MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday torched President Donald Trump over his reaction to the death of Robert Mueller, the former special counsel who oversaw the 2016 inquiry into Russian election interference, as “more despicable” than one former president.
The “Last Word” host argued Trump could have paid more attention when former President Richard Nixon, who infamously resigned in disgrace in 1974 after then-special prosecutor Leon Jaworski successfully investigated his Watergate scandal, died in 1982.
“Donald Trump was there for all of that,” O’Donnell said Monday. “But because Donald Trump is not educable, he learned nothing from Richard Nixon’s reaction to the death of his special prosecutor. The special prosecutor who completely destroyed Richard Nixon’s life.”
He added, “And so historians have yet another marker to prove which of these two human beings was worse: Richard Nixon or Donald Trump. Aside from judging them as presidents, historians will have no difficulty judging which one was the more despicable human being.”
Mueller died Friday at the age of 81, and while most lawmakers and political pundits shared their thoughts respectfully, Trump wrote Saturday on his Truth Social platform, “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
O’Donnell admitted to cribbing his “despicable human being” line from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who described Trump as such following the 2020 election, but the host said it applies to “the first president of the United States to say ‘I’m glad’” about the death of a public servant.
“Robert Mueller was everything Donald Trump could never be,” O’Donnell said Monday.
He went on to list the many differences: “Smart, highly educated, wise and faithful. Faithful to his one and only wife, faithful to his two daughters, faithful to all of the oaths he took as a United States Marine, a federal prosecutor, FBI director, and faithful to his country.”
O’Donnell noted that Jaworski led a prosecution team that convicted 48 political operatives and members of Nixon’s administration for their role in Watergate, most of whom were imprisoned, but that not even this saw the ousted ex-president publicly cheer his death.
“Donald Trump is far less educated than the average high school American history student, not to mention the AP history students, “ O’Donnell said Monday. “And so Donald Trump has no idea that no president before him had ever said anything like that.”
He noted, “Richard Nixon did not issue a public statement saying, ‘Good, I’m glad,’ because Richard Nixon, who was correctly judged to be a despicable human being eventually by most Americans, at least knew what basic human decency looks like.”
While numerous lawmakers and fellow pundits condemned Trump for his “disgusting” and “insane” celebration Saturday, the MS NOW host went even further — and said the president’s “deep and irreversible perversion blinds him to human decency.”
He concluded, “He does not know what it is. He does not know how to imitate it.”
Watch the full “Last Word” segment on MS NOW’s YouTube page.
