MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has apologized for claiming, without any evidence, that Russian oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin co-signed loans given to President Trump by Deutsche Bank.
I asked Wednesday morning how long it would be before the cable news host retracted or, at the very least, corrected his bogus Russia “scoop,” which he based on the say-so of a sole anonymous source who had not even seen the alleged evidence of Trump’s ties to Putin.
As it turns out, the answer to that question was about 18 hours.
“Last night I made an error in judgment by reporting an item about the president’s finances that didn’t go through our rigorous verification and standards process,” O’Donnell said Wednesday afternoon on social media. “I shouldn’t have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air. I will address the issue on my show tonight.”
Last night I made an error in judgment by reporting an item about the president’s finances that didn’t go through our rigorous verification and standards process. I shouldn’t have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air. I will address the issue on my show tonight.
— Lawrence O’Donnell (@Lawrence) August 28, 2019
As it turns out, the guy who once used valuable airtime to challenge former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s son to a fistfight, all while affecting a hilariously exaggerated Southie accent, has terrible judgment.
Who knew?
And before you give O’Donnell an “attaboy” for owning up to his insanely stupid blunder, know that it came after Trump’s people sent NBC a legal demand, threatening legal action if the host’s supposed bombshell story was not retracted.
Trump’s “personal attorney Charles Harder threatened NBCUniversal with a defamation suit over what was broadcast the previous night on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” The Hollywood Reporter reported. “A missive sent to NBCU headquarters, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, also addresses a related tweet.”
Harder’s letter to NBC, which you can read here, accused the cable host of damaging the president’s reputation with reckless conspiracy-mongering.
“The only borrowers under these loans are Trump entities, and Mr. Trump is the only guarantor,” continues the demand letter. “Numerous documents for each of these loans are also recorded, publicly available and searchable online. Thus, actual malice can easily be proven based on your reckless disregard of the truth and unreasonable reliance on an alleged ‘source’ who you will not even identify in your story and likely is seeking to mislead you and the public for political reasons or other ulterior motives.”
Trump’s legal team also demanded that O’Donnell and NBC “immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize for the aforementioned false and defamatory statements.”
“Failure to do so will leave my clients with no alternative but to consider their legal options which could include immediate legal proceedings against Mr. O’Donnell and NBCU,” the letter concludes. “Should that occur, my clients would pursue all available causes of action and seek all available damages and other legal remedies to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
O’Donnell almost certainly did not apologize Wednesday out of some deeply rooted love for facts and clarity. His tweet is what happens when legal gets involved.
