Lawrence O’Donnell Roasts GOP Lawmaker Attending Trump Trial: ‘On the Phone the Entire Time!’
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell took shots at two senators who attended former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan on Monday, accusing one of being on his phone the entire time and the other of potentially not understanding any of the testimony.
Ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen testified on Monday. Cohen alleges that Trump directed him to make hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels going into Trump’s first presidential campaign to cover up an alleged affair. The former president is facing more than 30 felony counts for falsifying business records. He’s denied knowing of hush money payments and repeatedly claimed that an affair never happened.
O’Donnell has been attending Trump’s trial and the pair have exchanged some tense moments. O’Donnell previously described Trump giving him a “crazy face” and Trump took to Truth Social to say the MSNBC host “looks like shit.”
O’Donnell joined Chris Jansing, Katy Tur, and Andrea Mitchell on Monday to discuss his experience at the trial that day, as well as his take on Sens. J.D. Vance (R-PA) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) attending the trial. Vance is considered by many to be a top potential VP pick for Trump.
“J.D. Vance was on his phone the entire time. He wasn’t taking in a word of testimony. Tuberville, to his credit, [was looking] straight ahead, listening, taking it all in as best he can, or whatever sense he can make of it,” O’Donnell said.
He took another shot at Vance, saying there was “no reason for him to come.”
“There was really no reason for him to come if he wasn’t going to take in anything,” O’Donnell said.
Tur noted that Vance made a number of tweets during the trial, including saying he was 39 and having trouble staying awake, referring to reports Trump has fallen asleep in the courtroom.
“I saw a media report a few days ago that Trump looked like he was falling asleep or bored or something. The obvious narrative they’re trying to sell is ‘yeah Biden is mentally unfit but this other guy is bad too,'” Vance tweeted. “It’s an absurd narrative. I’m 39 years old and I’ve been here for 26 minutes and I’m about to fall asleep.”
“There you go, so they’re there to corroborate — they’re there to help with the sleep defense! Okay, I guess that’s where the vice presidential auditioning begins,” O’Donnell joked. “Can you come in the courtroom and please help with the sleep defense?'”
Vance tweeted plenty after that post, recapping the trial in a lengthy thread and taking repeated shots at Cohen and the prosecution. He also made similar statements when talking to reporters outside the Manhattan court.
Watch above via MSNBC.
