Watch: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Blames ‘Racism’ for European ‘Open Arms’ for Ukraine Refugees, Not Syrians

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes accused European countries such as Poland and Hungary of “racism” and “anti-Muslim bigotry” for welcoming those fleeing war from neighboring Ukraine, while alleging they opposed accepting Syrian migrants. 

In what he termed “an interesting contrast,” Hayes claimed during his opening monologue on Tuesday that “we find ourselves here again though with the situation quite different in certain respects.”

Blaming “racism” and post-September 11 “paranoia,” he called out those European countries who he said rejected Syrian refugees for their alleged hypocrisy in now accepting Ukrainian ones.

“For many reasons, including (frankly) racism, anti-Muslim bigotry, [and] the paranoia of post-9/11 war on terror, many of those same countries which quite explicitly refused to accept refugees that Russia created in Syria are — to their credit — opening their borders and opening their arms to refugees Russia is creating in Ukraine,” he said.

Calling attention to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in war-torn Kyiv as a show of solidarity on Tuesday, the left-wing “All In” host struggled to grasp why “right-wing” leaders were permitting Ukrainians fleeing war to take up refuge in their countries.

“Hungary and Poland, the same countries whose (again) defining political nature, at least under their governing parties, was control of their borders — strong borders — and their opposition to Syrian refugees, are together accepting millions of people displaced from Ukraine,” he said.

Last month, left-wing New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones accused journalists covering the Russian invasion into Ukraine of “racialized analysis and language” in their reporting, indicating their “sympathy” for white victims of conflict and refugees in particular while claiming Europe is a fictional continent intended to separate it from non-“civilized” nations.