Latest news with #TheLastWordwith
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rachel Maddow Says the ‘Interesting Question' About Trump Is ‘What the Country Lets Him Get Away With'
Rachel Maddow belittled Donald Trump on Monday night whilechatting with her MSNBC colleague Lawrence O'Donnell, declaring that Trump's latest 'dictator' actions have made him 'very boring.' Not that she argued the current situation isn't serious, only that Trump is acting like, as she joked, a blonde copy of the extremely corrupt former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. But Maddow also clarified that the 'really interesting question' about all of this is 'what the country lets him get away with. The comment came up at the start of 'The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell,' as the duo discussed how Trump's current actions — calling in the national guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom to quell lawful protests — are the exact opposite of what he said he could legally do in 2020 during the George Floyd protests. At that time, Trump said it would be unlawful for him to do so without a request of a state governor. 'I mean the difference,' Maddow said, is that 'he's decided that he's throwing it all out. You know, 'dictator on day from day one,' and you know, going to terminate parts of the Constitution. And he's decided that he doesn't matter what Congress does, and it doesn't matter what the courts do, that he's just the strong man he's going to be.' 'He's decided to throw out all the rules,' Maddow continued. 'The thing that that has done, as far as I'm concerned, is make him very boring, because it's like it's all on the table. We know exactly what he's doing. We know exactly what his intentions are. He's blonde Berlusconi. This is, I mean, he's just trying to do the same thing all the other strongmen and would be dictators do all over the country. I think the really interesting question is, what the country lets him get away with, and we're seeing a really interesting test of that right now, all over the country, especially this week.' Later in the discussion, Maddow argued that the issue isn't that Trump has changed his mind over what he can and cannot legally do, it's that 'we can probably intuit that what he's being told is, 'yeah, it's illegal, therefore, go do it.' I think that the more laws he breaks, the more blatantly unconstitutional things he both proposes and tries, I think the more they think power accrues to him, because he's less constrained by things that don't actually stop him.' 'And so ultimately, I mean, the courts are pushing him back. Congress, to a certain extent, is pushing him back a little bit, although I think a little bit more than they're giving credit for, but mostly it's people pushing him back. He's deeply, deeply, deeply unpopular and underwater on every issue, and he is absolutely panicked by the protests against him, to the point where he's already playing the biggest cards that he's gotten. He's not even six months into this term. I just think, I think we're getting the test really early, and I think that he's failing.' Maddow later noted that Trump's rhetoric and response to the protests is vastly out of proportion with the scope of them, but 'even if these protests were 100 times the size that they are, there still wouldn't be an operational reason to bring in active duty troops or federalized National Guard. I mean, it's just, it's not, it's not that sort of thing. This is obviously not operationally necessitated, right, in terms of the security of the city. He's doing this because he's panicking and thinks that he looks weak, and therefore he has to do something that seems strong.' 'And so we will have tanks destroying the streets of Washington this Saturday, and we will have National Guardsmen and active duty US Marines standing around Los Angeles, wondering what their what this has to do with their military careers. And it's all because he has no freaking idea how to deal with this politically. And he's absolutely panicking about the, I think, trenchant and joyful and sustainable opposition against him.' Maddow added. Watch the whole conversation below: The post Rachel Maddow Says the 'Interesting Question' About Trump Is 'What the Country Lets Him Get Away With'| Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell ‘Exhausted' by Trump, Takes a Week Off From His Show
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell needs a vacation because of President Trump. The veteran cable news anchor and host of 'The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell' said on Thursday night that he is 'exhausted' by the president's return to the White House and that he will be taking next week off for some much needed rest and relaxation. 'Here's the thing. This is day 52 [of Trump's second term]. I thought it was day 90. It's day 52 — right Rachel? — and I'm exhausted at day 52,' O'Donnell told fellow MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow. 