Lawrence: Trump’s impossible third term is a desperate diversion from his cruelties

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW

Policy, Ms Now, Versant Media, Versant, Msnbc, Politics, President, Washington, Congress, Government, Senate, News

4.4 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: MSNBC reports two federal prosecutors were placed on administrative leave at the direction of the Trump White House. Also, polls show a tightening race for New Jersey governor. Plus, the government shutdown threatens food assistance for 42 million Americans. And four Senate Republicans join Democrats to block Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Ken Dilanian, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Rep. Jim McGovern, and Rep. Brendan Boyle join Lawrence O’Donnell.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The last word with Lawrence O'Donnell starts right now. Hey, Lawrence. Hey, Jen. I heard your
0:05.4	discussion earlier tonight about the difference between you approaching confirmation hearings
0:12.8	during your experience in the White House and the Trump world approaching confirmation hearings,
0:18.9	which is the most absurd version of it you can imagine.
0:22.7	I mean, Lawrence, I had hundreds of pages of vetting documents. We had meetings until one and two
0:30.2	in the morning. These nominees, before they even became the nominees, went through hours of meetings,
0:35.7	right? They went through hours of meetings with legal experts, with Jeff Zions, with Joe Biden. And this is how Jonathan Carl describes it in his
0:43.9	book was a set of bullet points and photos to see if they sort of met the visual description
0:50.6	he was looking for it. Would have been much easier, but different kind of cabinet.
0:54.6	And that's because Democrats in the Senate did not automatically vote for someone just because
0:59.8	the person was nominated by a Democrat. True. Yeah. That's true. And they're going to comb through
1:07.2	their backgrounds, their qualifications, whether they were right for the job as they should.
1:13.2	That's the role of the Senate.
1:14.7	That's how our government is set up.
1:16.2	They should continue to have that role, even though they are giving it over in our current
1:20.1	circumstance.
1:21.3	Yeah.
1:21.6	I mean, the Senate is something else, indescribable these days.
1:29.8	Thanks, Jen. Thanks, Lawrence. Have a good show.
1:36.5	Well, as we reported here last night, Donald Trump will not have a third term in the presidency.
1:42.3	We're beginning, once again tonight with something that is not actually news, shouldn't be treated as news. Today, even Donald Trump himself gave up the game of using
1:45.5	talk of a Trump third term as a way of diverting news attention away from the Trump cruelties,
	...

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