Donald Trump was given a full hour of live network television airtime on Thursday to have a rambling and unhinged meltdown disguised as a "news conference" where the assembled press let him lie and repeat racist tropes about Kamala Harris as much as he wanted. The networks never once cut away or fact-checked any of his lies in real time.
It was 2016 all over again, as MSNBC anchor Lawrence O'Donnell raged on "The Last Word" the same night.
A former Senate legislative aide and writer for The West Wing, O'Donnell knows more than a little about the importance of truth in the media.
Lawrence let them all have it during a fiery monologue where he couldn't contain his disgust at the "tamest collection of reporters" allowing Trump to spew his usual verbal diarrhea without even attempting to clean up the mess.
He pointed out that while they gave Trump all of that free publicity, they fully ignored Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and gave their campaign zero coverage (which he did at the end of the segment).
O'Donnell gave props where he could, like when NBC's Garrett Haake asked a real question but got a garbled word salad in response.
The man threw down his script after reading some of Trump's answers, verbatim. I feel you, Lawrence!
O'Donnell kept repeating how Trump made it clear he needed to be at his own home, Mar-a-Lago, without giving anyone a reason. No one asked Trump why he wasn't out on the campaign trail. Or if they did, the TV audience couldn't hear it, because the reporters' questions weren't amplified well enough.
Trump either feigned that he couldn't hear the questions, or he's losing his hearing. Instead of answering anyone, he either insulted the question or rambled off-topic and kept repeating old lies about his crowds being bigger than MLK's.
Lawrence said all of the things I've been writing about for a while now, which boils down to: THE MSM HAS PTSD FROM TFG.
They've been silenced into submission out of fear of him saying something mean to them.
Which is ridiculous.
It's the media's job to always push for the truth, not let anyone steamroll over them with lies. I truly don't understand anyone being afraid of Donald Trump when he's a full-on coward in all of the ways. He blocked me in 2015 and never unblocked me. SO BRAVE!
Lawrence was getting kudos all over Twitter for taking the media to task with the truth.
Every journalist should be forced to watch Lawrence's entire segment, Clockwork Orange-style if need be, because it's a Master Class in holding the media accountable.