'And so, I'm gonna take next week off and I'm telling you that now because I know you do not like it when I just drift away.' Maddow seemed a bit concerned by the news. She went from having a small frown and smirking during O'Donnell's update to shaking her head and looking perplexed. Maddow moved back to hosting her show, 'The Rachel Maddow Show,' five nights a week in January to cover the first 100 days of Trump's presidency — but O'Donnell said he can not do the same 100 day sprint. 'I know you have pledged to cover and be here for the first hundred days of the Trump presidency. I hope you noticed that I did not make that same pledge,' O'Donnell joked. Maddow added it is important to 'pace yourself' in the cable news business. 'You [have] got to be in this for the long haul, so I can't hold it against you. But I'm very sad,' Maddow said. O'Donnell said he is getting a head start on his vacation by taking Friday off — and Maddow joked she is 'pre-mad' with her colleague for the break. 'Take me with you. Can I go with you?' she added. You can watch their end-of-show interaction below: The post MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell 'Exhausted' by Trump, Takes a Week Off From His Show appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawrence O'Donnell Declares Trump's Brain ‘Broken,' Blasts ‘Vile, Antisemitic' Attack on Chuck Schumer
Lawrence O'Donnell did not hold back on Wednesday's edition of 'The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.' The MSNBC anchor lambasted the President of the United States again — this time declaring Donald Trump's brain 'broken' and 'shattered' and calling him out for his recent 'vile, antisemitic' remarks about Democratic New York senator and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. 'Donald Trump's brain is broken, badly damaged,' O'Donnell began. 'Once again today, Donald Trump said something that would have gotten any other president rushed to the hospital for a neurological examination and an evaluation for dementia.' O'Donnell then played a clip from Trump's recent press conference with the Prime Minister of Ireland, Micheál Martin, in which Trump questioned Schumer's Jewish identity. 'It was a vile antisemitic outburst,' O'Donnell said about Trump's response to a question about lowering corporate taxes, which ended with the president, out of nowhere, commenting, 'Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I'm concerned. You know, he's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian.' 'Not a single Republican anywhere in America who claims to be a staunch supporter of Israel and the Jewish people rose up to object to Donald Trump declaring Chuck Schumer to not be Jewish anymore,' O'Donnell somberly observed following the clip. 'So Donald Trump, who has no idea what it is to be Jewish or Palestinian, now decides who is Jewish in this country.' Turning his ire on the entire Republican Party, O'Donnell added, 'The disgrace of every elected Republican in Washington is that not one of them dares to complain about that kind of poison coming out of the foul mouth of Donald Trump.' 'Trump's mind is gone. It is shattered,' he continued. 'Not a single person who ever tries to interpret Donald Trump for you and defensively tries to tell you what Donald Trump meant when he says something insane ever uses the actual words of Donald Trump to explain Donald Trump, because Donald Trump, who once said, 'I have the best words,' says things all the time, every day, that make absolutely no sense and frequently are filled with hatred.' O'Donnell then took a moment to draw a chilling historical parallel between Trump's comments and the actions of a certain 20th-century national leader. 'The United States of America now has a head of state who decides who is Jewish and who is not. Who else had a head of state who did that? Ever heard of a head of state doing anything like that?' the MSNBC host rhetorically asked. 'You have to be in your 90s to remember the last time the world had a head of state who decided who was Jewish and who was not,' he concluded. 'That was one of Adolf Hitler's first ideas about how to govern Germany.' You can watch the full 19-minute segment yourself in the video above. The post Lawrence O'Donnell Declares Trump's Brain 'Broken,' Blasts 'Vile, Antisemitic' Attack on Chuck Schumer | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
NBC News
30-01-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Live updates: American Eagle jet crashes into Potomac River after collision with Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport
The Black Hawk helicopter isn't equipped with an alert system like a commercial airliner would be — but it does have superior visibility that could have helped a crew see an oncoming threat, said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. Windows above, below and to both sides of the crew give Black Hawk pilots near-panoramic visibility that's far superior to that of a big jet, Duckworth said on MSNBC's "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell." "So you can actually have pretty good visibility. So it is quite surprising that you can have this happening," said Duckworth, an Army veteran and former Black Hawk pilot. She said it's far too early to draw any conclusions. 'This airspace is very, very, very busy, and we're praying ... that there are more survivors,' she said.
