Lawrence O'Donnell Lays Into Van Susteren Over Jade Helm

On Monday's edition of "The Last Word," host Lawrence O'Donnell was visibly fed up with the blame game he believes Fox News' Greta Van Susteren and her network have been playing with the batty Jade Helm conspiracy theory. O'Donnell pointed out that even the most conservative panelist on ABC's "This Week" called the notion that the Federal government is going to take over Texas: "paranoia" and "nonsense." But one panelist, just one, decided to place the blame for Texas Governor Greg Abbott's ignorance of basic civics on everyone but him. "The problem is I do fault our leaders, they're supposed to lead," said Van Susteren on Sunday. "They could've just picked up the phone and they could've had this one in the past a long time ago." When asked which leaders she responded, "I'm talking about the Democrats, the Republicans, the governors and the Pentagon, the President and the Hill. Many of these problems we have is because no body is talking to anybody." O'Donnell was not too pleased with this diagnosis, believing that Van Susteren intentionally singled out President Obama as the only individual. "Did you notice that on this one, in order to blame the President, she had to pretend she was throwing other leaders -- all unnamed, all plural," said O'Donnell. "Not a governor, not the Governor of Texas -- just the governors and the Democrats and the Republicans. The President is the only individual who Greta Van Susteren blames for the paranoia and the nonsense we are hearing in Texas today." And that's when O'Donnell's tirade really began... She is blaming the President of the United States for not calling the Governor of Texas and explaining to the Governor of Texas what a state is and what a governor is, and what a president is, what the United States of America is, what the United States military is. And I suppose reminding the governor that the United States military has always had soldiers stationed in Texas, and now has 125,000 active duty military personnel stationed in Texas, which is like way more than have ever been stationed in Afghanistan -- a place we actually did invade. Greta actually said that President Obama should use presidential time, each minute of which is invaluable to the governance of the United States and to international relations -- the President should use presidential time to explain to the Governor of Texas what Texas schools were supposed to have taught the Governor in elementary school and in high school. And if the President would just do that, then Greta and Fox News would be spared another million emails filled with paranoia and nonsense about President Obama. Of course, what Greta said there turned out to be an intelligence test of its own. If you believe that it's within President Obama's power of persuasion to stop the Fox News audience from sending a million emails filled with paranoia and nonsense about the president, then you just failed that test. Screen cuts to black. Watch clip, courtesy of MSNBC.

Fishbowl

Lawrence O'Donnell Lays Into Van Susteren Over Jade Helm

"Greta actually said... the President should use presidential time to explain to the Governor of Texas what Texas schools were supposed to have taught the Governor in elementary school and in high school."

Damon Marx

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Damon Marx