'I've never worked harder': Chris Hayes on life as a journalist in the age of Trump

An interview with the MSNBC host

MSNBC host Chris Hayes.
(Image credit: Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo)

In his new book, A Colony in a Nation, MSNBC host Chris Hayes argues that there isn't just one criminal justice system in the United States, but two: The nation, where along with affluence comes the kind of measured law enforcement one would expect in a democracy; and the colony, overseen by the type of regime that wouldn't look out of place in an occupied territory. In the nation, officers face accountability, and residents who have run-ins with the authorities are given more leeway, their civil rights never an afterthought. Meanwhile, in the colony — think Ferguson and Chicago's South Side — primarily minority populations aren't given the same due process or benevolence, and keeping order comes above all else.

While speaking recently at Scripps College in Claremont, California, Hayes shared what has shaped how this country views law and order and policing, and how politicians have played on people's fears to carve out these colonies within a nation. Before the event, Hayes spoke with The Week about his new book, as well as his day job covering the minutiae of President Trump's White House, and how it's changed the way he reports. Here's a lightly edited and partial transcript:

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.