MSNBC's Chris Hayes was ripped on social media for suggesting that the White House coronavirus task force team "rolled out the model showing 100k deaths after they knew it would be less" so President Trump Donald John TrumpHR McMaster says president's policy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is 'unwise' Cast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response MORE could take a victory lap.

"The most cynical interpretation of all this, one I can't quite bring myself to accept, is they rolled out the model showing 100k deaths after they knew it would be less than that so they could anchor everyone to that # and take a vicotry lap when 'only' tens of thousands died," Hayes wrote to his 2.1 million followers on Wednesday night.

The most cynical interpretation of all this, one I can't quite bring myself to accept, is they rolled out the model showing 100k deaths after they knew it would be less than that so they could anchor everyone to that # and take a vicotry lap when "only" tens of thousands died. https://t.co/hYiUCHhO5g — Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 8, 2020

The tweet came after a key forecasting model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington reduced its prediction of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. The model now estimates a peak of 60,415 deaths by early August. Less than a week ago, it had predicted more than 93,000 deaths and on Sunday it projected more than 81,000.

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Criticism quickly followed the post, with some people pointing out that Hayes's comment was "a direct indictment" of task force medical experts including Anthony Fauci Anthony FauciControversial CDC guidelines were written by HHS officials, not scientists: report Overnight Health Care: Ex-Pence aide backs Biden over virus response | Trump's sharp words put CDC director on hot seat | Trump coronavirus adviser threatens to sue Stanford researchers Trump coronavirus adviser threatens to sue Stanford researchers MORE and Deborah Birx, both medical doctors who have used the IHME model for their projections. Fauci told Fox News on Wednesday that original death toll projections "are going to be downgraded" due to successful social distancing mitigation efforts.

Remember - this conspiracy theory is not an indictment of President Trump. This is a direct indictment of Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx and the other medical experts who have used accepted modeling to arrive at their conclusions (which now have been revised). https://t.co/IOIfmq062A — Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) April 9, 2020

I hate Trump with a passion but this unhinged liberal media bashing of Trump will help him.



Trump has consistency underestimated the impact of Covid19 because of the impact to stock prices. Deliberately over estimating would tank the market further, and that’s all he cares for. https://t.co/5DvzqJMqs6 — Arnab Ray (@greatbong) April 8, 2020

Yeah, that doesn't quite hold up. Nobody knows (and nobody ever knew) exactly how many deaths there will be and the room for uncertainty remains wide, i.e. anywhere from mid-5-figures to low 7 figures. https://t.co/tehzHbl9P8 — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 8, 2020

Only problem with this theory is Fauci would never go along with it. https://t.co/5Oh8sMf6ps — mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) April 8, 2020

The "they" you are impugning in this quack tweet includes Birx and Fauci. https://t.co/3CdPpKzgbX — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) April 8, 2020

Also, the central model was from IHME. A University of Washington research center.



Imperial college model originally predicted up to 2.2 million deaths.



That’s a lot of people in on the conspiracy. — (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 8, 2020

Hayes's tweet has generated more than 6,000 retweets and nearly 25,000 likes as of late Thursday morning.

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The "All In" host later attempted to clarify his post, reiterating that while he "can't bring himself to accept" the theory, he feels that Trump "has been very very weird" about the COVID-19 death toll "coming in under the models."

I said I can't bring myself to accept it! But he's been very very weird about "coming in under the model" in this unnerving, disassociated way. — Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 8, 2020

Hayes began hosting his MSNBC prime-time show in 2013.