MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell torched President Donald Trump for flaunting his ignorance about who authorized the suspension of U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
“There was a moment in Donald Trump’s playing with the press today that shows everything all at once. It shows Donald Trump’s colossal stupidity in an exchange that he thinks shows how clever he is,” O’Donnell said during Monday’s edition of The Last Word.
“Imagine how stupid you have to be as president of the United States to think that when asked a question about something important that you’re supposed to know, your answer is ‘I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?’
“There have been previous presidents who have been asked questions they didn’t know the answer to—questions they should have known the answer to—and not one of them said, ‘I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?’ Because none of them are as stupid as Donald Trump,” he added.
O’Donnell’s critique of Trump was part of a broader rant against White House correspondents who fail to challenge Trump when he throws out such non-answers to critical questions.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was the one who pressed Trump on who ordered the suspension of weapons to Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion. NBC News and CNN reported that the decision was made solely by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—who was sitting right next to Trump during Monday’s Cabinet meeting—and that the president himself wasn’t even informed of the decision.
Trump has since confirmed that the U.S. will once again be supplying military aid and munitions to Ukraine despite Hegseth’s attempts to halt them.
Immediately after telling Collins, “you tell me,” Trump moved on to another question from a White House reporter, who asked him about his immigration plans.
“Not another question by members of the White House press corps today was worth asking, and some of the questions came from the Trump-worshiping reporters who have been added to the White House press corps by Donald Trump,” O’Donnell said.
“And so the whole concept of the White House press corps has been corrupted by Donald Trump, even before the non-corrupt members of the White House press corps have decided to use their talking-to-pets voices instead of the screaming level that they could reach at Joe Biden and at his White House press secretary. And so, that is how the stupidest president in history can face the White House press corps with ease.”
When reached for comment by the Daily Beast, a White House spokesperson replied with a dismissive: “Who is Lawrence O’Donnell?”
