Opinion by Raymond Draper II – President Trump blasted Lawrence O’Donnell and the media at large after the MSNBC host was forced to retract an unverified report he shared on his show this week that tied Trump’s finances to Russia – which turns out to be an outright lie. O’Donnell apologized – yet the media is still spreading the false lies online – does that surprise anyone?
Calling the report “totally false,” the president demanded that the media as a whole apologize for “inaccurate reporting.” It looks like Trump’s threat of a defamation lawsuit against NBC has gotten their attention, with O’Donnell now admitting he made an ‘error in judgement’ last night:
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
But Lawrence is still promoting the story online? What a lying POS. Trump’s personal attorney Charles Harder threatened NBC Universal with a defamation suit over what was broadcast on MSNBC and O’donnell’s show – The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.
According to Harder’s demand letter, “The Program and Tweet make the false and defamatory statements that ‘Russian oligarchs’ co-signed loans provided to Mr. Trump by Deutsche Bank, and described these ‘co-signers’ as ‘Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.’”
WATCH: Lawrence O'Donnell retracts his reporting about Trump loans. pic.twitter.com/JxNsIPhBNg
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 29, 2019
Lawrence actually said that if he had gone through the vetting process at MSNBC, he wouldn’t have been able to report, which was a solid statement. He did apologize and retracted it.
But he also claimed that he doesn’t know if the information is inaccurate, only that it wasn’t ready for broadcast. Sounds like he’s trying to save some face by suggesting the reporting may be accurate, when the Trump campaign says it is verifiably false.
Eric Trump heard the apology and said it wasn’t enough, that they will be taking legal action:
This was a reckless attempt to slander our family and smear a great company. Apologies are not enough when the true intent was solely to damage and cause harm. As a company, we will be taking legal action. This unethical behavior has to stop. @Lawrence @MSNBC https://t.co/i4X6CcdkCm
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) August 29, 2019
Then President Trump went off:
“Crazy Lawrence O’Donnell, who has been calling me wrong from even before I announced my run for the Presidency, even being previously forced by NBC to apologize, which he did while crying, for things he said about me & The Apprentice, was again forced to apologize, this time … for the most ridiculous claim of all, that Russia, Russia, Russia, or Russian oligarchs, co-signed loan documents for me, a guarantee,” Trump tweeted.
Crazy Lawrence O’Donnell, who has been calling me wrong from even before I announced my run for the Presidency, even being previously forced by NBC to apologize, which he did while crying, for things he said about me & The Apprentice, was again forced to apologize, this time…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2019
“Totally false, as is virtually everything else he, and much of the rest of the LameStream Media, has said about me for years. ALL APOLOGIZE!” he continued.
….for the most ridiculous claim of all, that Russia, Russia, Russia, or Russian oligarchs, co-signed loan documents for me, a guarantee. Totally false, as is virtually everything else he, and much of the rest of the LameStream Media, has said about me for years. ALL APOLOGIZE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2019
Minutes later, he added: “The totally inaccurate reporting by Lawrence O’Donnell, for which he has been forced by NBC to apologize, is NO DIFFERENT than the horrible, corrupt and fraudulent Fake News that I (and many millions of GREAT supporters) have had to put up with for years. So bad for the USA!”
The totally inaccurate reporting by Lawrence O’Donnell, for which he has been forced by NBC to apologize, is NO DIFFERENT than the horrible, corrupt and fraudulent Fake News that I (and many millions of GREAT supporters) have had to put up with for years. So bad for the USA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2019
The president’s tweets come after O’Donnell and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow discussed how Trump was “able to obtain loans when no one else would loan him any money.” O’Donnell then hinted that he “may have some information” that would “add understanding to that, if true.”
“I stress ‘if true,’ because this is a single source who has told me that Deutsche Bank obtained tax returns…this single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that Donald Trump’s loan documents there show he has co-signers. That’s how he was able to obtain those loans and that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs.”
Maddow, stunned, replied: “What? Really?”
“This is one of the reasons that a majority of Americans have lost trust in the media. Instead of applying ethics and standards to their reporting, journalists and left-wing outlets have weaponized the media, using it to attack and harass people with little to no regard for the truth,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told Fox News.
Why O’Donnell and MSNBC believed that eliminating whatever residual journalistic standards the network had to broadcast yet another unverified Russia Collusion “scoop” was somehow a good idea, is anyone’s guess, but that is exactly what these far-left propagandists did and it has not only delivered another black eye to NBC News, but to the media as a whole.
And now, because NBC News has not humiliated itself enough, we learn that the so-called news outlet cannot even tell the truth about a retraction.
These people lie about everything — absolutely everything. There is nothing they do not and will not lie about. They lie just to lie, just for the fun of it.
The post BREAKING: Trump Rips Lawrence O’Donnell, media over ‘totally false’ Russia report: Eric Trump ‘Apology not enough!’ appeared first on Joe For America.