Lawrence O’Donnell Uncovers New York Times ‘Confession’ That ‘Brings Trump to His Mind’

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday slammed The New York Times for making Donald Trump’s outrageous ramblings “look sane” and pointed to recent misconduct by the paper.

The Times ran a story on Monday titled, “As Debate Nears, Trump Now Faces Questions About His Age and Competence,” which noted voters’ concerns about “his rambling and sometimes inconsistent public statements.”

“While the Times article doesn’t use the term sanity-washing to describe the way some in the news media edit Donald Trump’s lunatic comments into a form they can understand, the article is an admission that the Times has done exactly that,” O’Donnell wrote in “The Last Word.”

The so-called “confession” came from a passage in an article in which the Times recounted a recent bizarre response the former president gave to a question about how to make child care more affordable.

The Times wrote: “Often his distorted remarks are summarized in news articles, without giving the full picture of how embarrassing they are. But quotes at length can provide additional context.”

The newspaper quoted Trump’s ramblings at length.

But in the very next passage, O’Donnell points out, he commits another “mindwashing” crime.

The Times wrote in its interpretation of Trump’s near-rambling remarks, “What he meant was that tariffs on imports could raise a ton of money that could then be used to pay for child care—a controversial policy assumption in itself.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to read the whole article otherwise,” O’Donnell exclaimed.

He added, “This is an attempt by the New York Times to correct its own habit of mind-washing, and ultimately to make Donald Trump mind-wash again.”

The Times added that the explanation was “fantastic,” and noted that even if Trump had said he would use tariff revenues to have the government pay for child care, that would raise taxes on American consumers, not foreigners as Trump has claimed.

O’Donnell called Trump’s comments not just “a controversial policy assumption” but “a complete impossibility,” and accused the Times of “intellectual corruption” for allowing his lies about tariffs to go unrefuted.

Economists say President Trump’s tariff proposals are likely to have a negative impact on the economy and would increase spending by American households.

“Tariffs are a tax on you!” O’Donnell stressed.

Check out O’Donnell’s scathing analysis below.