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When the federal government officially shut down at midnight, MSNBC went to its most popular anchor, Rachel Maddow, who warned viewers, "Elect Republicans and they will burn the place down.”
Maddow showed clip after clip of Republicans saying since 2010 that they looked forward to one day shuttering the government. Then she played footage of Republican House members leaving a strategy meeting on Saturday as if they'd hatched a plan worth celebrating. "They did not seem like they were having a somber moment," she observed.
The out anchor who has become the face of MSNBC depicted Republicans as "psyched about this." She went on, "This is happening because they like this tactic."
Then, before cutting to an interview with Slate's Dave Weigel, she summed up her point with the quote that made headlines. "Elect Republicans and they will burn the place down," she said, "and they like the sound of that."
In the video below, watch a version of the segment that aired earlier in the day, before the shutdown had officially happened.
