Lawrence O'Donnell Chokes Up When Detailing Harrowing Impact Of USAID Cuts
On Monday's 'The Last Word,' O'Donnell cited a New York Times column that explores the impact of the Trump administration's demolition of the U.S. Agency for International Development, an organization that in 2023 disbursed more than $43 billion for humanitarian aid, economic development and health programs around the world.
The piece, by columnist Nicholas Kristof, referenced Evan Anzoo, a 5-year-old boy from South Sudan born with HIV. He was 'a child as precious as yours or mine,' Kristof wrote.
The orphan was being kept alive by medicines that cost less than 12 cents per day, Kristof reported, funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR has been credited with saving more than 25 million lives since being launched by President George W. Bush.
But PEPFAR has been a victim of Trump's deep cuts to overseas aid. By early March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the purge of the six-decade-old agency, wrote on social media that 83% of USAID programs had been cut.
O'Donnell noted that Rubio had told Congress that 'no children are dying on my watch' as a result of the cuts.
But Kristof suggested otherwise, reporting that Evan's condition weakened and he died from an opportunistic infection after his medications were cut.
'Evan died on [Rubio's] watch,' said O'Donnell, who soon started to choke up. 'Evans of all ages are dying on Marco Rubio's watch, and no one is counting. And so we don't know as of tonight whether it's tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Evans, but we know it will be.'
O'Donnell moved on to a New York Times column headlined 'Elon Musk's Legacy is Disease, Starvation and Death,' which cites Boston University research detailing how Musk's cuts to USAID's budget have led to an estimated 300,000 deaths, most of whom are children.
O'Donnell quoted a line from columnist Michelle Goldberg that argues, 'If there were justice in the world, Musk would never be able to repair his reputation, at least not without devoting the bulk of his fortune to easing the misery he's engendered.'
The anchor then went on to compare Musk's butchering of the federal government with the humanitarian efforts of fellow billionaire Bill Gates, who has 'has devoted his life and his billions' to saving children in Africa.
O'Donnell said this means Gates' verdict on the current richest person in the world is 'so important and powerful.'
'Bill Gates, the former richest person in the world, said, 'the picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one,'' continued O'Donnell.
He added, 'And the picture of the richest person in the world carrying around his drug box of ecstasy, Adderall, psychedelic mushrooms and then taking life-saving drugs away from the poorest people in the world is a picture only Donald Trump could have created.'
O'Donnell ended with a brutal assessment of Musk and Trump as 'soulless, mindless entities.'
Watch the attack on the Trump administration below.
wow -- @Lawrence chokes up while talking about how the Trump administration is killing kids who relied on USAID to get life-saving medicine pic.twitter.com/TYBJkb2S4K
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 3, 2025
I Am A USAID Worker Who Lost My Job. Here's What Trump And Musk Aren't Telling You About The Cuts.
Ex-USAID Head Says America Will 'Pay The Price' From Musk, Trump Attacking Agency
Secretary Of State Rubio Says Purge Of USAID Complete, Almost All Gone
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