MS NOW All In host Chris Hayes and former CNN journalist/Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa teamed up on Tuesday to hail Navi Pillay being named the latest Nobel winner. Both hailed her as what was good in the world by contrasting her with the Trump administration, but naturally they omitted this supposed icon of human rights’s many moral scandals.
Hayes began by sarcastically declaring, “I got to just start by—I imagine you agree that Donald Trump was snubbed.” After Ressa laughed, Hayes continued, “Was that your first reaction?”
Ressa began her response by applauding Pillay’s selection, “Well, so there's a group called the Nobel Women's Initiative, and there were tears. We come from all different parts of the world. We're on a chain together. And when we saw it, all of us know Navi, and, you know, kudos also to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for actually having the courage to do that.”
Former CNN reporter/Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa is a fan of the new winner, Navi Pillay despite her many moral scandals, "You know, without facts, you can't have truth without truth, you can't have trust without these three you can't have justice. And she's been fighting… pic.twitter.com/GltQWr9OEz
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) October 14, 2026
She then proclaimed, “It's that she represents, like, the three things I've been saying for the last decade. You know, without facts, you can't have truth without truth, you can't have trust without these three you can't have justice. And she's been fighting for those things her entire career.”
Pillay does not represent truth. She is considered by many to be the intellectual justification for claiming Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. However, she “generated and championed” the Gladstone Report against Israel, which was so wrong that Richard Gladstone, who is also South African, himself retracted the allegation that Israel intentionally targeted civilians in 2008 and 2009.
Nor does Pillay represent trust. A whistleblower alleges that when she was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, her agency handed over the names of Uyghur dissidents to China. Nor does she represent justice. When one of her underlings bemoaned “the Jewish lobby,” Pillay defended him.
Nevertheless, Ressa continued fangirling, “And for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to finally recognize she is the 21st woman to have gotten this. I think it's an act of hope, especially at a time when the international organizations that are protecting rule of law are under attack. It also shows the shared humanity that she, third from South Africa, the third Nobel from South Africa. And then I think the last one is that you cannot have lasting peace if you don't have justice. And she embodies all of that. So we're very excited.”
Hayes also confessed to being a big fan, “You know, she obviously has committed her life to international law and international law. International law has a very strange status. I think in the U.S, the U.S. political culture, definitely among Republicans, but sort of in a bipartisan fashion, tends to be fairly skeptical of international law. I think there are many.”
Ressa interrupted to clarify, “The ICC, you're talking about.”
Hayes agreed with that but added, “Well, but I think more broadly than that in some ways, I mean, ICC, but this administration has been very antagonistic to international law.”
Naturally, Ressa concurred, “Yeah, and turning it upside.”
MS NOW hosts like Hayes are so interested in trolling Trump for not winning that they refuse to look into whether Pillay actually deserves the award or whether the award deserves to be treated so reverently.
Here is a transcript for the October 13 show:
MS NOW All In with Chris Hayes
10/13/2026
8:47 PM ET
CHRIS HAYES: I got to just start by—I imagine you agree that Donald Trump was snubbed.
MARIA RESSA: You know, first of all—
HAYES: Was that your first reaction?
RESSA: Well, so there's a group called the Nobel Women's Initiative, and there were tears. We come from all different parts of the world. We're on a chain together. And when we saw it, all of us know Navi, and, you know, kudos also to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for actually having the courage to do that.
It's that she represents, like, the three things I've been saying for the last decade. You know, without facts, you can't have truth without truth, you can't have trust without these three you can't have justice. And she's been fighting for those things her entire career.
And for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to finally recognize she is the 21st woman to have gotten this. I think it's an act of hope, especially at a time when the international organizations that are protecting rule of law are under attack.
It also shows the shared humanity that she, third from South Africa, the third Nobel from South Africa. And then I think the last one is that you cannot have lasting peace if you don't have justice. And she embodies all of that. So we're very excited.
HAYES: You know, she obviously has committed her life to international law—
RESSA: Absolutely.
HAYES: — and international law. International law has a very strange status. I think in the U.S, the U.S. political culture, definitely among Republicans, but sort of in a bipartisan fashion, tends to be fairly skeptical of international law. I think there are many.
RESSA: The ICC, you're talking about.
HAYES: Yeah. Well, but I think more broadly than that in some ways, I mean, ICC, but this administration has been very antagonistic to international law.
RESSA: Yeah, and turning it upside.
