MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell just could not contain himself. In his eagerness to defeat President Donald J. Trump he rushed out on his show Tuesday night to report that a source close to the matter told him that Deutsche Bank had President Donald J. Trump's tax returns, they confirmed he paid little to no taxes, and that, here's what O'Donnell said was the huge bombshell, that the Trumpster had loans co-signed with Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin. The only problem with this? It was based off a "single source," O'Donnell's employer never confirmed the story, and even Deutsche Bank is refusing to confirm the story.
O'Donnell told his colleague Rachel Maddow that a "single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that Donald Trump's loan documents there show that he has co-signers. That's how he was able to obtain those loans. And that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs."
"If true," O'Donnell theorized, "that would be a significant factor in Vladimir Putin's publicly stated preference for presidential candidate Donald Trump over presidential candidate Hillary Clinton."
But by the end of the show, he told his audience that he wanted to "stress" these allegations were from a single source and that his network had not confirmed the story yet.
On Wednesday, an NBC booking producer confirmed that "The information came from a single source who has not seen the bank records. NBC has not seen those records and has not yet been able to verify the reporting."
Deutsche Bank is declining to comment on Lawrence O’Donnell’s reporting that Russian oligarch’s co-signed Trump’s loans. The information came from a single source who has not seen the bank records. NBC has not seen those records and has not yet been able to verify the reporting.
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) August 28, 2019
Shortly after, O'Donnell tweeted that, "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," he added.
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 (@Lawrence) August 28, 2019
But, hey, O'Donnell probably thought "why let the truth get in the way of a good story?" Either that or he was simply chomping at the bit to find a story that actually proves Trump's a Russian puppet. Keep trying, buddy.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member