MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Connects Trump To Martial Law Crisis: ‘Reverse Jan. 6’ Is Lesson For Trump-era Americans

MSNBC host Chris Hayes posed the martial law crisis involving South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol as a lesson in resisting President-elect Donald Trump’s potential abuses, calling the resolution a “reverse January 6.”

President Yoon declared martial law Wednesday (Tuesday here), but within hours was rebuffed by massive protests and a vote of parliament that included members of his own party. Yoon responded by rescinding the order.

On Tuesday night’s edition of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, Hayes weaved through the story and its parallels with U.S. history, past and future, and found a ray of hope in case Trump oversteps — although Trump doesn’t face an opposition with a majority like Yoon does:

CHRIS HAYES: As we here in America struggle to uphold our own democratic institutions, there’s a situation playing out in South Korea right now that is remarkably relevant, disturbing, and maybe at this hour quite hopeful, the remarkable scene you may have seen throughout the day unfolding over just the last 24 hours, where citizens of South Korea have taken to the streets to defend democracy against an erratic, far right president who declared martial law.

That president would be Yoon Suk Yeol. It’s a story that might sound in some ways familiar to you. A political novice who ran for president in 2022, thanks to high inflation and frustration with a liberal predecessor, Yoon narrowly won that election by just about a quarter-of-a-percent of all votes cast.

He identified as an anti-feminist, made a point of courting the South Korean male vote, the sort of manosphere that exists over there, with an openly misogynistic campaign that blamed feminism for the country’s low birth rates. As president, he tried to dismantle the government’s gender equity agency. He also tried to raise the country’s maximum weekly working hours from 52 to 69 a week, which, you can imagine, was deeply unpopular.

It’s funny how right-wing populists always sort of get around to that kind of stuff, huh?

He also tried to push to reform the country’s medical system that led to months of mass strikes by doctors and nurses. And, you will never guess, he and his family got embroiled in a bunch of scandals, including allegations of accepting improper gifts, also kind of a through line.

Now, the upshot was that, in parliamentary elections this spring, the highest turnout for a South Korean election since the 20th century, the opposition party won a landslide, and that left Yoon’s party holding just a third of the country’s National Assembly.

Amid all that, Yoon’s approval rating fell to an abysmal 17 percent earlier this month. He and many of his government allies faced impeachment efforts. He was talked about as a lame-duck president, which made his declaration yesterday all the more shocking.

Yoon made a speech to the nation overnight full of sort of Trumpian inflections, saying — quote — “I declare emergency martial law to defend the Free Republic of Korea from the threats of North Korean communist forces and to eradicate the shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people and to protect the free constitutional order.

“Through this emergency martial law, I will rebuild and defend the Free Republic of Korea, which is falling into ruin. To this end, I will surely eradicate the criminals of the anti-state forces who have been committing atrocities so far.”

The army general Yoon put in charge then issued the declaration of martial law. And if you were wondering what that looks like in the democratic country of South Korea — quote — “All political activities, including the operations of the National Assembly, local councils, political parties, political associations, assemblies and demonstrations, are strictly prohibited.

“All media and publications will be subject to the control of the martial law command. Strikes, work slowdowns and gatherings that incite social disorder are forbidden. All medical professionals, including resident doctors currently on strike or absent from medical duties, must return to their work and perform their responsibilities within 48 hours. Violators will be dealt with under martial law.”

I mean, just straight-up dictatorship, right, a dictatorial power grab, like, we ban all politics henceforth. Nothing in civil society can happen, right, single-handedly revoking freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, the freedom to strike, and all this happening in a country where memories of authoritarian — authoritarian rule are fresh.

This is a democratic country because its people fought for that democracy. After a series of authoritarian regimes in the post-World War II era, post-Korean War era, a military coup swept South Korea in 1980.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: South Korea is under full martial law after a week of student violence in what the official announcement called North Korean movement.

Minutes after the announcement, the martial law command closed the schools, banned political activity and arrested several well-known dissidents, including the head of South Korea’s major political party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: You see the through line there, right, of course, the North Korean menace, the sort of threat of communist infiltration and fifth columnists.

And, in 1980, the coup plotters smashed protesters, established a one-party state that lasted until three elections in 1987, brought down through street protests, basically. And after Yoon’s martial law announcement last night, well, South Koreans on a dime in the middle of the night decided they were not going back.

People immediately took to the streets in the freezing cold of night in their parkas, all ages, and they did not just protest for the sake of protesting. They had a very specific goal in mind. You see, the country’s legislature could block Yoon’s martial law decree with a simple majority vote.

But, aha, Yoon’s declaration banned political activities. And he sent soldiers to the National Assembly building, basically their capitol, right, to enforce the ban and to block lawmakers from getting inside the building for a quorum, where they could have a vote.

And so what do you get? You get visuals like this, as civilian protesters teamed up with those lawmakers who rushed to the capitol to help them scale the capitol building and get inside to cast their votes. It was, as one commenter on social media put it, a reverse January 6, right, breaking into the capitol to vote to save democracy, working together to get the National Assembly to vote to overrule martial law.

And it worked. Within three hours of Yoon’s speech, a quorum of lawmakers, I believe 190 of them, got into the building. They forced a vote to reject his martial law declaration, a unanimous vote, as the AP noted. All 190 lawmakers who participated in the vote supported the lifting of martial law.

Immediately after that vote, television footage showed soldiers who’d been stationed at Parliament leaving the site. And six hours after he declared martial law, as the sun rose over Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol backed down.

My bad. Maybe not.

He lifted his order. The protesters are celebrating. Many are calling for Yoon to resign or be impeached. In fact, the opposition party is drawing up impeachment articles, we understand, at this moment.

Now, I have been transfixed by these developments all day long. I don’t know if you have as well, I mean, incredible stuff, exciting, inspiring, energizing to watch everyday Koreans, I mean, all ages, people, I think, who — from what I could tell from the reporting, whose politics were really kind of all over the place, come out to stand up for democracy, grandmas in their parkas in freezing temperatures standing up to armed soldiers in their faces, literally pushing their lawmakers to pass a law saving their democratic institutions.

And all to resist this far right, misogynist president who won by the skin of his teeth and decided he had a mandate to make over the country in his image, even as he frittered away all his political capital and grew historically unpopular.

It’s a different country, different constitution, different traditions. I think there’s a lesson there for us, right, Americans, in 2024, crucially, a reminder that, in the end, the last bulwark of democracy, the people themselves, working with and through an elected opposition, unafraid to do the right thing.

Watch above via MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes.