MSNBC’s Chris Hayes excoriated the Senate Republican leadership over adjourning that chamber for a three-day weekend even though it failed to pass an extension of the coronavirus relief bill that expires on Friday.

In his opening segment, Hayes pointed out the absurdity of the Mitch McConnell-led Senate packing up and leaving the capital as unemployment and eviction benefits run out, particularly after the Democratic-led House had passed its own extension of the pandemic relief package 10 weeks ago.

“Of all the crazy things happening right now, and there are a lot, the craziest might be something that’s not happening,” Hayes explained. “There is no one on the floor of the United States Senate. There is no one on their offices. They have all gone home for the weekend. Congress is in recess right now, on the very day that $600 a week of unemployment insurance bonuses for tens of millions of people has expired. It’s done as of today. It’s a shocking and disgusting slap in the face from the Republican Senate leadership, the struggling Americans. The Democratic House has passed a bill to re-up it.”

“Also think about how insane this is politically,” Hayes noted. “There is an election in less than 100 days, you might have noticed. The Republican Party currently has a majority in the Senate. It is defending a bunch of intensely-contested seats. There is a sitting Republican president. Probably heard about that, too. He’s up for re-election. The country is in a once in a century catastrophe.”

Hayes then ran through a laundry list of shockingly bad statistics:  tens of millions unemployed, 153,000 fatalities from Covid-19, schools struggling to open around the country, small businesses being destroyed, professional sports barely able to function.

“All of American life is torn asunder. We are drowning here, folks, and Senate Republicans are like: ‘Peace, summer Fridays! You know how we do!’ That reveals a deep truth about the Republican Party right now. At a governing level, they have no answers for the catastrophe. They are acting like a party who understands they are about to get creamed. It’s not an accident that half the Republican Senator caucus is rebelling against doing anything. Some of those prominent opponents are people who clearly have their eyes on the future. People like Senators Ben Sasse, Josh Hawley, and Ted Cruz, people who are already pivoting to be the tough, austerity opposition in a future Democratic presidency, after their own party basically destroyed the country.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.

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