page_title: Lawrence O'Donnell
section_title: Controversies
hierarchical_section_title: Lawrence O'Donnell / Controversies
caption_attribution_description: English: Lawrence O'Donnell at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Polliwood.
context_page_description: Lawrence Francis O'Donnell Jr. is an American television anchor, actor, political commentator, and host of The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, an MSNBC opinion and news program that airs on weeknights.
  He was a producer and writer for the NBC series The West Wing and creator/executive producer of the NBC series Mister Sterling. He also appeared as a recurring character on the HBO series, Big Love.
  O'Donnell began his political career as an aide to U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and was Staff Director for the Senate Finance Committee. He describes himself as a "practical European socialist".
context_section_description: In 2007, O'Donnell criticized Mitt Romney's speech on religion, stating: "Romney comes from a religion that was founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist." In the April 3, 2012, broadcast of The Last Word, O'Donnell made comments regarding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), saying it was an "invented religion," which was "created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it." During the April 11, 2012, broadcast of The Last Word, O'Donnell apologized for the April 3 comments, stating that they offended many, including some of the show's most supportive fans.
  Before showing a taped October 2010 interview with RNC Chairman Michael Steele, O'Donnell caused controversy over his intro to the interview which was considered racially insensitive. He said, "Michael Steele is dancing as fast as he can, trying to charm independent voters and Tea Partiers while never losing sight of his real master and paycheck provider, the Republican National Committee." After drawing criticism from Steele and talk-radio host Larry Elder, O'Donnell apologized for his remarks.
  O'Donnell also drew criticism for an October 2010 interview with Congressman Ron Paul, when Paul accused him of breaking an agreement not to ask him about other political candidates. O'Donnell said he was not part of any agreement; but an MSNBC spokeswoman stated, "We told Representative Paul's office that the focus would be on the tea party movement, not on specific candidates."
  During an October 2011 interview, O'Donnell accused Republican primary candidate Herman Cain of not participating in protests during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and also charged him with avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War. The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf said the questions posed by O'Donnell were "offensive" and declared, "In this interview, O'Donnell goes to absurd lengths to use patriotism and jingoism as cudgels to attack his conservative guest, almost as if he is doing a Stephen Colbert style parody of the tactics he imagines a right-wing blowhard might employ. Does he realize he's becoming what he claims to abhor?" O'Donnell's interview with Cain was later defended by Reverend Al Sharpton.
  On September 20, 2017, an eight-minute video clip was leaked which showed O'Donnell angrily cursing and swearing about background noise between segments of a live broadcast that had aired August 29, 2017. O'Donnell apologized on Twitter, and the leaker was subsequently fired.
  On August 27, 2019, O'Donnell reported that Deutsche Bank documents showed Russian oligarchs had cosigned loan applications for Trump. O'Donnell reported the story, based on a single source he did not identify, using the qualifier "if true" and admitted it had not been verified by NBC News. The next day, O'Donnell walked back the report, referring to it as an "error in judgment."
caption: O'Donnell at the 2009 premiere of PoliWood
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