MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell apologizes for unverified Trump-Russia report
MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell apologizes and retracts a report that directly tied President Trump's finances to Russia. The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway reacts.
MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell deleted a tweet on Thursday that pushed an unverified report that Russian oligarchs had co-signed loans to President Trump after retracting the story and apologizing.
"Retraction: Earlier this week I tweeted unverified information from a single source," O'Donnell tweeted. "The tweet, seen below, has been deleted."
O'Donnell acknowledged on Wednesday that running his report was an "error in judgment," but critics slammed the "Last Word" host for leaving the tweet promoting the unverified report on his Twitter page for roughly two full days.
The deletion came after the liberal cable news personality kicked off his show Wednesday night by addressing the controversy.
"Last night on this show, I discussed information that wasn't ready for reporting," O'Donnell said. "I repeated statements a single source told me about the president's finances and loan documents with Deutsche Bank saying 'if true'-- as I discussed the information-- was simply not good enough. I did not go through the rigorous verification and standards process here at MSNBC before repeating what I heard from my source. Had it gone through that process, I would not have been permitted to report it. I should not have said it on-air or posted it on Twitter. I was wrong to do so."
He went on to acknowledge that he and NBCUniversal had received a letter from Trump's legal counsel demanding a retraction and an apology for the "false and defamatory, and extremely damaging" reporting and threatened to take legal action.
"This afternoon, attorneys for the president sent us a letter asserting the story is false. They also demanded a retraction. Tonight, we are retracting the story," O'Donnell continued. "We don't know whether the information is inaccurate. The fact is we do know it wasn't ready for broadcast and for that I apologize."
NBC News did not immediately respond when asked if the company stands by O’Donnell and if the host would be disciplined. NBC’s parent company, Comcast, did not immediately respond to the same inquiries.
President Trump, however, has been quite vocal about the situation.
“Crazy Lawrence O’Donnell, who has been calling me wrong from even before I announced my run for the Presidency, even being previously forced by NBC to apologize, which he did while crying, for things he said about me & The Apprentice, was again forced to apologize, this time ... for the most ridiculous claim of all, that Russia, Russia, Russia, or Russian oligarchs, co-signed loan documents for me, a guarantee,” Trump tweeted.
“Totally false, as is virtually everything else he, and much of the rest of the LameStream Media, has said about me for years. ALL APOLOGIZE!” he continued.
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White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham blasted O’Donnell over the story in a statement to Fox News Wednesday
“This is one of the reasons that a majority of Americans have lost trust in the media," Grisham said. "Instead of applying ethics and standards to their reporting, journalists and left-wing outlets have weaponized the media, using it to attack and harass people with little to no regard for the truth."
Meanwhile, Eric Trump vowed that the Trump Organization will take legal action against O'Donnell and MSNBC.
"This was a reckless attempt to slander our family and smear a great company. Apologies are not enough when the true intent was solely to damage and cause harm. As a company, we will be taking legal action. This unethical behavior has to stop. @Lawrence @MSNBC," Eric Trump tweeted Wednesday night.
Fox News' Brian Flood and Liam Quinn contributed to this report.
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