MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell was in rather reflective form when he commemorated Presidents Day with few words on President Donald Trump — and spent the next seven minutes playing recent clips featuring former President Barack Obama.
“As a reminder of what’s it like to listen to a president who can speak and think and feel at the same time, here is President Obama’s full five-minute answer to Brian Tyler Cohen’s first excellent question,” O’Donnell said Monday of a recent podcast episode that featured the former president.
The “Last Word” host continued, “The answer includes words Donald Trump doesn’t understand, like ‘decency,’ ‘courtesy,’ ‘kindness.’ But the answer also embodies those words as Barack Obama’s response to Donald Trump’s racist poison.”
The interview with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen was published Saturday, one week after Trump shared a racist video on social media depicting Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, and saw Cohen ask how we can “come back” from the “devolution” of America’s political discourse.
“Well, first of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” said Obama at the time. “It is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction. But as I’m traveling around the country … you meet people.”
He continued, “They still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness.”
Trump received widespread condemnation for the post from Democrats and Republicans alike, prompting him to delete the video and brazenly claim that he hadn’t even seen its racist content before an unnamed staffer supposedly posted it for him.
Obama directly rebuked “this sort of clown show” on social media in his interview.
“And what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and sense of propriety and respect for the office, right?” he said during the conversation. “So that’s been lost.”
He ultimately argued that the American people are the answer to Cohen’s question, lauding the recent protests in Minnesota against Trump’s immigration agenda and “extraordinary outpouring” of political organizing, community building and “decency” that followed.
O’Donnell allowed the entire portion to play without interruption. He chimed in only after 6 minutes to introduce another chunk, in which Obama said Democrats can beat the “angry demagoguery” of Trump’s administration with unity — rather than “us-them divisive politics.”
O’Donnell has regularly lambasted Trump and his administration on his show over their egregious comments, actions and foreign and domestic policy decisions, but on Monday appeared most stunned by the stark contrast between Trump and Obama as statesmen.
“President Obama did what Donald Trump never does: He actually answered every question — really answered the questions,” said O’Donnell. “The Washington press corps often gives Donald Trump unearned points for taking questions from them.”
He continued, “Even though Donald Trump never actually answers those questions, he simply throws lie-filled gibberish at the reporters who ask the questions, most of whom never actually attempt to get an answer from Donald Trump.”
