Among all of the “special” personalities on MSNBC — we’re talking a deep bench, here — the smug, ever-melodramatic Chris Hayes is the most “fun” to watch do his histrionic schtick, night after night. The “All In with Chris Hayes” host is a veritable caricature of himself.

Wednesday night, the self-aggrandizing Hayes outdid himself.

During an excruciating, faux-dramatic opening 24-minute segment titled “Trump’s plan to steal the election,” Hayes painstakingly laid out for viewers his belief that Donald Trump is “plotting, in open, in public, repeatedly, a coup to steal the election and hold onto power.”

As reported by Mediaite, here’s how Hayes opened the show.

“We begin tonight with a chilling moment, I’ve got to say. I don’t know any other way to say it — the president of the United States threatening violence to stay in power.

“Sounds weird coming out of my mouth, but that’s what happened. When explicitly asked to commit to a peaceful transfer of power today, he declined, and this was his response.”

No, it actually didn’t “sound weird coming out of my mouth” — Hayes floats hyperbolic conspiracy theories on a regular basis.

Chris Hayes Goes Off on 'Chilling' Trump Election Remarks: Openly Plotting 'Coup to Steal the Election and Hold Onto Power' https://t.co/ylFOGFAb3t

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) September 24, 2020

Hayes had his progressive panties in a wad over an answer Trump gave at an earlier press conference about whether he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election.

“Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transfer of power after the election?”, the reporter asked, to which Trump responded:

“We will have to see what happens. You know that. I have been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”

The reporter pushed back: “I understand that, but people are rioting. Do you commit to making sure there is a peaceful transfer of power?” As transcribed by Breitbart, Trump replied:

“We want — get rid of the ballots, and we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be [a] continuation. You know it. You know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.”

Q: “Win, lose, or draw, will you commit here today to a peaceful transition of power after the election?”@POTUS: “We’re going to have to see what happens. You know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about ballots and the ballot surge disaster…” pic.twitter.com/r51izRGxmM

— CSPAN (@cspan) September 23, 2020

That was all tinfoil-hat-wearing Hayes needed.

“Just to be clear if you are talking to a person and you ask them to commit to behave peacefully, and they refuse, they’re threatening violence, right?

“What the president is doing here is the most explicit that he has been about his plans for this election. He’s plotting, in open, in public, repeatedly, a coup to steal the election and hold onto power.

“Again it all sounds crazy to say, but those are the plain facts as assembled before us. It is not a behind-the-scenes type of thing. It is happening in public, in plain view.”

“Plain facts as assembled before us.” That the president of the United States is openly plotting a coup to steal the election and hold onto power. To call Hayes a wingnut would be a disservice to wingnuts.

The entire crazy segment runs for the first 24 minutes of the video.

As an additional “proof source,” Hayes brought up what Trump ( and multiple Republican lawmakers, which he conveniently left out) has been saying about the need for a 9th Supreme Court justice, and a new piece in The Atlantic, titled “The Election That Could Break America.”

The subhead: “If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?

Hayes highlighted the following section in particular.

According to sources in the Republican Party at the state and national levels, the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority.

With a justification based on claims of rampant fraud, Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly. The longer Trump succeeds in keeping the vote count in doubt, the more pressure legislators will feel to act before the safe-harbor deadline expires.

“It is, frankly, a plan for an authoritarian power grab,” Hayes ominously warned. [Cue the scary organ music, fade to black.]

As I watched the entire 24-minute segment, I kept wondering about the mental acuity of Hayes’s audience. The tinfoil hat mentality. If they are anything like Hayes, the whole lot of them must make the discredited conspiracist Alex Jones look like a piker.

Speaking power grabs and conspiracists, in my Wednesday piece titled Ted Cruz Blocks Amendment to Resolution Honoring Ginsburg After Schumer Tries to Pull a SCHUMER, I reported on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s hyperbolic performance on the Senate floor in a back-and-forth with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) over a resolution to honor the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Schumer attempted to add language to the resolution about Ginsburg’s “dying wish” that she not be replaced until “a new president is installed.” Cruz blocked the amended resolution. Game over.

Love him or not, Donald Trump’s ability to bring out the crazy in the Left is a sight to behold.