The O'Donnell Apology
MSNBC host Lawrence O"Donnell issued an apology for the ridiculous story he recently released concerning Deutsche bank loans and the President. As per usual it was another unknown single sourced anti-Trump story alleging that Russian Oligarchs, close to Putin, co-signed Deutsche banks loans to Trump. It was his lead story last night.
The President's lawyers fired back immediately:
“These statements are false and defamatory, and extremely damaging,” frequent Trump personal attorney Charles Harder wrote Wednesday in a letter to NBCU’ EVP and General Counsel Susan E. Weiner and SVP Litigation Daniel M. Kummer, over O’Donnell’s allegation that pals of Vladimir Putin have been helping to prop Trump up financially for years with Deutsche Bank loans.
“The only borrowers under these loans are Trump entities, and Mr. Trump is the only guarantor,’ Harder adds in the two-page correspondence. “Numerous documents for each of these loans are also recorded, publicly available and searchable online. Thus, actual malice can easily be proven based on your reckless disregard of the truth and unreasonable reliance on an alleged ‘source’ who you will not even identify in your story and likely is seeking to mislead you and the public for political reasons or other ulterior motives.”
“Please confirm in writing within twenty-four (24) hours of the transmission of this letter that Mr. O’Donnell and NBCU will immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize for the aforementioned false and defamatory statements,” Harder demands of the former West Wing producer and the Comcast-owned company in a move almost unprecedented for any POTUS but Trump, who was once employed by NBC. “Failure to do so will leave my clients with no alternative but to consider their legal options which could include immediate legal proceedings against Mr. O’Donnell and NBCU.”
https://deadline.com/2019/08/donald-trump-lawrence-odonnell-russian-loans-claim-defamation-lawsuit-threat-nbcuniversal-msnbc-1202706447/
The apology followed:
"Last night I made an error in judgment by reporting an item about the president’s finances that didn’t go through our rigorous verification and standards process. I shouldn’t have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air. I will address the issue on my show tonight.". ...Lawrence O'Donnell
It has been a strange three years. It's been six months since the Russia-Collusion story was exposed as a hoax. Yet MSNBC continues to make wild accusations. Funny how none of the mistakes went Trump's way. They were all anti-Trump.
The Harvard educated O'Donnell finally retracted the unverified story.
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O'Donnell warned us with the words "If true"
Even Rachel Maddow couldn't believe what he was touting...you could see it on her face.
His journalism skills reek. One source and IF TRUE...but there will be many who believe his story was 'silenced' via conspiracy and all that!
Yup, Larry should have known then. That tape was priceless!
Lawrence O'Donnell is a terrible person. I have tried, but I cannot watch his lying, sanctimonious ass. However, I have seen enough of him and his network to know that promoting wild theories and unverified accusations as if they were confirmed fact is their stock in trade.
Based on what he had, he had no business even bringing it up, but he wanted people to watch his show and drive up ratings. I'm glad he got called on it, but they do this crap every day. They have whole panels debating the consequences of hypothetical imaginings and the viewers get amped up over injustice that isn't even happening. CNN too.
Then Trump calls them "fake news" and they have the temerity to be offended.
Never fear, progressives will cite this as fact for years.
Good on Lawrence for doing the right thing.
Unfortunately you all jump at the chance to beat him up for making a mistake. Makes you look small.
Too bad that not all the "too early reporting" is retracted when it should be.
The word "mistake" implies his actions were not intentional.
He's a rabid, batshit, insanely angry liberal who would happily believe Donald Trump invented slavery, cancer and ritual disembowelment. He cares nothing for the truth, which wouldn't matter if he didn't attempt to report "news".
57 states was a mistake. Turning left instead of right is a mistake. This was just the latest example of a man who threw his professional moral compass in the garbage disposal a long time ago.
Lawrence O'Donnell lives in a raging anti-Trump bubble called MSNBC where no outrage is inappropriate and no accusation needs to be vetted in the pursuit of destroying Trump. He - like so many at that network - is obsessed. The slightest negative innuendo about Trump confirms his bias. He was practically shaking with orgasmic bliss as he spread his unsupportable rumor.
You mean someone wants to "destroy " a president* of the United States who has lied 12,000 times, encouraged Russia to commit espionage against a US citizen, defrauded hundreds of his customers at his bogus university, cheated innumerable people who did work for him at his hotels, cheated on his federal taxes, and been the face of a racist movement meant to delegitimize America's first non white president? Someone wants to destroy that pos? God bless em.
People like you are hopeless cases. You pawn yourself off as reasonable but I read a lot of your comments and I dont see it. You are no different from every other Trump apologist.
It's called "the end justifies the means". Thanks for being so up front about it.
Vic, people like you are a CONSTANT living embodiment of that phrase. You know that Trump lies constantly , and I think you probably know he is a crook and scumbag, yet you accept that in him because he puts right wing judges on the bench , etc. I believe you have sometimes admitted as much in your comments here.
If you mean, do I separate his character flaws from his policies, then yes I do. That is not quite "the end justifies the means" like creating a Russia-conspiracy hoax, which I recall you saying that you didn't care if it was true as long as it got rid of Trump. So, let's be honest, which of us owns the saying?
The right thing is called verifying - especially when the story comes from a single source, but like all of them, it was another anti-Trump story so Lyin Larry ran with and hoped it was true!
It didn't bother Lawrence when he jumped at the chance to try and beat Donald Trump up with a lie.
Seems MSNBC and it's "rigorous verification and standards process" needs a "Re-Boot" ……. 12 years ago !
I saw O'Donnell's story concerning Trump's financials Tuesday night.
Tonight, Wednesday, O'Donnell retracted the story citing only one source and offered an apology after the White House took strong issue with the allegation.
Of course, Trump could easily end all of these questions, doubts and accusations by simply releasing his financial records instead of using cadres of lawyers to prevent this information from becoming public.
The only question I have is why does Donald J. Trump have such an anathema to his financial standings and tax obligations?
Actually, we're talking about the kinds of records that the IRS would already have. Additionally, the bank would have to submit their copies of such documents. Furthermore, that particular bank (like so many others) is already undergoing a couple of different government investigations.
The bottom line is these loan documents are already available to the appropriate parties and may even be accessible to a good reporter doing a proper investigation. If there was something going on with Russian oligarchs and Trump, you wouldn't need Lawrence O'Donnell's mystery source to break it for you.
No.