MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday slammed “sociopath” President Donald Trump over his latest lies about the Iran war, highlighting one confession from the “mad bomber” that does appear to be genuine — and will “live in infamy” for centuries to come.
The “Last Word” host began with a claim Trump made Tuesday when asked if he’s “afraid” Iranian officials might be right in warning that a U.S. ground invasion there would resemble another disastrous Vietnam War. The president said, “I’m really not afraid of anything.”
O’Donnell played a clip of the Oval Office exchange before roundly debunking that answer.
“Those are his exact words, ‘not afraid of anything,’” the MS NOW host said. “The man who has spent years afraid of the Epstein files and is still blocking the full release of the complete Epstein files. The man who wears silly hats because he’s afraid his hair might be blown out of place.”
“The man who’s afraid of letting anyone see his natural skin color or his college transcript or his SAT scores,” O’Donnell continued, adding: “The man who was very, very afraid of being drafted into the United States Army during the Vietnam War.”
He marveled at the notion that Trump now claims to be fearless and at how “perfect” it is for a question about Vietnam to prompt this lie — as Trump’s father reportedly helped him avoid the 1968 draft by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs.
O’Donnell noted that this same man is now sending Americans into war. The conflict has already killed at least 13 U.S. service members and more than 1,400 Iranians and led National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent to resign in protest.
Kent wrote in his resignation letter Tuesday that he “cannot in good conscience” support the war, as Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the U.S. and the war was launched “due to pressure from Israel.” Trump later said he “always” felt the combat veteran was “weak.”
O’Donnell exposed that lie just as swiftly by showing viewers a screenshot of Trump showering Kent with unbridled praise on social media after nominating him to his now-former position.
He later excoriated the president over a particularly chilling confession.
“No president in history has ever claimed to drop bombs ‘just for fun,’” said O’Donnell. “That would, of course, brand that president as a sociopath. And so, of course, Donald Trump said exactly that.”
The president told NBC News in an interview Saturday that he might keep bombing an Iranian oil facility on Kharg Island “just for fun.” O’Donnell has regularly chronicled Trump’s brazen rhetoric but argued the president’s latest comments are a wartime confession of historic proportions.
“That phrase will live in infamy with Donald Trump’s name for hundreds of years, as historians are able to isolate those words, ‘just for fun,’ as the conclusive proof they will need to make the case that Donald Trump is a sociopath,” he said.
O’Donnell continued, “That Donald Trump was a mad bomber in every sense. Every historian will be able to see that he was a madman who thought bombing was fun.”
