hayes

Christopher Loffredo Hayes (/heɪz/; born February 28, 1979) is a commentator, cable television news anchor, and author. Hayes hosts All In with Chris Hayes, a weekday news and opinion television show on MSNBC. Hayes also hosts a weekly MSNBC podcast, Why Is This Happening? Hayes formerly hosted a weekend MSNBC show, Up with Chris Hayes. He is an editor-at-large of The Nation magazine.

Hayes was born in Norwood, The Bronx, New York City, one of three sons of Roger and Geri Hayes. His mother is of Italian descent and his father is of Irish Catholic ancestry. His father moved to New York from Chicago while studying at a Jesuit seminary, and began community organizing in the Bronx. Roger Hayes spent several years leading community organizing at the Community Service Society of New York and now works as an assistant commissioner for the NYC Department of Health. Hayes's mother was a school teacher and now works for the NYC Department of Education. Hayes was raised Catholic,but stopped attending services in college and is now irreligious.

He is a childhood friend and schoolmate of comedian Desus Nice. Hayes attended New York City's prestigious Hunter College High School, where his classmates included Immortal Technique and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the latter of whom he directed in his first musical. After graduating, Hayes attended Brown University, from which he graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy.

Print

Beginning in August 2001, for four years Hayes was a contributor to the independent weekly newspaper Chicago Reader, where he covered local and national politics. In late 2003, he began a four-year stint at In These Times, a labor-focused monthly magazine based in Chicago, where he was a senior editor.

From 2005 to 2006, Hayes was a Schumann Center Writing Fellow at In These Times. From 2006 through 2007, Hayes was a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, and a contributing writer for The Nation. On November 1, 2007, The Nation named him its Washington, D.C. editor, succeeding David Corn.

Hayes wrote extensively on issues central to the liberal community, including what ails the Democratic Party in the post-9/11 era and how the labor movement is changing. He also reported on progressive activists' work to resuscitate the "public option" during the 2009–2010 health care fight when many political insiders wrote it off as dead.

Hayes was an adjunct professor of English at St. Augustine College in Chicago and a Bernard L. Schwartz fellow at New America Foundation from 2008 to 2010.

Cable news

Hayes guest-hosted The Rachel Maddow Show in July 2010 while Maddow was traveling in Afghanistan and later often filled in for Maddow when she was absent. Hayes has also hosted other MSNBC shows such as The Ed Show, Countdown With Keith Olbermann, and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.

On November 5, 2010, MSNBC announced that Hayes would be filling in for Keith Olbermann during Olbermann's suspension. However, the network later backtracked after finding out that Hayes had also made political contributions—the issue over which Olbermann was being suspended.

Hayes credits Maddow with his becoming a host at MSNBC, saying, "I absolutely would not be doing this if it weren't for her."

Up with Chris Hayes

On August 1, 2011, MSNBC announced that Hayes would host a two-hour morning show on Saturdays and Sundays, each going into depth on current issues. The first airing of Up with Chris Hayes was September 17, 2011, and featured a live interview with former speaker and current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

On May 27, 2012, Memorial Day Weekend, Hayes made comments on air regarding the use of the word "heroism" as applied to American servicemen killed in action, stating, "I feel uncomfortable about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war. And I don't want to obviously desecrate or disrespect the memory of anyone that's fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism, you know, hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers, and things like that. But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic. But maybe I'm wrong about that." His remark generated widespread controversy. Hayes initially defended his comment by urging people to listen to what he had actually said. Nonetheless, he apologized on his blog. Furthermore, on his June 2, 2012, show, he devoted a discussion to his comments and the disconnect between civilians and the military.

All In with Chris Hayes

On March 14, 2013, MSNBC announced that Hayes would take over the time slot formerly hosted by Ed Schultz, who would move to the weekends. At 34 years old, he became the youngest host of a prime-time show on any of the country's major cable news channels.

According to The New York Times, the change was made in the hopes that MSNBC can win a wider audience than it did with Schultz. Hayes was said to transition better to The Rachel Maddow Show because he is seen as just as policy-oriented as Maddow. "Chris has done an amazing job creating a franchise on weekend mornings," said Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC. "He's an extraordinary talent and has made a strong connection with our audience."

All In with Chris Hayes, Hayes's first prime-time show, premiered Monday, April 1, 2013.

The show won an Emmy in 2015 and again in 2018.

Podcasts

In May 2018, Hayes launched a weekly podcast called Why Is This Happening?, featuring interviews with political figures, activists, journalists, writers, and academics. The podcast's first live episode was recorded in November 2018, at Congregation Beth Elohim, in Brooklyn, New York, with author Ta-Nehisi Coates.Hayes' second live episode, held on February 24, 2019, featured an interview with Georgia politician and activist, Stacey Abrams.

Press freedom

Hayes criticized the United States government's decision to charge WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917 for his role in the 2010 publication of a trove of Iraq War documents and diplomatic cables leaked by Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Hayes tweeted: "The Espionage indictment of Assange for publishing is an extremely dangerous, frontal attack on the free press. Bad, bad, bad."

Hayes's first book, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy was published by Crown Publishing Group in June 2012. A review in The Atlantic called it "provocative" and "thoughtful," but faulted its policy suggestions as less satisfying. Kirkus Reviews called it "forcefully written" and "provocative." Aaron Swartz described the book as "compellingly readable, impossibly erudite, and—most stunningly of all—correct."

Hayes' second book, A Colony in a Nation, was published by W. W. Norton in March 2017.

Book festivals

Hayes participated in the 2017 Brooklyn Book Festival (BKBF).

In April 2017 he was a featured author at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, which took place at the campus of USC.

On July 14, 2007, Hayes married his college sweetheart Kate Shaw, a former Supreme Court law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens who is currently a professor of law at the Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a Supreme Court contributor for ABC News; they met while attending Brown together. His father-in-law is veteran Chicago reporter Andy Shaw. Hayes and Shaw resided in Washington, D.C., until they moved to New York City, where All in With Chris Hayes is produced. They have three children.

Hayes' brother Luke worked on Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns.

Hayes is a registered Democrat in the state of New York.